I get it. Our society glorifies being #BookedAndBusy. For the past few weeks, I noticed that when people would ask me how I’m doing, the first thing I say is, “Oh my gosh! I’ve been so busy!” But like am I actually busy? And what have I actually accomplished during my “busiest” times?

After some quiet moments of self-reflection over the holiday break, I came to the hard realization that I’ve actually been wasting a lot of time being “busy”. Let me explain. There is a big difference between being busy and being productive. Being busy is about working harder while being productive is about working smarter. Being busy is about being good at everything while being productive is about being great at a few important things.

Below are 3 tips I have developed on being less busy, more productive! 

Act, don’t react. In our world nowadays we’re so hyper connected, we often get caught up in responding back to text messages phone calls and emails. We’re reacting to things that happen to us instead of ACTING on things we need to do! So every night, I make a list of everything I need to do the next day and I commit to it for the first few hours of the day. When I’m busy doing my tasks, phone calls emails and other requests can wait until I’m done doing what I need to do first.

TIME MANAGEMENT. Allocate a specific amount of time for a task. Give yourself a deadline! Studies have shown that we will take as long as we give ourselves for a task…. So set a hard deadline for yourself.

PRIORITIZE SELF-CARE. Learn to say no. Now that our world is slowly but surely opening up your inbox is probably filled with invites to birthday parties, weddings, bat mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs. Is this something you can commit to? Don’t be afraid to say no.