There is a belief that has infiltrated our society
– that to be busy is to be virtuous or good. We admire people who are living very busy lives and we boast
about how busy we are in order to appear virtuous in the eyes of others.
Being busy creates anxiety as the tasks pile up,
but we learn to like it that way, because the payoff is in knowing that we are
good. We don’t have to question
ourselves, our beliefs, our ethics – we don’t have time to develop ourselves. We allow ourselves to react in a
knee-jerk manner because we don’t have time to do anything else.
We particularly need to be seen to be busy at work
to prove that we are making a valuable contribution. Consider for a moment whether the 80:20 rule applies. It often does. Consider whether 20 per cent of your
time is creating 80 per cent of your valuable contribution.
The real value of what you bring to your work
improves the efficiency and effectiveness of your company and improves the lives of its customers. Value comes when you pause to reflect on your work and
streamline your activities to align with these goals.
A lot of the rest is padding - emails that could be
ignored, meetings that achieve little, flights that could be replaced with
video calls. Stuff that detracts
from your value.
Pausing to contemplate gives our intuitive brain a
chance to work. When do your best
ideas come? When does that flash
of inspiration come as if from nowhere?
Usually this is in a period of calm, in the shower, on holiday, at the
weekend. Creating unhurried time
for contemplation pays dividends in terms of the quality of our thinking and
the value of our contribution.
And here is something vital to contemplate. We
understand the payoff, but what is the cost of your busy life?
No comments:
Post a Comment