When you ask someone how they are, there’s a good chance you’ll get a four letter word in response: “busy”.

It’s become a hallmark of our culture – whether you’re talking work or lifestyle, life seems to only get busier. But while it gets harder and harder to find a break in the calendar, are we actually getting anything done?

There’s a big difference between being busy (‘having a great deal to do’, or perhaps more accurately, ‘keeping oneself occupied’) and being productive (‘creating or producing a lot’). The latter focuses on outcome; the results produced, rather than the busy work which may or may not yield anything of value.

We’ve all been there. Caught in a quagmire of emails that take hours to respond to, delaying you from attending to your work. Chasing your tail, procrastinating, obsessing over the border colour of your Powerpoint presentation while the actual content remains steadfastly on the to-do list. You’ve been busy, sure – but have you been productive?

Productivity guru and author of The 4-Hour Workweek Tim Ferriss believes the key to productivity lies in prioritisation. “If you don’t prioritise, everything seems urgent and important”, he says, and it’s all too easy to get bogged down in a vicious cycle, unsure where to start and therefore getting nowhere.

The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is to do less. CNBC reports that “employee output falls sharply after a 50-hour work-week, and falls off a cliff after 55 hours”, according to according to one study. In fact, research suggests that we are only truly productive for a maximum of 5-6 hours per day.

So, how to get the most juice from your squeeze?

Make a to-do list

Not all productivity experts agree – my apologies to Tim Ferriss – but I certainly function best after a big brain-dump onto paper. Seeing all your tasks laid out in front of you enables you to prioritise them. For women especially, carrying the mental load can be as taxing as the work itself, so I prefer to unload the weight of my tasks onto a to-do list, creating mental space to focus on the work itself.

Stop multitasking

Research suggests that there is actually no such thing as multi-tasking. Rather, it’s a practice of switching rapidly from one task to another and back again. Which, most agree, is largely unproductive. Instead, set yourself one task at a time and give it your full focus until it’s completed. Then move on to the next.

Group tasks

You know the feeling – you start a task only to notice an email pop up. You pause what you’re doing to answer it, then log something in your Slack channel. Once you’re in Slack you see your notifications and before you know it you’re 7 tasks away from the one you started with. Instead, try grouping like tasks and even time-blocking when you do them. Batch emails in a 1 hour block, followed by a 2 hour stretch for completing urgent work, an hour for research, and so on. This will keep you on-task and ensure you don’t waste time switching between modes (frying your brain while you’re at it).

Minimise distractions

The dopamine hit from an Instagram like or a text from a loved one can be addictive and distracting. Even if you allow yourself set breaks for social media, it can be all too tempting to slide into a scroll hole. And even if your resolve is stronger than mine, distractions abound. For me, it’s sound – so I’ve found working with my Airpods in, even if I’m not listening to anything, helps me to focus. I have friends who place their phones inside a locked box for set periods of the work day. If you know there’s something likely to pull you off task, do your best to mitigate it ahead of the fact.

And don’t forget the golden rule: take breaks! We are at our sharpest and most productive when well rested. So wave goodbye to being busy – no one has time for that.