People who are perpetually busy are rarely proportionately successful. ~Chad Howse

Being busy doesn’t mean being effective. Usually it just means being busy. (Watch This: Are You Being Effective or Just Keeping Busy?)

Our culture praises being busy. We should always be working or look like we’re working. Whether or not we’re doing a great job is almost secondary.

Be different.

Forget about being busy. Figure out a way to be effective, and being effective requires purposeful, focused work, and such work depends on energy and clarity.

When I’m only working, I burn out. I burn out during the day. I burn out in life. I hit a place in my week where I can’t go any further. My brain gets fried. Creativity leaves me.

When, however, I pair intense work sessions lasting no more than 90 minutes, with yard work or training or running, I get less hours done, but I get more work done.

What would you rather have, success or the appearance of working?

Appearances take precedence too often. We want to appear to be successful, so we buy clothes and cars and homes that we can’t afford just to show others how well we’re doing. We want to appear as though we have a lot on the go, even to ourselves, so we’re always engaged in something even though that thing may not deserve our attention.

Email shouldn’t be a daily activity. Confine it to an hour at the end of the day or a day of the week.

Social media should command very little of our attention, yet we have the apps on our phone and the web sites always up on our computers. Post. Comment. Do what you want but at least confine it to a certain time of the day.

DON’T RUSH.

We rush because we want to feel as though we have to rush or because we don’t get up early enough.

Don’t.

Plan your day so as to avoid rushing.

When you don’t rush you get a hell of a lot more work done because you’re able to focus on one thing and take your time.

While every day determines where you’re going to end up in life, each day should not be raced through, but used, extracted, and won.