The importance of not always being "busy"

Too often we wear being busy as a badge of honour, "Oh I'm so busy, I couldn't possibly", "I haven't had a day off in months, I'm just too busy". What if the “too busy” is really poor time management? Think about the last time you made a to-do list for your working day and whether you managed to get it all done. If you didn't, what stopped you? Was it random interruptions? Did you go off-task? Was there an unexpected phone call that took longer than you thought??

We need to stop being busy and start being productive. But to be productive, you need to be realistic that there will be unexpected things and you need to be able to react to them.?

Reacting isn’t negative

When you think about being reactive it has negative connotations, like you might have forgotten to do something or left it until the last minute. In those instances, being reactive throws everything out of kilter, makes you miss your train, stops you from getting the things done that you really need to and generally screws up your day. But maybe that's because you aren't scheduling your reactivity.?

Ooooh, controversial statement. I know. But hear me out. Reacting to tasks isn't a bad thing., Who can honestly say that they can predict everything that happens every day? What happens is we're so caught up in being busy and "productive" that we don't leave enough time to react. Instead, we should be building reactive time into every day. A small buffer that allows us the flexibility to respond immediately without shitting all over your day.

This is something that I'm really passionate about. In my job, unexpected tasks crop up all. the. damn. time. For me to guarantee a level of service to my lovely clients while being able to react I have to build in reactive time. You can't deliver consistently and be productive without being in control of your time. Remember, you're in control of your time, it's not in control of you. I'm not advocating that as soon as something comes in, you drop everything else, that would be ridiculous. Instead, you've got the reassurance that you can finish the piece of work you're on and then still have an hour or so where you can deal with the unexpected.?

Think it through

How many times have you had a brilliant idea then done nothing about it because you’ve got no time? When we’re reacting to everything, overfilling our days, and stretching ourselves we miss out on time to think strategically, look at better ways of working, and keep on top of our admin. Things like tidying your inbox, submitting expenses, uploading receipts, and replying to LinkedIn messages all fall by the wayside to be dealt with another day.

You need time to work on your business, as well as in it. Otherwise, you miss opportunities to upsell to your clients, relationships get neglected and you end up surviving rather than thriving.?

Having some “spare” time blocked out in your diary gives you protected time to ruminate on your ideas and your business. This might seem like a luxury but how many times do you lie in bed at night and just as you’re about to go to sleep you start thinking about all the amazing things that you could do, a new service you should launch, an email you should send to your clients? The reason you’re thinking about it then it because you don’t have thinking time in your day.?

In short - want to sleep better? Block out thinking time in your diary.

Schedule it in

Think of it like when you schedule a meeting. We all know that if you book them back-to-back something will overrun and you'll spend the rest of the day running from one thing to the next. What you do is add in 15-minutes between meetings, giving you breathing room. So next time you sit down to plan your day make sure you add in that overrun time - it'll save you stress and make your day much smoother. Overrun time is the time that you can use for a spontaneous chat, to eat your lunch away from your desk or for that critical task that's just appeared in your inbox. Planning for the unexpected allows you the luxury of time, time to deal with the things life throws at us that can't wait.?

How to start? If you're planning on working 7 hours tomorrow, only schedule 6 hours worth of work. Block out an hour for distractions or the unanticipated. See how that feels time-wise, it might be an hour is too much or, and more likely, it's not enough. Finding the balance that works for you, will leave you feeling in control, empowered and on top of your work at the end of the day.?

Ease the pressure

Proactively planning your time so you aren't up to your eyeballs with work that HAS to be done that day helps ease the busyness. This way of thinking allows you the flexibility to tackle the unexpected, without you working all day and night. It breaks the cycle of feeling like you have to be busy and makes you realise that giving yourself the time to think and respond makes you more productive.

There's no way that you can predict what will go wrong, what might pop up in your inbox or what opportunities might come knocking. Building in mini cushions of time to react will make your life less busy and far calmer!

Sometimes we all need a bit of help to give us space, and reactive time, that we need. If you want to bounce some ideas around how to organise your time or to see if there are tasks you can outsource to give you more flexibility in your day then email us at [email protected] to arrange your one hour, one-to-one session.