The Product of Your Performance

The Product of Your Performance

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Your personal productivity cannot be measured simply by what you are doing. If what you are doing is not getting you to where you want to go your time is not being spent productively. Rather, personal productivity is measured by what is produced from that performance, the product of your performance.

For example, I work with a laptop. I write articles, develop spreadsheets and update my database about as fast and efficiently as anyone I know. During the first six months I owned the laptop I loaded it with an incredible amount of data, pounding away at the keyboard like it was a fine piano. On a scale of one to ten, I would initially rate my personal productivity with respect to this task, as a nine or a ten. I was a super achiever.

Well, except for one small detail. I did not back up my work. I don’t know why I neglected this task because I have always backed up my work. The hard drive on the laptop crashed, burned and died and I lost everything I had put into it for six months.

Now, what was my productivity on a scale of 1-10? Zero. Nothing. See my performance was a nine or a ten but neglecting to do a key step, backing up the work, resulted in the product of my performance being a zero, as if I had not done it at all.

If you are working at a job that is not fulfilling for you, you are doing it because of the paycheck only, then you are not operating at a high level of personal productivity. 80% of those who go to work on Monday morning would rather be somewhere else. You are a cog that makes money. You may be able do that dreaded job quicker, faster and better than anyone else but if it’s a job that doesn’t excite you and fulfill you, you’re not at a high level of personal productivity.

If you are on a path where your marriage may end in divorce, (and 50% of all marriages end up in divorce), through which you may have to give up a significant percentage of everything you have ever worked for in your adult life, you are not being very productive. Making all that money over the years only to give much of it away to a person you have learned to hate is not an example of high personal productivity. The performance was making all that money in the first place. But the product of the performance was to create a property settlement fund in your divorce.

Examine everything you are doing. Is it getting you to where you want to go in your life? Is your performance creating the product you want to achieve? If not, fix it. Change your performance to deliver the right product to you and truly operate at high productivity levels.

Want to get better focus and increase your productivity now? You can easily get more of the important things done, in less time, with less stress. Invite Don to conduct his dynamic Time Management Seminar at your location for groups of any size. For details, email your request now for “in house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2004 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com