The con of busy-ness

Busy-ness is a lie.  Don't tell me how busy you are.  Tell me how engaged you are, how productive you are, what you're creating and what you're contributing.

My introduction to the "con of busy-ness" concept came about 10 years ago when I was working for Jameson Management.  The leadership team brought in consultants to work with their team of consultants.  I took away a great deal from this experience that still directs much of how I manage myself, my goals and my time.

Americans wear "busy" like a badge of honor.  Our culture teaches us that if we aren't busy, we're lazy or ignorant or bad (idle hands are the Devil's play thing, don't 'cha know).

We even try to out busy each other.

Our conversations go like this:
"How have you been?"
"Busy.  I've got so much going on, I can't keep up with it all."
"Yeah, me too.  Work is crazy; I'm doing about 70 hours a week.  And now, I've got all the kids' stuff to try and keep up with."

Our phone calls go like this:
Caller: "Hey, are you busy?"
Call recipient: "Oh my gosh, yes.  I am so crazy busy.  What do you need?"
Caller: "I know, I'm super busy too.  I'll make this quick."

The problem is, it doesn't matter how busy you are.  What matters is the outcomes of your time/energy investment (it always comes back to ROI).  Once busy work and the "not important/not urgent" stuff takes over, actual productivity either stops or is significantly reduced.

When we're so busy trying to be busy, we lose the opportunity brainstorm, engage in thought experiments and innovate.  We lose touch with our creative powers; we lose the opportunity to collaborate with the creativity of those around us.  If 20% of what we do yields 80% of our results, why aren't we dedicating more of ourselves to that really powerful 20%?

So here's my challenge: don't be busy for the next week.  Instead be productive and invest your general awesomeness in what will really deliver results for you.  Give your brain time to think, mull, marinate on a subject.  Take a walk; swing at the park; sip a cup of tea and people watch.  Spend 20 minutes jumping in piles of fallen leaves.

Be bold enough and brave enough to stop saying "I'm busy" and start saying "I'm producing results".