Why are we too busy?

I am definitely someone who other people would call ‘busy’.  But I have often been disappointed with how little I’ve managed to achieve in a day.  Why’s that?  

Am I unproductive? No… and Yes. Some days, I get loads done and I manage to tick lots off my list others feel like pushing a safe through sand.  Interestingly we can think we’ve been more productive when we’ve completed a long task list, but we may not get the same sense if we’ve given space to thinking in order to make a big decision. Are we conditioned to measure ourselves with only tangible outputs?

Am I focussed on the wrong thing? Sometimes yes.  It’s easy to get blown off-course by requests from other people or when there is so much to do.  Sometime it’s easy to focus on the stuff I find easiest (rather than most important) just so I’ve ticked some stuff off.

Do we have unrealistic expectations of what it’s possible to achieve?  Often yes.

In a working environment where we need to do more, to a higher standard with less time and people, productivity remains a key priority for companies. Engagement is, of course, key to productivity but we know that around 60% of the global workforce feel disengaged.  

Stress, overwhelm, lack of recognition or support, lack of enthusiasm for the goals of the team/organisation or projects all contribute to being disengaged.  Improving engagement is heavily impacted by the experience that leaders are creating for their teams especially as 60-75% of people report that their biggest stress is the direct boss. So, you guessed it… if you can create leaders in your organisation that improve engagement then naturally your productivity will improve too.  

But companies focus on free gym memberships, free apples, private health insurance.  I’ve worked in places where all this was available - except the time to engage in self care because the culture celebrated being busy and made snarky comments if people took time to go to the gym.  But, I hear you say, the work needs to get done first.  Yes I agree, people need to be accountable to deliver.  Here’s 2 thoughts on that:

1) they are grown ups and can be trusted to organise their own working day/week to maximise their productivity according to their energy, other life commitments and family.  I worked with Hoxby just like this for 7 years.  They call this concept #workstyle and it works.  

2) Do we perceive certain people as more productive than others? Sometime we can have a preconceived idea about what busy looks like.  What’s behind that? How does that affect the ability to create diverse teams and promote inclusion? Often people can look really busy - but what are they busy doing?

People are more productive when they focussed on a common goal. When we spend time getting super clear on the goal then it’s much easier to ask ourselves, ‘how does what I’m spending my time on right now contribute to the goal?’; if it doesn’t then it’s not a priority.  

How often have you got really busy doing the wrong thing because it’s not a priority?  Or it’s a priority for someone else but not for you?

Are we deluded about how much we can possibly get done in a day? When I first started in the creative industries we had pencil & paper to convey ideas to our clients who approved them before we produced them.  Now we have computers, the ideas almost have to look like the finished article before being shared and approved. Computers made the work look better, but they haven’t save us any time, in fact the opposite.  What impact does this have on trusting the experts in our team?

I remember a friend of mine many years ago commenting that I was always ‘in the fast lane’.  On one hand it meant I was moving at pace, on the other, it means that I missed a lot.  If you travel down a road in a car you miss a lot of what’s happening on the street.  If you walk it you notice the people, the nature, the buildings, the cracks in the pavement.  It gives you a different perspective, it helps you get in touch with the ‘here and now’. Remember in the pandemic when we were forced to stay put? I meant we noticed and reflected on different things.

So my conclusion is that ‘busy’ and ‘not busy’ are both important in different ways.  It’s about the balance.   If we are always busy there is not time to evaluate, gain new perspectives and ensure you’re on the right path.  And the opposite can mean we lose momentum and never put our ideas into action.

Should leaders be busy?  I remember when one of my team was returning from maternity leave and they came in for a ‘keep in touch’ meeting.  I was so consumed by my own business and surviving the stress of the toxic environment that I was in that I forgot what she needed from me in that meeting.  When I started sharing all the problems that I had, she called me out on it and she was right.  I’ve never made the same mistake again.  Now I always make sure I have time to prepare and consider what a team member needs from me rather than it being the other way around.

I would love to hear your thoughts on being busy and not-busy. 

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