Member-only story
Wait, stop. You’re saying that being busy is a bad thing? Well, it depends on what ‘busy’ means to you.
If it means juggling seven different tasks simultaneously and feeling like one of those stretchy dolls being tugged in every direction, then yes. It’s a bad thing.
BUSINESS SHOULDN’T MEAN ‘BUSY-NESS’
We’ve lived in a culture for so long where being successful is working yourself into the ground day in day out. After all, many people refer to work as ‘the daily grind’. Research by Silvia Bellezza found that people see those who are busy as successful. When in reality, the opposite might be true.
But being busy doesn’t mean you are effective. It doesn’t mean you are achieving. We’ve discovered more recently, with flexible working and the introduction of a four-day week (for some), that less is more. When people work for less time, they are more focused, and often, they get more done.
IT’S TIME TO MAKE EFFICIENT THE NEW BUSY
We shouldn’t celebrate being busy in quite the same way. We should celebrate focus, organization and smart use of our time. Success isn’t pushing yourself to the point where you’re close to having a mental breakdown. If we can do more quality stuff in less time, then let’s celebrate a cool, calm…
