If you want to know the meaning of productive day, you are in the right place. Many people talk about productive day meaning, but the meaning may be sometimes unclear. At least, different people will have different ideas of what “productive day” actually mean, so in this brief article we will attempt to articulate an explanation.
Productive Day Meaning
We can start with a simple definition that can explain the meaning of productive day.
A productive day is a day during which you produce something.
What do you produce? In general, this refers not to something concrete like an object or product, but to a more high-level abstraction. With “producing” here, we really mean achieving and accomplishing. In other words, a “productive day” is a day when you accomplish something, when you reach a goal that you wanted to achieve.
For example, if you are working on a key presentation and you want to prepare a slide deck for that presentation. You work all day on this presentation and complete it so that is ready to be presented. You accomplished the result of “getting the presentation ready”, and this may feel productive.
Note that the meaning of a productive day is highly subjective. What may look productive to you, may not be considered productive by other people. All in all, you need to consider how you actually feel about your work, if you feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day or no. We can think of a productive day as a day during which you actually move the needle toward whatever you are trying to do.
Do not forget, being productive doesn’t have to be strictly related to business or work. You can feel productive at a personal or social level, doing something good for the people you care about or your community, and feeling good about it.
Productive Day Caveats
Productive Day vs. Busy Day
When talking about the meaning of productive day, it is important to not confuse it with a busy day. They are similar on the surface but carry significant differences underneath. In both cases, you spend a lot of time working and “doing things” in general.
However, in a busy day you often feel you did everything for nothing, you feel like it made no difference. Because of this, after a busy day you often feel drained and lacking energy. On the other hand, in a truly productive day you felt you accomplished something significant, and because of it you feel satisfied, and generally good, at the end of the day.
To achieve more, you should ask yourself “am I being productive, or am I just busy?”.
Good Productivity, Bad Productivity
Escaping from the “busy day” mindset is easy because you feel drained at the end of such day. However, the most dangerous situation is the one when you feel productive, while you actually are not. In fact, this is the most common situation, and one of the most dangerous productivity trap you can encounter.
It is simple to fall in this trap because there are many tasks that feel productive, while they are not. All those tasks are generally tasks that can be easily checked off, such as “responding to that email”, “submitting that expense report” and so on. They are all small tasks with a deliverable (aka, something that you produce, like a document), so that you can do them and check them off your to-do list.
Bonus tip: I use OneNote and Microsoft To Do as my to-do list.
This feels great because checking off items from the to-do list is satisfying. However, most of those items are not moving the needle by even the slightest amount. Don’t get me wrong on this, some of these tasks are needed and you must do them – maybe that email was important, and maybe the company policy requires you to submit the expense report. Yet, most of them are likely not to be needed and not moving the needle.
Once again, here with “moving the needle” I mean advancing toward your goals. For example, if your goal is to write and publish a book, writing 4 more pages of the book is a task that moves the needle. Responding to emails may not be.
It is hard to discern “truly productive” tasks, the ones moving then needle, from “fake productive” tasks that are just there to satisfy your thirst of checking things off. This is because to identify what is truly productive, you need to be clear about what your goals are, and not everyone is. Yet, this is the first step, and if you were looking for the “true” productive day meaning I would say it is exactly having days full of tasks that move the needle.
Productive Day Meaning in a Nutshell
Let’s cram everything we addressed so far in a simple definition.
A productive day is a day in which you accomplish important tasks that advance you toward your biggest goals.
Yes, this is a definition I can settle with for productive day. I hope you find it inspiring. Now, if you are in productive days you are probably into productivity as well. Be productive, and learn how to better arrange your agenda using OneNote with this stunning article.
