In today's fast-paced world, where productivity is often valued above all else, many of us find ourselves caught in the trap of busyness. We strive to be constantly productive, accomplishing more and more each day. But how do we differentiate between true productivity and mere busyness? And how do we ensure that we are making meaningful progress towards our goals? In this episode, we explore how to know if you’re truly being productive and share practical tips for finding clarity amidst the chaos.

View full show notes here.

Caitlin: Okay, so, question. And this is kind of a personal question, because we've got a lot going on right now as like a small team working on the 200 percent life and everything, and so, um, yeah, I'll just share a little bit about my own personal experience with it. So, I, like, used to be a person who was very busy and not super, not to say not productive, but I would get caught a lot in busyness, and I feel like since working here in this This culture and everything, it has definitely made me a more productive person, which is awesome.

And I think when you have big goals, particularly. Um, you want to always be accomplishing more than you actually are, and then I can start to question, like, wait, am I just stuck here in busyness, or is this actually just taking longer to accomplish than I thought? And, um, yeah, I think this comes up for a lot of people, particularly people who consider themselves high achievers and just want to be in a concept.

And state of productivity, like what is the difference between busyness and productivity and how do you know when you're actually, um, there and if you're not there, how do you get yourself there?

Adam: Yeah, it's great. You know, there's a lot of, there's, there's some structural things we can talk about that you can do in terms of like.

We'll try to get the hacks and all that stuff, because it'll make you proud if you're going to do more of those things. But the first thing that you always want to ask yourself is, Again, it's really just a clearing technique, which is just am I trying to distract myself or am I feeling the need to distract myself with work so I can feel better about myself.

And a lot of times what I will find is I will insert myself, I don't do this nearly anymore, but I used to a lot, insert myself into meetings to make myself feel better. All right, insert myself into emails and provide a response just to make sure that I was heard or just to make sure that people knew that I was responding so I could do this.

To me, that's just busyness and it's not really being productive. Like,

Caitlin: this can show up as like trying to be helpful

Does that make

Caitlin: sense? Yeah, yeah, it does. Um, I, yeah, I guess I feel like the egoic part, just trying to figure out what that really looks like maybe in a variety of circumstances or like a real world.

Adam: Well, I, I, to speak for me again, it's, I remember Years ago I would just, as I started getting leadership team, I would still find myself trying to do somebody else's job or I'd find myself trying to insert myself into somebody else's position.

That's just being busy. That's right. It's just, it's like you're just adding things to add things. This is why I like, it's so funny, like when somebody says, can I have a 30 minute meeting? It's I always like, I'm like, did somebody, did you take the time to sit down and go, okay, well this question I have for Adam is going to take me 28 minutes, therefore I need 30 minutes.

No, it's like we just, we'll go, oh, it should be enough time to get through in 30 minutes. Now. There is nothing wrong with having a 30 minute meeting, but I, in my opinion, like, not having a lot of meetings and being able to deal with a 6 minute phone call is much more effective. Meaning, like, when somebody emails and says, hey, I need to go over this with you, instead of setting up a 30 minute meeting, I can pick up the phone, call them, and it's solved in 4 or 5 minutes.

I also feel like the

Caitlin: once a week 30 minutes, I mean. It's our team doing the 30 minute, and it forces me personally to be like, is this worthy of putting on the agenda?

Adam: That's exactly right. And that's why, and you go through different items that are there. And of course, if you need more time, now you take more time.

If you need less time, now you just take less time. But I've always been like this kind of, this meeting guy, which is like, I would start, I would stand up in the middle of a meeting and start walking out. And not because I'm trying to be rude to anybody, just because this is no longer productive, right?

It's just, it's, and now all I'm doing is being a leader and teaching other people. To be busy because people show up a couple minutes late for meetings and then next thing you know, like you have three minutes left in the meeting, so you're kind of winding down anyways and you just, and there's nothing wrong with if you want to have some banter back and forth with things, but if you're talking about pure productivity, um, a lot of us just try to extend the day, right?

For me, I do it in the morning, uh, every morning, and this is what's been helpful for me as a way to be productive, which is to get clear on what you're clear on. Right? Like it's, busyness will leak in when you're unclear, just in general. Like it just will leak in. It'll leak into your personal life, it'll leak in into your business life.

The clearer you are on things, the, what it really being clear gives you is the ability to say no. It says no to a lot of things. And the less clear you are, you say yes to a lot of things, seeing if they're going to turn you on and make you feel better. So you can see how that happens. So in the morning, or again, I'm using that experience, you may do it once a week.

The classic example of this is Steve Jobs, when he came back into Apple in 1997, he had left for, I think, 12 years or 11 years or whatever it was at the time, maybe 7 years, and the company was failing, had like 90 days left of cash, and he came in there and what he realized was that Apple, at the time, was working on over 200 different items.

So they had all these employees working on 200 different things. What he did, he came in there and he eliminated a lot of positions because he said, we're just not going to focus on this. Sure, that's cool. That's neat. That's fun. We're not going to do any of that. He narrowed it down to 10. And then within like another two days, they said, we're going to pick one of these.

So it ended up being like maybe a 700 million dollar swing. But anyways, it was huge. And that was because of focus and productivity, right? And then they all got focused on what, what needs to happen in order to move that along.

Caitlin: So, yeah, so Clarity and I, you mentioned the 412. 411, which we use, and I find incredibly helpful, you know, and I even try in my emails to you, I put, and my one thing is because it is so, so helpful to have that clarity.

But then, like, during the course of the week, you know, like you said, things come up, or there's a bunch of emails in your inbox, and you need to respond to them, and it's like, it almost feels like it's, you get, like, sucked into the business, you know? Um, and is that where like time blocking comes in? Is that where you're saying no?

Like

It's how fast can you realize that you're not being productive? And one of the things that I always use, that's why each morning, the next morning, I will then reflect on. I really, was I really productive yesterday that I actually, in the time that I'm willing to exercise, was I productive, right? Like, cause, and I do this for all aspects of my life, you could easily say, cause anybody could go to the gym for two hours and you could, but you could just do a set, wait seven minutes, talk to people around there, do another set, right?

And you could be like, are you really productive? Or do you go for a 30 minute run and you get, And the whole time you're running, you're listening to audio. That's a productive 30 minutes, right, for what it is. So everything, and I ask that, am I being productive with my kids? So what does that look like?

And I'm like, and I just, you just kind of let that go. And you focus again on what you're doing and being with your kids, seeing them through their partner. The same thing in a business meeting. If, unless it's an emergency, if I'm in with my, Partners in work, I'm with them, I'm not with my family. So again, it's not that like, you, you, you're, it's like you're just this rigid person.

You're just, you're choosing, okay, right now, it's important that we do this podcast, so my attention is on this podcast, right? And so you're really purposeful on it. My attention is, I need to clean these emails up, like I was gone last week on vacation, and I remember I was like, I need three hours to make sure that I'm purposeful and responding to everything that's meaningful in here.

And then dealing with that, and then I need another three hours. of just phone calls to make sure that I get caught up and productive in hearing everybody, and that's what I did yesterday and today, right? So that's, you know, I was really engaged on that. Um, and you kind of just, and again, I had to say no to other things that were in there, like other meetings or, or invitations, and I just couldn't do it because I need, that became the priority for what it was for work.

Caitlin: you said about how it's not that we all get trapped in busyness and it's how quickly you pull yourself out.

Yes. That really resonates because then it's kind of like a meditation practice or anything. I mean, then it just all kind of comes together. Like, oh, the traps are always going to be there. It's just how quickly you bounce

Adam: back. And that's why I like to use It's a schedule in order to do that, correct?

Right? Which is like, every morning when you, when I wake up, if I'm journaling and meditating, that is setting my day up. Like, okay, have I been working too much? Have I neglected my family in some way? Have I neglected work in some way? Have I neglected exercise or my eating? Did I drink too much, you know, alcohol for over a period of a week, right?

So that's what you're

Caitlin: journaling about in the morning is reflecting on

Adam: how Yeah, that's pretty much what I do for the whole thing, like, how did I show up today? Right? Like, and not like I'm looking for, I don't want, you know, like, nobody's going to read the, like, it's just, you're just doing them just to put yourself back on, okay, am I, did I raise the moment up?

Did I not? Did I slip somewhere? Am I being productive? And it just gives you a chance to reflect on all of that. And you don't, and you know, somebody asked me this yesterday, they go, wow, I'm so busy with work and like, they are. I'm really deep in a startup and they're like, I, you know, two kids and you know, why?

And he's like, I'm just, I don't, I don't even have the time to even reflect that. I go, you don't have 15 minutes and they go, well, yeah, I do. I go, well, you just, you need, I said, your first thing is that every time I've, I've heard you for the past two weeks, it's been nothing about, I don't have time. So now you've created the story that you don't have any time.

I'm not suggesting that, but like, you could easily do that, right? And then all's you would have is time. You could go, you know, just Just run away from your family and move in with somebody else if you wanted to and that's all. Leave all your responsibilities. Exactly. Leave all your responsibilities. Like so all, so you're still making sure that people are, well, I can't do that.

I go, I understand what you're saying, but yes, you can do that. So you're not choosing to make that time. So then get more purposeful on that and be like, okay, well how do I then show up the best? How do I be even more productive? Which is in productive in all areas of your life. Cause this is where it's, it's not, there's just so much that you could do or have or no.

Maybe you play golf all the time, and you only dabble in business twice a year, and you're gonna, you're gonna get varied returns in your businesses, right? So, it's, it's not one or another, you just, you, you start getting clear on what makes the most sense for you. In your life and your, I also feel like for me, it's phases, right?

And then I know there will be a phase when they start Doing their own thing and that opens up a vast amount of space and you can then bring that into different things. So you just, you have to, and this is for no one's answer except for your own. That's why I always say, find clarity each day and reflect on what you're putting your time into.

And again, I don't just mean business, I don't just mean your personal life, I mean like your exercise, your eating, your drinking, your, the way you talk to people. Like you're just reflecting on all of that and as you do that becomes refined and you'll, you'll, you'll pull out productivity. You'll pull out how to measure your day in minutes.

You won't spend as much money on things because you're just not saying yes to everything. So that's, that's really the process of what it is, but it also goes back as you're all gonna get, all of us are gonna get caught. We're going to get caught listening to the mind tell us to doing something. How quickly can we get out of it?

Caitlin: have any, like, tips or tricks or hacks that you use to get out of it or to catch yourself? Or did you, when you were first starting out, like, reminders to, like,

Adam: things?

Well, I think there's a lot, yeah, I think there's a lot of things you can do. Some of them we've covered, but for me it's starting each morning with meditation, with journaling. So, because that is my reflective way of doing it, right? That is why I, I, it's, look, you know, journaling 15 minutes doesn't make you an amazing leader or anything, but what it does do is each day it just, it strips away some of the noise.

You know, like sometimes when I just look at my door, because I remember having that anchor point. Every time I walked in and out of my door, I would say the same thing. Like, I wouldn't, I could be in the middle of a conversation and be like, Did I contribute to this conversation? And it's just a reminder to be engaged in the moment and not caught up in the mind.

That's really what you're doing is, anytime you're not caught in the mind, and the mind's not telling you what to do, you'll have more clarity and the path will be clearer. When you're caught in the mind and you're listening to it, that's when, that's when everything becomes messy. So

Caitlin: it sounds like you almost have these two things, like there's the journaling and the reflection which brings you back every day as like a anchor point or something.

And then there's these little almost checkpoints that you had built into the course of your day to remind you not to be listening to your mind because that's where it's easy to get trapped into the busyness and not.

Just slow down for a second. What is really, we're just here floating around in the middle of this planet because it's so easy to get caught out of that, isn't it? Like you're in your day and there's 500 different emails and people are doing all this and people want to get hired. They want to fire.

They're just, all these things are going on and you're just like, you can get so lost in it all. That's why these quick little point, you just pause and go, hold on, just relax. And really what people are saying, relax is get out of your mind. That's all like, so when I say that, it's not like, oh go relax, like go tell the ego to relax.

It's just you get clear and you just, you take it, you take a step back and you realize this is not what life's about. It's yes, I need to interact and deal with this, but this is not the end all. So then again, a meditation or just a reflection or a walk or whatever those things can recenter you, which is again, all that it's doing is making you more clear so you become more productive.

And you'll just feel better about it because you just continually pull up and go, man, I got so trapped in that emotion, like this was like the biggest deal in the world and I realized it's not. You know, one of the things I just love saying, I know we're getting into February now, but in January I kept telling people like, Hey, you remember that thing that happened in March that really bothered you last year?

People be like, no. I go, exactly. So this thing that's bothering you right now, in January, when you're here in January of next year, you won't even remember this conversation.

Caitlin: So it's like, you don't even need to focus on productivity, focus on clarity, and productivity is a natural byproduct of

Adam: clarity. Yes, that's exactly right.

Caitlin: Yeah, that's so interesting that you say that, because there's also, which is extremely helpful, I think, for our team, is our daily accountability questions, and I, now that you say that, in retrospect, I can actually realize, like, oh yeah, when I say, I had a really productive day today, there is an egoic tie into that, and then, also, that now setting the expectation that I'm going to have a really productive day tomorrow and the next day, and if I don't, you know, it doesn't

Adam: There's nothing wrong with feeling good from having a productive day.

So that can mean business, you have a really successful business day or you just had a great meeting with a client, sure, open you up, but then Don't, don't think that I need to get another one of these in order to make myself feel good. That's the, that's where people get trapped on this. And when they do this work, I, that, the nuance of that thing, it's like, well, should I not be opened up from something outside?

No, be opened up by it. Absolutely should open you up. Just don't close when it doesn't open you up again. And that's the thing, that's, so the next day you're like, oh man, this is a much different day. Of course it is. The situations aren't the same, people aren't the same, you're not going to string them together, so then you go, now I have something to let go of.

It's

Caitlin: like an exhale of enjoyment versus a like, and now I need to do this. It's just like actually letting the moment

Adam: sink in. Yes, and take it all in. And not trying to force the next moment to be the moment that you want it to be.