Just How Busy Are You?
I’ve been guilty of being busy for the sake of being busy. It usually takes a shock or hopefully reading a passage in ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ for me to remember that the objective isn’t to pack as much as possible into every day.
Everyone tells me how busy they are. It is like some sort of badge of honour. Perhaps they feel a little guilty if they aren’t seen to be busy. I know we are paid to look as if we are busy at work. Here is the problem though.‘Busyness’ can spill into our home and personal life as well. Rather than taking time to enjoy the beauty of life or the taste of a cup of tea we gulp it down, probably while doing something else at the same time.
I usually carry out this simple test if anybody tells me that they are too busy to do something. I ask ‘If I paid you one million pounds to do it would you find the time?’ Of course they would. So it comes down to a matter of priorities and not ‘busyness.’
I went back to boxing training this week after several weeks off. I really don’t have the time to spare but what is the point of it all if I can’t take time out to do the things I enjoy and want to do.
Paul Browning
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15 Comments
I have two words for you: BILLABLE HOURS.
Many of us have this bad habit of needing to be busy. We often pass it on to our children, who are often over-scheduled as well.
I can hear my grandmother’s voice now, “We make time for the things that are important to us”.
Good point, Pete! I never thought about this. Can you imagine the kind of stress that this causes our kids.
We are just setting our kids up to develop our same habit of staying busy.
Over-scheduling can lead to added stress and health problems.
Busyness alone won’t make business successful~
Scheduling quality downtime, my time and family time get left off our schedules, and they are worth so much.
B”H
Paul is on the money.
People confuse business with productivity; they work nonsensical hours to convince themselves and others that they are “successful,” but RESULTS speak louder than anything else.
I have some friends who stay up to the am, and I have at least one friend who goes to sleep every night at like 10pm sharp (though he wakes up like 5am, latest). Guess what? He is doing a whole lot better than they are.
As the old saying goes “work smarter, not harder.” Even though in our economy hard work seems unavoidable – even then, that rule can save a person SOMETHING; and that something can make a big difference over time.
Dovid
PS. Paul runs a rocking website on networking you should all check out: HowToNetwork.net. I am proud to be a platinum member of that site.
procrastination!! also one of those things! and yeh – “busy” is such a lousy excuse .. i was advised never to use it in any instance! and try not to …as i don’t like it being said to me — and yes i agree – its prioritising and how much u really want it! hmm – good food for thought! thanks 🙂
First thing first, that’s right, but the importance is not only determined by money 🙂
Slow down and you can truly savor the importance of life….
I think that sometimes people say they are busy in order to appear important. I have a friend who always tells me he is too busy to get together, but I think that he wants me to believe he is very successful. The less time he has to spend with his friends, the more important he is.
I have just returned to school and continue to work. Sometimes I feel swamped. But I have been taking your advice about learning how to delegate tasks in order to free up some of my time. It really does help.
Great point! I am guilty of packing as much as I can into one day. By the end of the day I find myself wondering where the time went. I have been guilty of this enough that my wife and children were affected by it. Thankfully, I realized that I had my priority’s all wrong. I realized that my family is my main priority. They are the reason for anything and everything I do, so they need to be the top priority.