Time is the one true constraint we all face: 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour. We can’t change its pace, but we can change how we use it. Most people I know are constantly “busy.” A select few are genuinely “productive.” Which camp does your Small or Medium-Sized Business (SMB), and your leadership team, fall into? Are you busy, or are you truly productive?

Here are eight tips to help you diagnose where your efforts lie and, more importantly, how to improve your individual and organizational productivity, leading to greater success and reduced stress. Not every tip will resonate equally with every work style, but the key is to be conscious in your efforts: understand how you and your organization work today, identify areas for improvement, and then execute a plan to get there. As a fractional CIO, helping SMBs leverage technology and strategy to enhance productivity is a core focus.

1. Set FEWER, Clearer Priorities:

“If everything is important, then nothing is important.” – Garr Reynolds

If something truly needs to get done, you’ll make time. The art lies in consciously and ruthlessly selecting what those things are. Productive leaders and organizations typically focus on no more than three top priorities at any given time. More than that creates a managed mess, not focused output.

SMB & IT Application: Does your IT project portfolio reflect a few key strategic initiatives, or is it a long list of “urgent” demands? A fractional CIO helps focus IT investments on the vital few priorities that drive business value. Use a robust system (even a simple app like Microsoft To Do or a shared team board) to track all tasks but be strict about what makes the “Top 3.”

2. Learn to Say “Yes” LESS Often:

“It’s only by saying ‘no’ that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” – Steve Jobs

Many of the busiest people struggle to say “no,” often driven by a desire to please or meet external expectations (as Gretchen Rubin describes with “Obligers” in “The Four Tendencies“). If you’re serious about your top priorities, you must be equally serious about declining or deferring requests that derail them. Unless a new request is important enough to displace one of your top three, it needs to wait or be declined.

3. Achieve CLARITY Before Action:

“If you can clearly define the dream or the goal, then start.” – Simon Sinek

“Busy” often means jumping straight into action. “Productive” means stopping to verify the goal and the approach first. This upfront “why” and “how” validation, especially for complex initiatives like technology implementations, can drastically reduce wasted effort by ensuring the proposed actions are efficient and truly necessary. A fractional CIO ensures this clarity by translating business needs into well-defined IT project scopes and objectives.

4. Focus on OUTPUT, Not Just Activity:

“Activity is not output.” – Andy Grove

Productivity is defined as Output / Input. Measuring only your input (actions taken, tasks completed) is a recipe for feeling productive without actually being productive. Write your priorities and to-do lists based on the outcomes you need to deliver. Delivering high-quality output that moves strategic goals forward is the true measure of a productive day or project.

5. Maintain a “Big Picture” Perspective:

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

Productive people and organizations understand that the “big picture”, the overall strategic goal, is what matters. There might be many paths to an objective; the key is to find the most effective one, adapting to obstacles along the way (like Waze rerouting you in traffic). “Busy” people can get lost in individual tasks and lose sight of the overall goal. An overarching IT strategy provides this “big picture” for all technology decisions and initiatives.

6. Learn to DELEGATE More Effectively:

“Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way.” – Ronald Reagan

As David Allen notes in “Getting Things Done,” you can do anything, but not everything. Effective delegation (whether to internal team members or external partners like a fractional CIO for strategic IT leadership) frees you to focus on tasks where your unique input is most valuable. Ask: “Am I the only person who can do this, or is there someone who can accomplish it well enough to move us towards the desired output?”

7. Allocate Dedicated Time for REFLECTION and PLANNING:

“The more reflective you are, the more effective you are.” – Brendon Wainright

Constant busyness leaves no room for strategic planning or learning from past outcomes. Productive leaders schedule dedicated time for reflection (what worked, what didn’t, why?) and planning (what’s next, how do we improve?). This “Important but Not Urgent” work (as per the Eisenhower Matrix) is essential for continuous improvement and breaking reactive cycles.

8. Avoid the Illusion of MULTITASKING:

“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.” – Gary W. Keller

Science confirms it: multitasking reduces output significantly due to the mental “switching cost.” Productive people and teams create blocks of focused time (60+ minutes) for priority tasks, allowing for deep work and “flow.” Busy people allow constant distractions. For IT teams, this means minimizing context switching between too many concurrent projects to improve delivery speed and quality.

What’s Next

“Unsuccessful people are busy being busy. Successful people are busy being productive.” – Kevin Abdulrahman

Ultimately, achieving true productivity for yourself and your SMB is a conscious choice that requires discipline and a commitment to these principles.

Is your SMB caught in a cycle of “busyness” without achieving the desired strategic outcomes? Are you looking for a partner to help you focus your efforts, streamline your processes, and leverage technology to make your entire organization more genuinely productive? Let’s connect with Succeed Sooner Consulting.