Spuddle (17th century word): to work ineffectively; to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing. The opposite of productive… at least according to a meme (see below if you care about etymology)
It’s amazing how many people commented on the meme a friend of mine posted with that definition. All saying that is how they feel at work. Different jobs, different departments, different industries – yet all feeling like they were working hard and accomplishing nothing. In some cases complaining about OTHER people.
Before you look at how you spend your time – ask yourself this: What does productive look like in my role?
Personally I like make lists, this helps me to make sure I don’t miss any productivity results I need for success! The key is that you need to think in terms of results… not stuff that keeps you busy.
Then make sure you tie daily – weekly – monthly activity to those productivity results. If you CAN’T I suggest you may be spuddling around not moving forward.
Being busy may make you feel good in the moment, it is not helping you or your team make quota, achieve the results you need, or feel good in the long run!
for the record: Merriam-Webster (you know my favorite definition source) says spuddle = puddle. Hoping this wasn’t true I googled it and found a plethora of choices:
- To loosen and dig up stubble and weeds left after a harvest with a broadshare or similar device.
a feeble movement - (verb) (archaic). spud-l. to work feebly and ineffectively, because your mind is elsewhere or you haven’t quite woken up yet.
- To deliberately attempt to deceive a friend with a tall tale, for the purposes of humour.
- To work tirelessly without achieving anything of worth. To put in a great deal of effort and achieve only very little.
- Southwest English dialect a feeble movement