As I prepare for my transition from active duty, after 9 years, into the civilian and corporate world I have been doing my best to keep busy.  At times I find myself frustrated; frustrated in a way that I don’t feel like I am creating value… and I think I know why.

Being “busy” is not necessarily the opposite of being lazy…or even inactive.  Let’s be honest, who really likes to be “busy”?  Nobody likes to do “busy work”. To be completely honest, I absolutely abhor “busy work”.  I hate to do it, and I refuse to assign it.  In the opposite, I LOVE being productive!  The two are clearly different.  Recognizing that will increase the value we find in the task we set for ourselves.  Not because the task or activity magically becomes more valuable, but because our awareness allows us to consciously task ourselves with productive activities, not busy work.

Busy all too often becomes, doing things that consume our resources (mental, physical and spiritual) and takes away from doing what we need to get done — takes away from creating value.

Productive is actively seeking to and getting the most accomplished while bringing us the most value from the amount of resources we use to accomplish the tasks.

With that, don’t expect to find me “keeping busy” — I’ll be keeping productive!

How do you keep productive?

Posted from my Droid RAZR

Published by Damien B

I started this blog as a challenge to myself, to get better at writing and comfortable with tech. I now use this to dust off ideas, share thoughts, and generally have fun. My day job? I'm a management consultant. I enjoy learning about technology and how to make the best use of it. So, it is fitting that I've built my career around helping others leverage technology and improve work for the people who use it. I'm a pretty safe person to share thoughts with; I try not to be judgy; I enjoy a good sense of humor and don't take offense to much. I appreciate open minds, and do my best to assume positive intent. I love to hear about ideas and thoughts that differ to my own. If nobody ever disagreed with me, I'd never have the privilege of being enlightened, nor the chance to learn and grow!