Busyness does not equal productivity

Once, a business owner reached out to me to schedule a strategy session. First, he emailed me, and then he called me. I figured he must be serious. As we were talking on the phone, he told me that he was overwhelmed. He wanted to take his business to the next level, but he needed to change the way his business was running him.

We arranged a meeting but he never showed up. He sent me an email 10 minutes after the planned start of our meeting to apologize and to tell me that time had slipped away from him and now he was “too busy” this week for any meetings. He wanted to reschedule.

Have you ever heard anyone say “My goal in life is to be busy.”

You have heard people say that they want to be happy, successful, loved, rich, famous or even fit and healthy. Some might even say they want to make a difference in the world, but never “I want to be busy for the sake of being busy!”

But it seems like busy is how we all end up. Too busy.

“Too busy” creates problems. At work we are too busy to properly train our staff, too busy to pay attention to our key customers, too busy to identify what is going wrong or even right for that matter. We start to think we are too busy for our families, too busy for our friends, too busy to exercise, too busy to eat properly.

We are so caught up in our busyness, that we end up being too busy to look after ourselves and our relationships, and things start to go sideways. At first we ignore the simple things that go wrong, but slowly these simple scenarios evolve, sometimes with disastrous results.

The truth of the matter is that most of us are too busy chasing our tails to take the time to stop and examine exactly what we are doing.

When was the last time you took a few minutes and asked the question “Why am I doing this? What difference am I making with my job, my company, my life? Why am I so busy, but I feel like I am accomplishing nothing? Why is my life spinning by so fast? What am I doing that keeps me so busy?”

Busyness creeps up on us. It doesn’t happen overnight.

When we start a business, a new job or even a family, there are times when we sit and wish to be busy. I remember in the early days of my businesses when I would sit alone in the office, put my feet up on the desk and pull out a guitar, because there was nothing else to do but wait for customers to respond to my marketing efforts. However, as the years go by and the business and family grow, you understand what your responsibilities are and the demands pile up. Busyness has crept in and we conclude that if we aren’t busy we aren’t successful.

The reality is that being busy doesn’t mean that we are fruitful, effective, important or happy. We are fooled into thinking that there is a direct relationship between being busy and success. There isn’t.

In fact, some of the most productive CEOs, business owners and managers don’t seem too busy at all. They aren’t running from meeting to meeting putting out fires, micromanaging, and getting home late at night. They hire the right people and give them responsibilities. They make time for what is important in life and in business. They are experts at blocking time in order to accomplish what is important.

I know of one CEO who had nine divisions reporting to him. Instead of being overwhelmed he scheduled a one-hour session with each division manager a week. He put aside one hour per day for so called “urgent meetings” when these managers could schedule 15-minute problem solving-sessions with the boss. This left him with plenty of time to work on the big picture issues and to spend time with his family.

Busyness doesn’t happen overnight nor does organization. However, if we let the busyness take control of our lives, we end up wondering years later where all the time, friends, family and relationships went. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed and too busy, it’s not too late. By starting today and taking back control of your days with tested time management practices, you will rarely find that you are too busy for what is important in life.

Dave Fuller, MBA, is a professional business coach and strategist and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Fuller is never too busy to answer your questions. Email dave@profityourselfhealthy.com