You have a problem if you are always busy

We all have the same amount of time, each day – 24 hours or 1 440 minutes or 86 400 seconds, nothing more nothing less.

What we do with our time is a different matter, have you ever asked colleagues or friends how they are doing, is the reply almost always a variation of “I’m busy.” To be busy has become normal, there will always be plenty to do. But being busy doesn’t mean being effective.

How do you spend your time?

We are not constructive in our thinking, we have given up on the fact that we could get work done differently. It becomes like a routine, we believe what we do is how it should be done. Often we feel that how we do something is the right step and it cannot be changed. If you cannot, you cannot, it is your choice.

7-8 hours sleep, 30 min to work 8 hours at work 30 min to home, your 24 hours is soon up. Of the 8 hours at work, how efficient are you, have you ever checked how much time you efficiently spend in an 8 hour day at work, it all depends on the type of work you do of course. In my line of work I get probably 5-6 hours of efficient work, the rest is in my mind just interrupted work, getting to meetings, just chatting over a coffee or maybe you smoke – it all takes up time.

It is the same with everything we do, we do have control to find other solutions to time management than how we do it today.

What would you choose to do?

You have the choice between being busy or working effectively and in your own rhythm. Let’s first figure out why we like to be “busy”, do you feel something like this:

• Being busy makes you feel a sense of importance that you cannot get by yourself. Maybe the feeling is that we expect people around us will look at us and your importance will increase.
• You should not be driven by what other people sees you for, it should come from within you, not from others. We are not that different, other people feel the same and we all play a game of who is most important.
• Being busy allows us to not focus on what is really important, being busy is allow us to avoid paying attention to our personal needs and what is important to us.
• Being busy is like a drug, you might feel euphoria being busy and In some circles being busy is considered cool… something is going on constantly and that could be exciting.
• How do you feel after a really busy period, do you feel extreme tiredness and exhaustion. What do you do to get over the downtime, do you just jump straight back into another period of “busy” time?

What can you do to change

So what can you do about changing your behaviour, because it comes from within you? You need to identify yours through the reason of trying to be “busy” all the time. It’s your choice to feel relaxed and enjoy not “busy” time. Here are some tips on what you could do to start changing your way of being “busy”:

• Record the time you spend over a week, break it down to tasks you perform how or and work, the analysis and try to understand when you are saying ‘I am busy’ and what the reasons for it are and identify how you got there and if you could do it some other ways.
• Ask yourself the following questions
  • What am I controlling right now?
  • What am I trying to control at the moment?
  • What am I not controlling now and what I could be?
• Every time you feel overwhelmed by being ‘busy” tell yourself it was your choice and it is not your boss, colleagues, family, commuting or company, (etc.), that caused you to be “busy”. Try to find out how you can recognize the beginnings of ‘being busy’.
• Don’t take work home, switch off your work mobile phone, switch off your work inbox and enjoy your time. You need to be able to separate work “busy” from family “busy”, they are different things. And do not try to do both at the same time. Do not go to your daughter’s ice hockey game, and do work while she playing the game.
• Before you leave work, plan ahead and set the most important tasks for the next day and also confirm the deadline for your unfinished tasks from today.

Conclusion

I hope this gave you some useful information on time management, I love to hear your suggestions or what you do to be more efficient, feel free to comment below.