On The Illusion Of Being Busy
You probably consider yourself busy when you do not have time to do something else simply because you are swamped with whatever it is that you are doing. It would be right if I said you are a very busy person. But think for a moment about all the things that keep you very busy. Are there any parts of those tasks that can be delegated, done by someone else, or simply dropped?
The idea that we are getting a lot done can begin to have its own repercussions when we are very interested in getting a lot of things done, but not very careful about what it is that we are doing. The illusion that we are doing a lot can become something that fires us up to keep going, but sometimes going to where? We need to sometimes evaluate the things we do and see if there are ways we can deeply focus on very few things while keeping our brain open to do and think of a whole lot.
It might feel like everyone else is busy, and would be pretty sad if we do not look busy or truly get busy. My point today is to worry when you have so much to do that it makes you very busy. Worry because it might be possible that you are getting yourself high in the illusion of action. We feel happy when we get so much done, but in essence, do the actions we do have any impact or reward?
One way I am trying to get around this is to honestly tell myself I am not the most important person to get this action done. If it has to be done, can someone else handle it better than I can? Most times, there are tasks we can delegate and get others to work on it even better than we do. I personally realized that sometimes I get in the high of getting a lot done, but clearly, things that others could do, or things that do not have as much value as I think.
Frantically responding to all emails that hit your inbox right when they do is not being busy if you can respond later and things are all fine. Desist from thinking you are the most important person in a transaction. Sometimes I think that I have to do it, but why must you do it? This is not a call to be lazy. It is a call to be careful about being busy on things that might look useful, but at the end, whose impact might not be as we think.
So think carefully when next you say you are busy. Are you busy doing something really impactful or simply on the high of getting many things done? Thanks so much for reading and God bless
