Busy is not better

The tyranny of busyness vs productivity

If we’re not careful busyness can consume and then overwhelm us. More and more of us seem to covet it like a prize to be proud of. We can wear it like a badge of honour. There are, of course, periods when we need to be intensely diligent and industrious. Some situations demand it of us. Without active and earnest effort to accomplish things, perhaps little would reach completion.

Perpetual busyness, however, is unsustainable, harmful to health and illusory. I say this because it can deceptively give the impression that we are productive while eroding the basis of our productivity.

Busyness and productivity are not the same. We’ve all rushed around and then stopped to notice that although we’ve been doing a lot, our occupation has not yielded meaningful results.

‘The chains of habit: too weak to be felt until they’re too strong to be broken’

This can be because we’re tired or stressed, or because we’ve not stopped to focus and think about how best to achieve our goals. What starts as an apparently harmless claim to ourselves and others that we're always fully engaged in important and laudable activity, quickly becomes a self-defeating habit that is difficult to undo. And, even when there are fewer demands upon us, we can lose our sense of perspective and be tricked into believing that, minute by minute, we’re yet busier and busier still. But are we doing the right things and doing these efficiently? 

In an ‘always on’ world, switching off is more important than ever. As the merry-go-round of life spins faster and faster and the demands feel greater and greater, it is important to step off and stand still to regain our balance, lest we should succumb to the dizziness of it all. As our minds gorge on ever vaster amounts of information, we need to pause to allow time to digest and really make sense of it all. As our energies deplete, we must recharge before we run down. These analogies remind me of the importance of perspective, recuperation, and of thinking and planning before doing.

Five a day for mental wellbeing

I don’t always get the balance right. But when I do, it is a huge boost. I feel energised, mentally present and poised to tackle the next challenge. An inner sense of peace brings composure and courage in the face of difficulty. This is when I’m at my most confident and effective – and when I’m feeling happiest. Bursts of creativity and inspiration flow freely. Relationships and communications ease. Dark and impossible pathways glow with new insight and imagination. Connections abound.

Reverse the pernicious habit of busyness with positive steps a little and often. It’s really simple and costs nothing. The payoff is a life of greater joy and success. The NHS suggests a mental health diet of ‘five a day’ – straightforward steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing, make you feel more positive and get the most out of life. I swear by them. Take a look for yourself! But most importantly, do what works for you and what helps to make you happier and healthier. This is the only way to really perform at your best. We each have a responsibility to ourselves and to one another to pay attention to our wellbeing. Look after this and the rest will, in the end, take care of itself. 

Mindful people in mindful organisations

Organisations, as well as individuals, can be blighted by ‘busyness affliction’ to the extent that it becomes a recognisable feature of their culture. The remedies are much the same:

• re-instil mindfulness into the organisation’s structures and ways of working;
• be strategic and focus on deciding and doing the right things, not just doing any things right;
• slow down and take a moment to allow people to draw breath and take stock of and celebrate their work achievements;
• share the work out fairly and maintain visibility of workload;
• encourage prioritisation, the competence and frameworks for deciding what not to do, taking informed, reasonable and sensible risks in decision making;
• protect time for proper rest and time outside of work including psychological as well as physical detachment from the workplace;
• invest in wellbeing provision and capability; and, talk with and listen to one another with empathy and appreciation.

Happiness at work isn’t rocket science. The things that are necessary to make people happy at work are really simple. Good, caring and inclusive leadership. Cultivating personal resilience. Creating a workplace environment of meaning and purpose. Recognition. A positive attitude. Learning and growing. Sharing decisions. Openness.

Let’s all redouble our efforts to create the kind of workplace and working practices we all deserve and can be proud of.

Develop greater resilience and mindfulness

We know that Policing can be especially demanding. Officers and staff experience things and are sometimes exposed to traumas that, thankfully, many people will never experience. Mindfulness training offers us tools to help deal with these pressures and with the reality of Policing today. Colleagues in policing can enrol on the eight-week online course for free. Each week, you’ll work through a topic that will take about 30 minutes to complete. You will then complete the home practise task, which will take between 10 and 20 minutes. Each lesson builds upon the previous one and, if you persevere, you will learn how you can make cognitive changes with lasting effects. The evidence suggests it really works to improve mental wellbeing. I’m going to take the course. Perhaps you’ll join me?

Become ‘indistractable’ in a digital world

These days we’re also surrounded by distraction hazards that sap our attention, erode our time and deplete our energy levels. You might say they’re literally killing time. A digital armoury of enticements draw us in, morning, noon and night. The behavioural science deployed to addict us to our screens can be turned to our advantage with some insight and pre-planning. If you want some helpful advice about how to become indistractable, this book is full of very practical ideas for harnessing our most precious resource more wisely. It is about focusing on what matters most. Rewiring unhealthy patterns. Organising and decluttering. It is a trigger for traction and an antidote to distraction. I hope you find it as useful as I have.