Meaning & use
productive work
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Meanings
noununcountable
Work that produces useful results or value, especially work that is efficient and worthwhile.
Grammar: Uncountable, so no plural: 'productive work' not 'productive works'. Can be used with 'a lot of' or 'some'.
Patterns
- do productive work
- a day of productive work
- productive work environment
- productive work habits
I get most of my productive work done early in the morning before the office gets busy.
The manager wants to cut meetings so the team has more time for productive work.
After lunch I find it hard to do any productive work.
noununcountablebusiness
Work that creates goods or services with economic value, as opposed to activities like administration or leisure.
Grammar: Uncountable, often used in economics or business writing to contrast with unproductive or unpaid work.
Patterns
- productive work in the economy
- engage in productive work
- productive work and leisure
Economists study how much time people spend in productive work each week.
The report separates productive work from time spent on administration.
She left her job to focus on more productive work that helps the community.
Common combinations
- a productive work environment
- A quiet, well-lit office creates a productive work environment.
- productive work habits
- Good sleep and a clear to-do list help build productive work habits.
- do productive work
- I can't do productive work when my phone keeps buzzing.
- hours of productive work
- She put in six hours of productive work before noon.
- productive work time
- The company tracks productive work time with special software.
Synonyms and how they differ
- efficient work
- Efficient work focuses on doing tasks with little wasted effort; 'productive work' focuses on the useful results produced.
- fruitful work
- Fruitful work is slightly more literary and suggests successful results; 'productive work' is the everyday term.
- useful work
- Useful work simply means work that helps someone; productive work emphasizes output and value.
Opposites
Word family
- produce verb
- To make or create something.
- productivity noun
- The rate at which a person or company produces goods or results.
- productively adverb
- In a way that produces useful results.
Commonly confused: productive work or product work?
productive work vs product work
Not a standard phrase; if you mean work on a product, say 'product work' only in specific company contexts, but the general term is 'productive work'.
Practice
After a long meeting, I finally had two hours of ______ work.
Choose one answer.
'Productive' is the adjective describing work that produces results. 'Product' is a noun, 'production' is a noun, and 'productively' is an adverb, so none fit before the noun 'work'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “productive work”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.