Busy has become a power word. It’s easy to associate a busy life with success and being needed – and hence having our relevance regularly reaffirmed. Being busy may be directly linked to perceptions of “a great work ethic”, something easily confused by some bosses who set the poor example of always arriving at the office early and leaving late.
Our behaviour and judgement when rushed?
When we’re busiest our reserves of time, energy and attention can be heavily depleted and significantly impact our behaviour and our judgement.
For example, when we’re in a rush our thoughtfulness can be significantly compromised. This was well demonstrated by a Princeton University experiment along the lines of the Good Samaritan parable. Theology students on their way to making presentations were set up to pass a seemingly badly injured man. Some students were told they were running late for their presentations. Only 10% of those students stopped to help, compared with 63% of those who were told they had a few minutes to spare. Remarkably, even those who were going to make a presentation about the Good Samaritan parable didn’t show any increased helping behaviour.
Our effectiveness when rushed?
There can be a big difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Maximising the number of meetings in your day or your interstate trip may feel efficient – but you may not be as effective. With a full diary you can miss out in many ways. Poor use of your time and energy may drain you. Poor preparation may mean your many meetings have poorer outcomes and less learning. With less time for gathering your thoughts after conversations or meetings, you may overlook good opportunities, miss soft signals of key issues or forget follow-up commitments. If others are not impressed with your contribution they may be less keen to meet or work with you again.
In the event of something really negative occurring when you’re rushed (and that’s when it’s more likely), you don’t have time to process what’s happened and to clear your head before the next event.
As architect Mies van der Rohe famously said: “Less is more.” There is a strong case for selectively cutting back on the number of commitments in your diary.
Ask yourself:
Do I associate a busy life with success and manage my diary accordingly? Can I manage it more effectively?
If I’m racing through life with a full diary, what’s this doing for my health and well-being indicators and my energy levels and effectiveness?
Is busy really the way I was designed to live?
When I’m in a rush, do my mindsets and behaviours change? How? Does that affect my effectiveness or my relationships? Does it affect my creative potential and my learning?
Should I just slow down, reflect and only speed up very selectively?
Covid-19 Addendum
Some of you, probably a minority, may be busier at work than ever – those with big responsibilities in government, charitable organisations and businesses and especially those on the medical front lines. And your working environments will be operating under lots of new protocols which complicate things and slow progress.
Some of you may be busier than ever, not because of increased work load but because existing and very effective routines in your family life have been removed - like school or day care being put on hold.
For those juggling more than ever, anything you and your team or family can do to work smarter, enhance effectiveness, focus on the priorities and avoid unnecessary perfectionism or expectations, might take away some of the rush and pressures and release some time for reflection and rejuvenation.
