Busy being Busy? Plan ahead ...

At this time of year, people are often busy. Many people are very busy. Some are so busy they can't take time to consider quite how busy they are. And some are busy being busy. This blog post is for them - for you - if you are so busy telling yourself (and anyone who'll listen) that you are so busy, that you don't get anything done ... because you're busy ...

In our society of immediacy, it is an expectation that we will request and receive everything fast. That means people, data and things have to move faster than before. Wait a minute ... "have to"? Who says? Unless it's a matter of international nuclear tension, or a life/death medical emergency, is it really ... really ... that much of an imperative? Don't we mean that "people expect them to ..." or "people have asked for them to ..." or even "I want them to ..."? We tend to assume there are fearsome penalties for those who under-deliver. The irony is, so many people are busy being busy that many of them tend to under-deliver because they didn't want to offend or deter the others, so promised to do too much, didn't know where to start and therefore didn't quite do what they said they would do, when they said they would do it.

First rule of project management? "Say No". Seems a bit negative? Perhaps, if taken literally. However, if you stop to think about it, saying "yes" all the time doesn't actually get you anywhere either. It is impossible to please everyone with everything that you do. So stop trying to. And it is "trying" - you aren't actually pleasing many people, when you are so busy, are you?

Master Yoda, according to Star Wards legend, said,

The best thing that you can Do, if you are busy being busy, is to stop trying. In fact, stop doing much of what you are doing. How about checking in with yourself, and seeing just how much benefit you are getting out of being this busy, and how much benefit you therefore are to others? Hhmmmm - thought so - not looking great, is it?

So how can you solve this? You can't stop people asking you to do things (although you can help them to make sure they plan a bit better). You can't have fewer things to get done by Christmas (although you can make plans for next year, so you know you will be in a better place then). What you can do is to consider what you need to get done, by when. You may find making a list will help; get it all out of your head and onto paper, so you can see exactly the scale of the issue. It may be, that when you look at the list, you can see immediately a few things that, once done quickly, will make the rest of it easy. If you do, great! Do them now!

You may find the list is still looooong. Too looooong! Before you descend back into panic, evoking the worst Kermit memes from social media, try this. Ask yourself the reason that you have to do these things. If you don't have to do all of them, then great! Delegate them!

There is a trick you have up your sleeve, if you did but know it. Remember Master Yoda and his "Do Not"? What is there on that list which you don't actually have to do at all? And, if you think about it, no-one actually has to do at all? If there are any items on your list which come under this heading, then that's a big fat line drawn straight through them. Don't do them. Simple.

By now, you will still have a list, but it will have fewer items on it (if it hasn't, you need to read this post from the top and have another go ... and this time, trust others to help you ... their work will be good enough). If you do have to do a lot of things, that's still great. You simply need to plan them. With so little time before Christmas, you will have a deadline. Work back from that, and identify what needs to be in place, to ensure you can deliver. And when you are doing this, you may wish to check what "deliver" means. Does your customer, boss, family member actually have a clear date in mind? If they don't and it can wait until after Christmas, how would it be if you explored that with them and secured a confirmed deadline for first week in 2018? That would be another off the list. Then you have to put into order of importance, the rest of the list. How you define importance is up to you, of course - it might be keeping the boss happy, or your key clients, or a new client, or a child (or a combination of those, depending on how much they stamp their feet!).

A final observation here - are you busy being busy because you don't want to do the things on your list? If that's the case, and you can delegate, postpone or ditch them, then do that. If you have to do something you don't want to do, you may find that you are putting it off. It may be because you don't like the person, or you don't like the task (or a combination of the two). It may, however, be that you worry you won't be able to do it well enough, and so you are, in fact, finding reasons not to do whatever it is that is still on your list. If that's the case, how are you defining "well enough"? Who's defining good here? If it's the client or recipient, then that's fair - provided that they are being fair. If it's you, however, you might just want to check in with yourself that you aren't assuming everyone shares your standards. It might be that your client/boss/gift recipient would be happy just to know you could do something to keep them ticking over with whatever it is they want; meanwhile you have been having sleepless nights worrying how to do it perfectly. Very very few people actually want and expect perfection in all things. To expect it of yourself is a shortcut to mental upset. So look after yourself, as well as the client/boss/family member. Check what they want, what they really really want, and plan how you deliver that. All this worked for the Spice Girls, worked for General Eisenhower for D-Day ... I reckon it will work for you!

If you have seen some things in this post which looked familiar, and would like to explore them further, please feel free to contact me to find out more. My clients frequently come to me with some form of overwhelm, and they leave with plans, purpose and clarity. If that looks good to you, simply get in touch and we can get started ...