I’ve always believed that being “busy” is being productive. Do you feel the same way? If not, I’ll share my story with you.
I am not quite sure where the drive to be busy continuously came from, but busy-ness, in my world, meant working crazy hours, sleeping few hours, working weekends and most importantly the guilt that is attached to non-busy times or times you can’t be busy or “work”.
I’ve lived this way for years, all my life.
REALISATION.
BUSY IS NOT AN INDICATION OF PRODUCTIVITY OR EFFECTIVENESS.
Add in a child, a husband, two cats and a business.
Busy, oh expected right?
Busy, oh needed right?
But sometimes, something small (with major impact) happens, when you are sitting in a room with your child, and having just come from work, on your phone/tablet/laptop etc. and your child says “mommy, I am here”.
“Mommy, I am here”.
Those words, powerful and so clear.
We all have things to do. We all have places to go. Deadlines are always there. However, moments with loved ones (family, friends, children, parents), are fleeting.
Busy-ness does not mean results. Busy-ness, does not yield results. Busy-ness is not a measure of how good you are at your job, although many would disagree.
My work days are short, super short. I drop and fetch kid. I am home by 4pm, commencing with the mom/wife/homely thing. By 8.30 most nights I am passed out with kid, at about anytime between 12 and 2am, I sleep walk back to by bedroom and most mornings I am up at 5am to catch-up, before commencing Mom duty at 6.30.
During my workday, my focus has to be very clear on what I need to achieve for the day. I work on my bigger goal, edging my way toward it inch-by-inch.
I do not have to book every minute of my time. My aim is results-driven and not stuff-driven. Sending 100’s of emails a day, doesn’t mean deal-closing and is not an indicator of how effective I was on that day. Engaging with potential customers, follow-ing up, signing contracts and reaching milestones, this is what makes up my results bucket (mostly).
I’ve been listening to so many podcasts and watching Ted Talks on productivity, procrastination, work-life-balance and more and my take-aways are as follows:
- Continuous busyness is not the way to my bigger goal.
- Sleep is critical to being productive and being the best version of you.
- Busyiness is a factor of procrastination (sometimes) and an indicator that something (a project, a person, an engagement) is not being managed efficiently enough.
- When people distract you, they are taking away valuable (R’s/$’s) time so feeling bad for saying “I really need to get to this” is no reason for feeling guilty.
- I don’t have to work 24-7-365 to show my value.
- Sometimes work-life-balance is “better” than others, but there really is no such thing. If you love what you do, you will put in the required time needed to achieve the goal you are chasing.
I have so much more to share on this topic. For now I will say that the biggest lessons I learn (daily), usually stem from my 3,5 year-old boy who keeps me sane, grounded and practicing my negotiations.
Busyness, be gone.
Focus, results, let’s go!
