Measuring Productivity – Quality or Quantity?

photo credits: freedigitalphotos.net

How do we really measure the efficiency of being productive? Do we need to tire and exhaust ourselves by doing more – quantity? Or doing less yet quality work that produce more worthwhile results in our life?

Being a work at home mom is not easy as most people think. Though I work in pajamas, it does not mean that I am luckier than those who work 8 hours straight in corporate jobs. On the contrary, work at home moms have more longer working hours and variety of things to attend to such as doing the laundry, ironing the clothes, preparing the family meals, cleaning the house, taking care of the kids and more, at the same time beating the deadline on doing online tasks to augment  the family finances  for a decent living.

Just merely imagining all the things needed to be done the next day makes me feel worn out already. Before I learned about the true nature of productivity, I was always in a hurry beating the clock to wrap up all my daily house chores, so I can also finish off the articles that I need to write in time for submission.

I learned and found out through reading books and articles on productivity that we do not really need to constantly be doing more and more, for real productivity might actually come from doing less. Through choosing to do priority things that matter most, by keeping a to-do list for the day or for the entire week will help us make things done in time. House chores like doing the laundry can be scheduled twice or once a week instead of daily, while setting specific days for other house cleaning chores like dusting the furnitures and more.

Developing a system on how to get things done quickly by doing what needs to be done first and others set aside later can deliver significant results and less effort. To cut back in the areas which don’t really need immediate attention will give you more energy and focus in doing things which do make a difference.

The use of a timer can help keep activities on track. Keep a balanced time to give us more time to enjoy our family,  therefore I should say quality and not quantity best measures the productivity of a person. Do you agree with me?