the horror of the bad spirit of busy-ness

Are you scared to say that you're not busy?   

We seem to live in a world that has become addicted to being busy. The symptoms are everywhere around us. We're often made to feel guilty when we can't say that we've been "crazy busy". Apparently "crazy busy" can also be something to take pride in. We don't feel productive when we aren't rushing between tasks. We're told that time is money.  Everything in our lives has to be booked in.

Well, Change Agents, trick or treat?

Trick! There is a whole heap of good stuff that we're missing out on because we're so busy being busy, worrying about being busy, and trying to ensure we are seen to be busy.

Some of us genuinely are busy. All the time. There's little time for treats, and even the fun of halloween is either an addition to an already busy schedule, or an annoying disruption to it.

Let's step back from the busy-addiction just for a moment and look at why this might not be all that good for us - or our businesses.

WHY THE BUSY SPIRIT SHOULD BE EXORCISED

1. Bus-y-ness is actually bad for bus-i-ness. When we're so busy attending to the tasks in our business, we forget to make time for planning, we continue along the path of the status quo, and we don't make the time or space for innovation and creativity. The problem is that growing a business is a creative process so having time and personal space for planning, creativity, and innovation, is really important.
2. Time is actually not money. Shock and horror. Your customers don't actually pay you for your time, they pay you for the outcomes you deliver for them. If you bill by the hour, you might want to think about that, and see 3 below, because if you need to always be busy keeping the meter running in order to earn a living, then perhaps your hourly rate is too low, or the market doesn't genuinely value the outcomes that you produce. 
3. Busyness often hides your scary poor profit margins. We know of so many businesses that would be far better - and more profitable - if they did less work at a higher price. Instead, they are addicted to reaching for sales targets and keeping the machine running, even if it means that the return on their busyness doesn't really make good business sense.
4. When being busy becomes the most important measure of success, then we sacrifice the time and energy for building genuine relationships with people. This is really scary, because relationships are a critical part of our mental health and well-being. We are in an epidemic of mental illness so it's more important that we drop being busy, put the kettle on, and just make connections with others. No matter how much time it takes, it saves lives!
5. The sprit of being busy keeps us distracted from what is really important. When we sacrifice ourselves at the alter of the busy spirit then we lose the time for self reflection, contemplation, recuperation, spontaneity and, ultimately, fulfilment.

Again, Change Agents, trick or treat?

Treat! We can change how this is! Instead of encouraging a culture of busyness, let's encourage a culture of productivity. That is, instead of running around doing stuff, let's plan for the stuff that needs doing. Let's go from being frantic, to being organised.

At The H Factor, "the stuff that needs doing" is a technical term. It means identifying all the important things that need to be done in the business and then organising around them to ensure they can be given the right priority at any point in time.

Yes, it is OK to be busy some of the time. However, if your business is dependent on everyone being busy all of the time, then it's time to call for the exorcist.

​Happy Halloween!

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