Telephone Excellence by Mike Mitchell

Action vs. Activity
By Mike Mitchell

When was the last time you could say of someone, "He's a man of action" or "She gets results?" More importantly, when was the last time someone could say that of you?

Taking Action:
According to Organization and Time Management Consultant Mark Forster, we often confuse activity with action. As Forster explains the concept, "taking action," will help us achieve our goals and produce results that improve our systems and level of service for our hospitals, staff, and patients.

Taking action involves planning, organizing, and making decisions - mental processes that could be perceived as inactivity. So often we stay busy with activities such as returning emails, attending meetings, and handling routine responsibilities, that we miss the opportunity to create meaningful change.

Doing Activities:
Take a minute and evaluate your daily routine. Are the taking action or merely filling your day with activities? Granted, there are some routine tasks that have to be done. For instance, activities like compiling a report for the boss, reviewing the staff's daily time, or evaluating new products or procedures are a necessity. We do feel good when we've completed our tasks, but these are not really accomplishments.

Unfortunately, activity is sometimes perceived as getting things done, but ultimately the lack of real accomplishments will become evident. So often, activity is the thing that fills our daily working hours. It's easy to be very busy and not achieve our goals.

The Activity Trap:
Forster gives us the following guidelines to determine if we fall into what he calls the "the activity trap:"

You never have time to think.
(Thinking should your number one top priority action.)

You work through lunch and don't have a definite finish time in the evening.
(Lack of proper breaks reduces your working efficiency.)

You don't have time to exercise.
(Lack of exercise reduces your working efficiency and shortens your life span.)

You don't have time for a personal life.
(If your personal life isn't a top priority for you, what are the chances that the rest of your priorities make sense?)

You never have time to do the things you really want to do.
(Then, what's the point of all your hard work?)

You are constantly doing things that anyone else could do.
(You should be concentrating on the thing that only you could do.)

Evaluate and Achieve:
Why not take the time tomorrow to honestly evaluate what you do every day? Is it activity or action? Activity is sometimes exciting, but almost always exhausting, stressful, and disappointing when we realize we haven't accomplished our goals. Action, however, creates energy, inspires enthusiasm, and gives us satisfaction when we achieve our most important goals.

-Mike