Making it into the world of proactivity
We have a ton of tools and techniques to become part of this world of proactivity.
Being proactive has become something popular in the world of entrepreneurs. But more than the action, it’s just the word that rambles on in people’s conversations. Most people don’t really know the difference between proactivity, activity, and reactivity.
Those are the three words that I want to focus on, and identifying what makes them so different.
So, activity is the mere act of doing something. Anything, with any purpose.
Reactivity is the response to something, the action that comes after something happened. It’s an action based on a stimulus. What happens when a person is influenced by something. This is something that happens for most people; we’re busy all day, but don’t get important things done. For example, being reactive is wasting our time in responding emails as we get them, going to unplanned meetings, afraid to say no, responding to messages or last time requests. And at the end of the day, we ask ourselves where our time went, because we didn’t finish all tasks we had planned for the day.
The dangerous thing about reactivity is that it feels like we’re being productive, because we’re actually doing something all day long. But they are not actions that get us closer to our goal.
Being proactive is doing any activity planned in advance, designed to accomplish a specific goal.
What’s the difference with reactivity? In both we’re busy, but there’s a difference between getting things done and actually making progress. And that’s the catch. Being proactive means going somewhere. Every action is a step towards a bigger purpose.
That’s why we have to acknowledge the difference between what’s important and what is urgent. Not all urgent things are important, and not all important things are urgent. That is why we have to plan things out. And nowadays we have a lot of techniques to do so.
What works for me is making a raw weekly schedule of the time that I’m going to invest in each task or type of task. For example, responding emails or social media comments and messages takes a lot of time. And there’s a danger if we cut off what we’re doing every time we get a new message. So what I do is I schedule half an hour to one hour a day for this type of task. That way, I try my best to finish in that amount of time, and I don’t interrupt other activities to do so.
Tip: plan some time for unexpected tasks, and only use this time if they are urgent AND important.
The thing about productivity is that it doesn’t work the same for everyone. Everyone can be productive, but in their own way. You have to find what works for you. Some people tend to insist on an 8hrs sleep at night to be productive the next day, but that isn’t necessarily true for everyone. Other people, like me, need to have a calendar or to-do list. But although you don’t have to follow every productivity advice, try as many recommendations as you can and see what works for you.
What do you need to be proactive?
1. Self-discipline
If you don’t have the discipline to continue your planned tasks, you will fail to fall into reactivity. That’s why it’s very important to have a goal in mind, or written down if that works for you. According to research by Harvard “ (…) individuals with clear, written goals are significantly more likely to succeed than those without clearly defined goals.”
It’s definitely easier to get something done if there is a bigger purpose.
2. Don’t fall into procrastination
It is very easy to procrastinate, even though we feel like we’re doing something. This happens because we think we have more time than we actually have. We can procrastinate by being reactive, or just by getting distracted with anything around our workspace.
Procrastination means leaving tasks for later. This creates more pressure, because you have to do more in less time. And pressure creates stress. This is a loop that limits your proactivity.
3. Learn to say no
In a business, it’s very hard to say no to someone, especially if it’s a customer, or an investor. But sometimes you have to be able to say no, for the sake of your own company, its growth and process.
This starts by not answering email after work hours, or messages when you’re busy doing something far important. You have to take control of your own time if you want to perform better.
There are always exceptions, but you should always ask yourself if what you are doing or about to do contributes to what you had planned for your day or week.
These three things go hand in hand. You won’t fall into procrastination if you are self-disciplined enough to accomplish your tasks in time. And you’ll be able to accomplish them by learning to say no to things that don’t help to reach your goal.
One last thing that comes to my mind when writing about this subject is the buzzword motivation. Most people say they need to be motivated to be productive. And this is very true; there is a bond between happiness/motivation and productivity.
If someone is happy with their job and personal life (yes, our personal lives affect our work a lot), then they will be more productive. According to Forbes, “a study found that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees. When it comes to salespeople, happiness has an even greater impact, raising sales by 37%.” Why? Because being happy at work means that we feel that our work matters, that we’re making an impact, and that we are thriving not just professionally but personally too.
