Got a moment?
Some people are too busy to be successful in their careers and to enjoy their lives. And they don’t know it! If you think you’re busy, I hope this article caught your attention long enough for you to finish reading it. You are about to find out a few truths about being busy that can IMPROVE YOUR LIFE if you face them.
“Busy” is not necessarily a good trait. “Busy” is not an excuse. “Busy” is not even a proper answer to the greeting “How are you today.” Well, perhaps it is sometimes but not the amount of times you will use that term in your life as a response to that question.
“Busy” is an overused word in everyone’s vocabulary. It’s so overused that it has lost its true meaning in today’s practiced vocabulary (not by the dictionary meaning).
A brain surgeon in the middle of an operation is busy and should not be disturbed.
When the local bomb squad is in the middle of deactivating a bomb, they are busy.
When I’m in the middle of writing this article, I am busy.
When someone passes you in the hallway and says how are you and you respond busy, you’re not.
When you’re fluttering around your office doing everything and accomplishing nothing, are you busy? Well, perhaps you are busy but you certainly aren’t doing anything useful. And at the end of the day you’ll be the first to realize that when you stop and take a breath and say “where did the day go”.
Take out a pencil and piece of paper right now and fill in this sentence as quickly and specifically as you can: When I say I am busy that means _____________.
Now read what you just wrote. Does it really have any substance? Consider how being busy is helping you to reach your goals, to achieve success as you define it or to even put in a productive day at your job. Is being busy all of the time getting you those things? If you are so busy that you don’t have a moment to think creatively, a moment to say hello to someone, a moment to meet someone new, then are you leading a successful career and life? Are you accomplishing your job duties to the utmost degree? Or are you just busy?
Here are a few myths about being busy that you should be aware of (because when you’re conscious of what you’re doing, you can come to realizations and make changes that will improve your career, job and life):
MISTAKING BUSY FOR SELF-IMPORTANCE – Perhaps some people equate being busy with being important. After all, you’re scrambling around doing all these things, people need you, people are asking for you, calling you, etc. You must be so important because you are so busy. And it feels great to feel important, doesn’t it?
Now that I’ve laid out that scenario for you do you see how ludicrous it looks when you stop being “busy” and observe yourself from the outside. You can still be important and feel euphoric from being important by being busy (or perhaps less busy) but with substance. That means actually solving a problem, completing an important project or leg of the project or helping someone with a task in a useful manner. Your stress levels will possibly decrease too when you are doing more than just being busy.
THINKING BUSY MEANS YOU’RE ADDING VALUE – “Busy” equates with quantity. “Value” equates with quality. Employers want value from their employees not busy employees that add no value. If you’re busy at work (or even in your own business or during your family time) that does not mean you’re contributing anything of value. Stop being busy for at least a few minutes each day to evaluate your actions so far that day and determine if you’re adding any value with your tasks and actions.
Take this scenario. You have two co-workers on a job. One appears to be busy all of the time. The other seems a bit laid-back but just produced outstanding results on a project that had an impact on the company’s image, bottom-line (fill in the blank here). Which one do you think might get promoted if the opportunity for advancement arises? Which one do you think will be mumbling under their breath about how they should have got that promotion because they do all the work around here?
USING BUSY AS AN EXCUSE -I don’t know anyone, self included, not guilty of using the “I was busy” phrase as an excuse for being slack in responding to someone or meeting a deadline. And sometimes it’s a true excuse in the literal sense that you were too busy to respond, act, etc.
In hindsight your busyness may have been nothing more than a waste of your time, but you were busy at that time. So you weren’t necessarily lying when you said you were too busy to respond, appear somewhere, do something, etc. But at the end of the day when something of true priority or importance gets overlooked or not done or you miss out on an extraordinary opportunity, being busy is not an excuse. Second chances don’t happen. Don’t use busy as an excuse unless it’s absolutely true and valid.
RELATING BUSY TO PRODUCTIVE – Look up the definition of busy. The first definition for busy in my The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says “engaged in action, not idle”. When you look up production it talks about “the act or process of producing.”
You CAN be busy and productive. That takes planning. Just getting busy isn’t getting productive. Make sure you know the difference between the two words and practice it. Of course, in order to be productive you need to define what “productive” means to you. And you may need to redefine your definition frequently, changing it with days, projects, goals and deadlines and measuring your productivity.
Bottom-line: Don’t be busy. Be engaged in what you’re doing. Make an effort to consciously use your time. You won’t get any more or less of it in life. If you are too busy all of the time, it may be time to re-evaluate what’s keeping you busy. Drop (or even delegate if possible and necessary) what’s not important and won’t have an effect on the outcome of your day, project, performance evaluation, career, life or family relationships.
[...] minutes? If you answer no check out the article in my personal development blog about some of the myths of being busy. And then try answering that question [...]