Being busy is a destructive behavior that prevents you from reaching your goals. Busy work is a way to avoid boredom and provide a false sense of productivity. In “Don’t Strive to be Busy”, I share myths about busyness that you may have believed, including that being busy is a good thing.
So why do we get trapped in the busyness cycle?
Busyness is not just a way of filling the day, it begins as a belief system. You’ve told yourself so many times that you are busy that you believe it to be true. And what we believe we manifest in our lives. When you say daily, “I am so busy” you will create the proof. Creating longer to-do lists with minor tasks is busy work. Rushing from task to task without a moment to catch your breath generates a busy feeling. And reacting to every urgent request no matter how unimportant it might be generates even more busy behavoir.
You will feel overwhelmed all day, making your own proof are busy. Because you act busy, it proves you are busy, and therefore you act busy. A vicious cycle indeed.
Ultimately, telling yourself you are busy for so long feels like the only possible truth.
The good news….since your busy beliefs create more busy behavior, it gives you the chance to break the cycle. The beauty of a circular situation is you can step in anywhere and disrupt the cycle.
What if you decide to think you aren’t busy and that you have the time available to do the work you must do to meet your goals? What if you choose to believe you are productive, not simply busy? How will this change the way you view your work and feel about it?
Try those thoughts on for size. They might feel a little uncomfortable at first, but when you try them on over and over, you will begin to see how they are very comfortable indeed. You have to break them in like a new pair of boots.
You have the choice to believe what you want to believe. You can believe you are busy or you can believe you are productive. It requires deliberate effort to change the thought at first. If you can choose which thought you want to believe, you will see your actions follow suit and change as well to suit whichever belief you choose to have. Then, you begin to generate proof that you are productive and not busy and the benefits will grow.
The second place you can break the cycle is at the action stage. You can first believe you are busy but then step in and change the action. You can choose to pause between tasks and take time to assess what is important and not. You can choose to look at your to-do list and add up the amount of time each task truly takes.
We each have a jar that represents our lives. Each day we fill the jar with activities. Many of those are small inconsequential activities. Does every email require the same amount of attention? Does every work product need to be A+ work?
Once the jar is filled with the minor tasks, there is no room left for the big ones. After you’ve examined how you spend your day, try shifting it to first schedule the urgent and important tasks, then the important but not urgent tasks. At that point, room is left for everything remaining that actually requires attention.
The next first step then is to eliminate the word busy from your vocabulary and replace it with productive. Then examine your tasks and shift to your scheduling to prioritize what is important. Over time, with consistent effort, the changes will manifest and you will break the busy cycle.
