The Glorification of Busy
Photo by Matthew Smith
In the past few years I’ve noticed a real shift in how we perceive our schedules. Many of us only seem to think we’re being productive if we feel rushed off our feet all the time. This phenomenon has been dubbed the ‘glorification of busy’ and is something that’s been reported a great deal in the media. I’ve read thoughtful articles dealing with this on The Huffington Post, Yahoo News and Becoming Minimalist.
There are many reasons why this attitude to busy isn’t necessarily a helpful one;
- It can stop us from focusing on the now
- It can lead us to overwork ourselves
- It can prevent us from having meaningful connections with other people
- It can skew our perception of our value
- It can make us forget to make time for R&R
- It can drive us to fill our time with ‘busy work’ just to feel effective
It’s this last point that I really want to focus on here. When you run your own business, it’s natural to experience troughs and peaks in your workload. If you are glorifying ‘busyness’, it’s likely that you will be expecting to be in a peak at all times… and you may feel you’re failing when you hit a trough.
I’ve come across a lot of business owners who deal with troughs by making themselves feel busy by other means. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re all guilty of this! How often do you spend work time constantly checking emails, spending hours connecting with new people on social media, researching business events, organising paperwork or doing other non-essential admin tasks?
The problem with this kind of busy-work is that it makes us feel like we’re busy and effective… when we’re not actually moving forwards at all.
If you find yourself facing a quiet period in your business, whether it’s an afternoon, a week or a month, why not admit it? Accepting that you have some space in your schedule is much healthier than fooling yourself into feeling rushed off your feet with endless busy work.
Allow yourself to admit that you’re in a quiet period, and you could put that time to far better use. You could consider:
Revisiting your business plan
Business plans aren’t supposed to be static documents. If you have some breathing space, why not sit down with a fresh cup of coffee and review yours? You might be reminded of targets you’d forgotten about and the process could even spark some big new ideas.
Working on a ‘one day’ project
Do you often find yourself thinking you’ll work on a project ‘one day’ when you have time? Why not make today that ‘one day’?! Quiet time can be really valuable in business as it allows you to do things like develop products and services, create marketing campaigns, write new content and explore strategy ideas.
Setting some new targets
It’s difficult to find time to set achievable new targets when your diary is packed full all the time. If you do have a bit of downtime, think about putting some of it aside to set some really intentional new targets.
Connecting with a mentor
Being a business owner can be lonely! If you feel you would benefit from a new perspective, why not consider connecting with a mentor? You could use social media to reach out to someone in your industry you look up to, or you could consider partnering up with another business owner in a similar position to you. Think you’d benefit from some more structured support? Business coaching might be a great step forward for you. Here’s how you could benefit.
Enjoying some time off
We all need a proper rest from time to time! If you have some quiet time, don’t be afraid to use it to recuperate. Time spent recharging your batteries is never wasted: you’ll be able to return to work energised and ready to be productive again.
Want some more ideas? Take a look at my list of productive things you can do for your business in ninety minutes.
Trackback from your site.