Work Fast, But Don’t Rush: The Difference Between Being Productive and Looking Busy
There is an interesting problem that many employees eventually discover at work: **Sometimes, being too efficient can make you look less productive.** Imagine you are given a task that your boss expects to take two days. You understand the problem, work efficiently, and finish it in three hours. You are done. So what happens next? You might have nothing else urgent to work on. Maybe you open YouTube, scroll through social media, read some news, or simply sit there waiting for the next assignment. Then your boss walks past. What does your boss see? Not the three hours of focused work you just did. They see someone sitting at their computer watching YouTube. And the thought might be: > “Why isn't he working?” This creates an interesting workplace dilemma: **Should we work as fast as possible, or should we deliberately slow ourselves down so that we always look busy?** I think there is a better approach. ## Don't Work Slowly Just to Look Busy Deliberately stret...