#davesdailychallenge (44): Busy Does Not Equal Productive. While some of my colleagues and students know that I have a few more colorful ways of saying this, today’s challenge focuses on the difference between being busy and being productive. I’m sure you’ve heard it many times, or said it many times, but the words “I’m too busy” are used entirely too much in our society. What really matters when one is a part of any team, be it a business unit, a romantic relationship, or a sports team is delivering value. What do you provide to the team? What do you produce? If you are always busy but do not provide value I challenge you to look intently at the way you spend your time and ask yourself if you could potentially spend it in more valuable/productive ways. Instead of spending hours a day sifting through emails or writing new ones to colleagues, pick up the phone and get the job done. Instead of holding a two hour meeting make the time limit 20 minutes and ask team members to come to the meeting prepared to deliver value. If longer discussion needs to occur that is great but allow those involved to do so in a separate environment. The bottom line is that each of us has a responsibility to ask ourselves whether or not we are truly that busy when we look at our lives or are we deliberately filling our lives with noise in order to hide from the value that we are all capable of actually providing. As always, it isn’t easy but it is worth it.