Busy or Productive. You pick.
I just discovered Brad Bollenbach's 30 sleeps blog on "open source personal development. He's got a bunch of great stuff, like this one from December, Busy vs. Productive:
“Work smarter, not harder” is one of the ultimate clichés. Like most clichés, few people actually do it. The busy outnumber the productive by a wide margin. Whether you’re a boss, an employee, or working for yourself, we’ve all had our treadmilling moments.
Then he gives a bunch of IT geek examples of busy vs. productive, which are entertaining. He doesn't mention multitasking, but that's probably embedded in looking busy.
I've just listened to HBR IdeaCast episode 85, which discusses the idea that good leaders learn how to keep their ideas to themselves. (p.s. to IdeaCast: Provide easy, direct links to a page for each individual episode.) So here is another Busy vs. Productive couple:
Busy: Gives their opinion in every situation.
Productive: Let's people work it out themselves.
[Thanks for this Frank!]
3 Comment(s)
<insert cliche here> Abe Lincoln: If I were given 6 hours to cut down a tree, I would spend four sharpening my axe. </insert cliche here>
As usual, thanks for your posts. The disjunctive could probably reconciled in the timing for when giving opinions would become productive: "A right answer at the wrong time is a wrong answer"