Question: How do you define productivity?

by | Jul 31, 2013 | General Productivity

Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute, 8s.

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Productivity means something different to everyone. 

One person may define being productive as earning a killing a their job while leading a team of several hundred employees, while another person may see productivity as retiring at 30 and voluntarily living simply for the rest of their life.

Likewise, one person may define productivity as getting a lot of stuff done in a lot less time, while another may define productivity as taking their time and deliberately trying to do the best work they can.

To me, productivity means getting a ton of stuff done in less time so you have more time to do stuff that’s important to you. For example, an awesomely productive day for me would mean working 6 hours instead of 9, while getting even more done. It would also mean using that extra leftover time to do things that are more important to me, like spending time with the people I love, or working on cool projects. (Like this one, even though I’m working on this full-time).

I think everyone has a different definition of productivity, and knowing yours can help you become infinitely more productive. Taking the time to define what productivity is to you can be your north star, as well as a benchmark you use to compare each day to.

How do you define productivity?

If you want to post an answer, you can sound off in the comments below, or shoot me off an email via the Contact Form! Any answer you provide will help me a ton in determining what books to read, topics to tackle, people to interview, and more!

I’m excited to hear what you think!

Written by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity and is the author of three books: How to Calm Your Mind, Hyperfocus, and The Productivity Project. His books have been published in more than 40 languages. Chris writes about productivity on this site and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive without hating the process.

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