Episode description

Hey friend! This week I want to talk to you about the difference between producing vs doing. When I first learned about the difference years ago it was mind blowing and game changing for my productivity and I hope it will be the same for you. 

First, neither one is bad or good, what I find most helpful is knowing the difference so that I can make sure I’m not mixing the two. 

When you’re producing something, it leads to a very clear, specific result when you’re done. It leads to increased productivity.

When you’re doing something, you’re working on something but there isn’t a clear result when you’re done working. 

Neither one is right or wrong, it is simply important to know the difference between them and bring awareness as to when you need to leverage one over the other. 

Knowing the difference is extremely helpful when it comes to getting things done. Sometimes people think that they’re being productive when in reality they’re just doing. Again, it isn’t to say one is better than the other, we simply want to bring awareness to them so we can be mindful of what we’re doing. 

For example if you sit down to “work on something” you’re most likely not going to be as productive as you would be if you sat and asked yourself, “What do I want to produce in the next 30 minutes?”

Producing might look like sitting down for 30 minutes and at the end of the 30 minutes having:

A proposal completed

Salespage built out

Email copy written

Social media calendar finished

Create 5 Instagram posts for the next week

Doing might look like…

Spending 30 minutes cleaning out your inbox

Spending 30 minutes writing

Producing is helpful when you need to be productive, when you need to produce something. 

Doing is helpful when you’re doing maintenance tasks or when you’re finding yourself meeting resistance around starting something new. For example, if you’ve never set up an email marketing funnel before and you know you need to learn it, the idea of setting up your first funnel can be overwhelming and therefore you may procrastinate and continue to push off taking action. So instead, you can focus on “Log into ConvertKit and play around with the software for 30 minutes.” Here you’re not creating anything; at the end of the 30 minutes, you’re simply doing and that’s okay. You might need to simply do things before you start producing things.

Again, the key thing is to be aware so you can be intentional with your time. Rather than doing things on autopilot you can bring awareness and ask yourself, “Is this a doing or producing task?” “If it is a producing task…what is the result I want to create?”

I’d love to hear how you are doing when it comes to producing vs doing and how you plan to implement this strategy over the next week. Let me know over on Instagram @attentionaudit.

That’s all for this week my friends, take care!