As an entrepreneur, you have a sense of what being productive feels like.
But what if we told you that this feeling can be misleading?
Entrepreneurs often mistake busyness for effectiveness, but they're not the same thing.
You might be putting in long hours and working with intense discipline, but if you're not focusing on the right tasks, you're not moving your business forward. You're just spinning your wheels, going nowhere.
The truth is, productivity isn't just about effort – it's also about strategy.
If you pour all your energy into the wrong things, you might be efficient, but you won't be effective.
Here's the key: the world doesn't reward you for how long you worked on something. It rewards you for the value you create.
Entrepreneurial success is about working on the right things, not just working hard.
In this guide, we'll explore:
the critical difference between efficiency and effectiveness and why it matters for success
why measuring productivity is essential for achieving goals
how to measure productivity in a way that drives results
Deep Work vs. Shallow Work
Not all work is created equal.
Some tasks require your full focus and mental energy, while others can be done while you're distracted or multitasking. This is the difference between deep work and shallow work.
Deep work is when you're fully engaged in a challenging task that pushes your skills to the limit. For entrepreneurs, this could be things like:
Developing a new product or service
Writing a compelling sales page or email campaign
Creating a detailed marketing strategy
When you do deep work on the right tasks, you can make huge progress in a short amount of time. It's like a productivity superpower.
But remember this: not all deep work leads to results.
You could spend hours perfecting a product that no one ends up wanting, or designing a website that looks pretty but doesn't convert visitors into customers.
This is where the concept of distal and proximal goals comes into play.
Distal goals are your long-term, big-picture objectives – things like hitting a certain revenue target, launching a new product, or expanding into a new market.
Proximal goals, on the other hand, are the smaller, more immediate milestones that you need to hit to reach your distal goals.
For example, you could spend countless hours perfecting a product (a proximal goal), but if you never validate the idea with real customers (a key step toward your distal goal), you risk pouring your energy into something no one wants.
That's why it's crucial to ensure your deep work is always in service of your distal goals.
As an entrepreneur, you need to be strategic about where you invest your deep work time. Focus on the tasks that will move the needle for your business, not just the ones you enjoy doing.
On the other hand, shallow work is all the little tasks and distractions that eat up your day, like:
Checking and responding to emails
Posting on social media
Attending meetings that could've been an email
These things need to get done to keep your business running, but they shouldn't take over your whole schedule. If you spend all your time on shallow work, you won't have the mental energy left for the high-impact deep work that leads to growth.
The key is to find the right balance.
Carve out dedicated time for deep work on your most important projects, and fit the shallow work in around the edges. This takes practice and discipline, but it's so worth it.
One way to make sure you're spending your deep work time on the right things is to use the "High Leverage Work" criteria.
At Commit Action, we help entrepreneurs focus on work that is:
Courageous - Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and tackling tasks that challenge you to grow.
Important - Focusing on crucial activities that are easy to put off but have a significant impact on your long-term success.
Strategic - Working on your business, not just in your business, to drive growth and scalability.
Bold - Taking calculated risks that have the potential to yield substantial rewards.
Unaccountable - Doing things that no one else is currently holding you accountable for, but that you know will make a difference.
When you invest your deep work hours in tasks that meet these criteria, you'll start to see real progress and growth in your business.
But what counts as "high leverage" changes over time.
As your business grows and evolves, so will your definition of effective deep work. What moves the needle for a solopreneur is different from what matters for a CEO with a team of 50.
That's why it's so important to keep checking in on your productivity and making sure you're adapting your deep work to your current stage of business.
With the help of an accountability coach, you can stay focused on the work that matters most, even as your priorities change.
Productivity Pitfalls: Are You Falling Into These Traps?
Even the most well-intentioned entrepreneurs can fall victim to common productivity pitfalls. Here are a few to watch out for:
1. The Myth of the Hustle
It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that working longer hours always leads to better results. But the truth is, capitalism doesn't reward how long you worked on something – it rewards the value you create.
Take Elon Musk, for example.
He's not successful because he works 100-hour weeks (although he certainly puts in the time). He's successful because he's working on audacious, world-changing ideas like revolutionizing the automotive industry and colonizing Mars.
As an entrepreneur, your focus should be on the leverage and impact of your ideas, not just the raw number of hours you're putting in.
2. The Peril of the Packed Schedule
In the quest to maximize productivity, it's tempting to schedule every minute of your day. However, this approach can quickly backfire, leading to burnout and diminishing returns.
The most sustainably productive entrepreneurs understand the power of the "barbell strategy". They're highly intentional and focused for a few hours each day, working on their most high-leverage tasks.
But they also leave room for flexibility and spontaneity.
This might mean blocking off your morning for deep work on a critical project, but leaving your afternoon open for unexpected opportunities or simply tackling the inevitable administrative tasks that crop up.
The key is to find the right balance for you – enough structure to keep you on track, but enough flexibility to avoid rigidity.
This is where Commit Action's shared calendar feature really shines. Our coaches work with clients to schedule their deep work blocks and then hold them accountable to actually following through.
It's a powerful combination of intentional planning and external accountability that helps entrepreneurs find their optimal productivity rhythm.
Read also: Want to maximize your productivity? Learn how to make a daily schedule for yourself and start achieving more with our practical tips
3. The Delusion of Busyness
It's a common misconception that being busy equals being productive.
But in reality, busyness is often just a form of procrastination – a way to feel like we're making progress without actually moving the needle on what matters.
Just because your day is filled with tasks doesn't mean you're being effective. Many of the most important activities for entrepreneurs – like strategic planning, creative problem-solving, or building relationships – don't necessarily look or feel like "work" in the traditional sense.
Don't fall into the trap of mistaking motion for progress.
Why Measuring Productivity Matters
Measuring your productivity is a must for any entrepreneur who wants to succeed. Here's why:
1. Find your winning formula for delivering massive value
The heart of any successful business is consistently providing value to your target audience.
When you're starting your business, measuring productivity is about tracking how many different things you're trying to find that winning formula. Once you've found a method that works, focus on making it better and doing it on a bigger scale.
2. Use Gamification to Improve Productivity
Gamification is a powerful productivity booster. Think about how many people get hooked on fitness trackers!
By identifying the specific actions that lead to the results you want, you can create a game-like system for your business.
For example, a real estate agent might make a game out of seeing how many doors they can knock on each day, knowing it will lead to more listings and commissions.
Getting proactive about managing your productivity can save you time, money, and headaches down the road.
In essence, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you can't afford not to measure your productivity. It's the key to working smarter, not just harder, and achieving your biggest goals.
Simple and Practical Productivity Tracking
Alright, now that you're on board with why measuring productivity is so important, let's dive into some simple and practical ways to do it:
1. Conduct a Time Audit
One of the most powerful tools in the Commit Action arsenal is the Time Audit.
Here's how it works: for one full week, log exactly how you spend your time in 30-minute chunks. And yes, that means everything – work tasks, personal errands, Netflix binges, you name it.
This might sound a little tedious, but trust us, it's worth it. This snapshot will give you a brutally honest look at where your hours are going.
You might discover that you're working way more (or less) than you thought, getting sucked into way too many meetings, or neglecting those important but not-urgent tasks that always seem to fall by the wayside.
The Time Audit is like a wake-up call for your productivity. It'll help you make more conscious choices about how you're spending your most precious resource – your time.
2. Avoid the Productivity Theatre Trap
Now, a word of caution: don't fall into the trap of productivity theater. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of measuring and tracking and end up spending way too much time on the process itself.
If you're spending more than 30 minutes a week planning, tracking, and analyzing your productivity, you're probably veering into counterproductive territory.
Those elaborate to-do systems, apps, journals, or color-coding your calendar in 15-minute blocks might feel like you're being productive, but they're just procrastination in disguise.
Instead, focus on the minimum effective dose of planning and tracking. Get in, get the insights you need, and then get back to actually executing your goals.
3. Know Your KPI (and Track It Obsessively)
The most important measure of your productivity? Your Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – the input that directly drives growth and revenue in your business.
For a coach, this might be the number of sales conversations they have each week. For a software startup, it could be the number of new user signups per day.
However, it's crucial to keep in mind Goodhart's law, which states that "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." In other words, if you focus too heavily on optimizing a specific metric, you risk losing sight of the underlying goal that the metric was meant to serve.
For instance, if you're a content creator and you start prioritizing quantity over quality to hit a certain word count each day, you might end up producing subpar work that doesn't resonate with your audience.
The key is to use productivity metrics as a guide, not an end goal in themselves.
By regularly tracking your KPIs, you ensure that even as your role and responsibilities evolve, you never lose sight of the lifeblood activities that keep your business thriving.
Just remember to periodically reassess your metrics to ensure they're still aligned with your ultimate objectives.
Amplify Your Productivity
If you're not measuring your productivity, you're letting inefficiencies and blind spots run wild in your business. And that's a recipe for disaster.
But tracking your productivity doesn't have to be a massive, time-consuming headache. With Commit Action, it's downright convenient.
When you work with one of our expert coaches, you're essentially outsourcing the heavy lifting of productivity measurement to a trained professional. All you have to do is show up to your regular coaching calls and answer some questions.
That's it.
Your coach will take care of the rest – figuring out the right metrics to track, setting up systems to gamify your progress, and helping you stay accountable to your goals.
They'll be your productivity wingman, spotting blind spots and inefficiencies that you might miss on your own.
At Commit Action, we help you build metrics and gamify the things that truly matter in your business. Our coaches work with you to identify your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and create a customized system to track and optimize them.
By focusing on the inputs that directly drive your desired outputs, we help you turn your most important work into an engaging, rewarding game.
With Commit Action's support, you'll be able to:
Clearly define your high-leverage activities
Set up simple, effective productivity tracking systems
Stay accountable to your goals with regular check-ins and progress reviews
Identify and eliminate productivity-draining blindspots and bad habits
Achieve your growth objectives faster and with less stress
So if you're ready to take control of your productivity and start seeing real results, sign up with Commit Action today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
1. Why is productivity hard to master?
Productivity is hard to master because it requires a combination of self-awareness, discipline, and the ability to prioritize tasks effectively. Many people struggle with distractions, procrastination, and a lack of clarity about what truly moves the needle in their business.
2. What is the KPI to track productivity?
The KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to track productivity varies depending on your business and goals. Common examples include revenue generated per hour, number of sales calls made per day, or number of projects completed per week. The key is to identify the input that most directly drives your desired output.
3. What is the difference between productivity and efficiency?
Productivity is about achieving more in less time, while efficiency is about doing things in the most optimal way possible. You can be efficient without being productive if you're doing the wrong things. True productivity requires both efficiency and effectiveness – doing the right things in the best way possible.
4. What is an example of productivity?
An example of productivity is a content creator who sets a goal to write 1000 words per day and consistently meets that target. By tracking their word count and holding themselves accountable to a daily output goal, they can make steady progress on their writing projects.
5. Why do we calculate productivity?
We calculate productivity to objectively understand how efficiently we use our time and resources to achieve our goals. Measuring output helps us optimize performance, eliminate waste, and achieve better results in less time.