Busy Does Not Mean Effective

An hourglass

We all have the same amount of time, but some of us use it more effectively. Why? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some of you may take offense or disagree with what I am about to say.  It is not my intention to cause controversy, but rather I think this group has proven that we are capable of having an adult conversation so I feel comfortable throwing out topics that may cause a little disagreement. 

In my twenty years of leadership I have learned a simple truth that has proven to have very few exceptions.  People that talk about how busy they are on a consistent basis, are generally not the most effective people in your organization.  The people who talk the most about being busy are generally the ones that are the most insecure about how little they are actually getting done.

A lot of times they are not necessarily unproductive because they are lazy (although I have seen a few cases that did involve laziness) but rather they are just unproductive.   There is motion and action, but very little actually gets accomplished.  I think there are a number of reasons for this:

  1.  They take on too much:  I know people who will not say no to any meeting request.  They will attend any meeting that they are invited to whether it is relevant to them or not.  I am not that guy.  I have no problem turning down meeting requests.  You may think that you are not high enough in the organization to engage in this sort of behavior, but I have made a career of turning down meeting requests.  If I am not sure if that I can add anything to a meeting or if a meeting is actually going to accomplish anything, then I tend to decline it.  If you spend all day in meetings, then you cannot be shocked when you are not accomplishing anything. 
  2. Failure to prioritize:  I have talked about this before, and will likely talk about it in the future.  If you just use a to-do list to determine what you are going to do, then you are never going to maximize your efficiency.  A to-do list is a great start, but it will not get the job the done.  You will gravitate to the easiest things to do on your list.  Very rarely are they the things that have the biggest payback.  They are not the task that will make you successful.  I keep a to-do list every day, but I prioritize that list.  I work first on the things that will make the biggest difference in my life.  Do the things that have the biggest payback first.  In many cases you will find that they are the ones that you least want to do. 
  3. Unrealistic self-expectations:   I am a pretty good estimator of how long it will take me to do certain things.  If anything I tend to error on the side of caution and estimate that a task may take a little longer than it actually does.  Not everyone has this gift.  I know people who regularly fail to estimate their time correctly and as a result they over promise things and take on way more work than they should.  As a result, they always feel stressed about the things that they have to do.  I don’t know if this is an issue for you or not, but I bet that you do. 
  4. They mistake action for effectiveness:  I know several people who I work with that I believe define themselves by how busy they are.  If they are busy, then they must be important and valuable to the organization.  None of my clients know how busy I am.  None of my clients know how busy anyone on my team is.  All of my clients know that we get results.  I am pretty sure that is what creates job security.  If I make my clients happy, and take care of my employees then I will consider myself a smashing success even if I am not running around like crazy each day. 

Without sounding too arrogant (I will let you be the judge of that), I can say that I am one of the most effective people I know.  I see a lot of people each and every day that are far busier than I, but not nearly as effective.  If you feel like you are extremely busy, but not actually accomplishing anything then I would try to focus on the four points I list above.  I am confident that you may be guilty of at least one of them.

What other reasons might busy people not necessarily be effective people?


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