The word ‘busy’ could subconsciously be impacting your thinking and productivity. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as having a great deal to do, which I’m sure we can all relate to. Nowadays, we use the word busy word multiple times a day in phrases like, “I’m too busy right now,” or “I’m always busy. It never stops,” or “I wish I wasn’t so busy today,” or “Sorry, not right now. I’m too busy.”
But why do we use this word specifically? Well, when you think about it, we use busy as a coping mechanism to help us verbalise how we’re feeling at any given moment in our day, when the stresses of people and task pressure are upon us.
Busyness and stress perception are enemies of productivity
When you think about how words create our world, it’s possible that we’re programming ourselves with this perception of busyness and reinforcing task stress and chaos around us. “I’m too busy right now,” is a state of mind that can contribute to a stressful or busy reality.
Now, the real question here is – what mental and emotional state are we bringing to our tasks? Are we making it easier for ourselves, or unwittingly, are we recreating more task stress? Increased stress or stress perception is the greatest enemy of productivity and can sabotage the time we do have through wastage and lack of mental focus, resulting in procrastination and thought fragmentation.
If we started with a different focus in our mindset, what would that do as far as making a difference to our productivity?
Six ways to create a less busy workflow
Think momentum over task. If we start our day with a primary goal to focus on creating positive momentum versus pushing through a busy task list, what impact might that have? Research tells us creating positive momentum is the best breeding ground for productivity and achieving increased outcomes. Here are six ways to achieve that practically.
- Rather than creating a task list to begin your day, think about working on things that support a positive momentum mindset. Then integrate those practices into your day. An example is changing your self-talk. Stop saying, “I’m too busy,” and start saying, “I always have time for the important things.” This is how you create a new reality.
- Build space into your day for regular breaks. Stop thinking you don’t have time to do this and push through without a break. Even though it may feel counterintuitive time-wise to take a break, it’s ultimately more productive momentum-wise to take breaks and you’ll likely boost your productivity.
- Negotiate deadlines. The biggest issue with big workloads is when you don’t negotiate deadlines or test when the real deadline is. In our culture of busy, we must practice breaking through the noise and asking the question – when does this need to get done, really? As soon as possible isn’t an acceptable answer. Once you’ve been given a definite deadline, it’s also important to communicate your ability to achieve the deadline. If it becomes apparent that you can’t deliver a project by its due date, let stakeholders know as soon as possible and let them know what you need (time away from other projects, resources, money, etc.) to achieve the deadline.
- Develop focus work zones and find spaces for block-out work. Increasingly, our days are taken over by admin and overhead tasks. Making space for deep work is critical if we want to work on meaningful work rather than busy work.
- Create healthy boundaries. This is a tough one, but if you truly want to become less busy and give yourself that essential breathing room, you need to manage relational expectations, balance your workload realistically, and stop creating ambitious task lists.
- Take deep breaths often.