Sometimes life can get busy. When you ask someone how their day is going, the proverbial answer is “I’m really busy!” I know I am just as guilty and have said that many times when asked how I am.
Busy is good in many instances, but busy can also be a complete waste of time, completely overwhelming and a road to know-where. Think about your last ‘busy” day – how productive were you? Were you doing the tasks and actions that were completely focused on your business/life goals or were you busy just being busy?
If you are sick of suffering from busynessitis then keep reading. Here are some tips on how to curb the feeling of being rushed and overwhelmed, to stop your day from turning into another round on the hamster wheel. Let’s get back to basics!
Tip #1 – Prioritise
The moment of truth – Whether we like it or not, we cannot do everything at once and be successful at everything at the same time. Some thing(s) will always get left behind. To prevent that disappointment, select key priorities in your life and or business and keep them as your most important priorities. You may have 2 or 3 key activities that have been chosen to move your life or business forward. Put these priorities above everything else.
“When you have too many top priorities, you effectively have no top priorities.” Stephen Covey
Tip # 2 – Learn to say “no”
Colleagues, business partners, customers, suppliers… the list goes on of people that all want your attention during the day. The aim is to keep everyone happy, but how often do you overlook and jeopardise your own needs to satisfy someone else’s? If you are able to help someone immediately, that is great, but often it is not always possible. Here is a line you can use. Please say after me. “I am terribly sorry, I cannot help you right at this moment, however I can assist you at this (fill in the time) time.”
This way, you are able to control your time and activities, which brings me to the next tip.
“There are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don’t really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the difference is a major milestone in the simplification process.” Elaine St. James
Tip # 3 – Time management
I have heard many people joke about wanting more hours in the day to complete their tasks. Luckily, this is not an option. Guaranteed people would not get better at time management, they would just find more tasks to fill their days and stay “busy”.
It’s not the time we need to manage, it’s the task selection and number of tasks we jam into our calendars that we need to control.
Figure out when your day starts and ends, and set work time boundaries. Then slot in your key priorities and tasks for the week/month. This way you are able to structure your movements for the week/month. Yes, there will be times where you need to be flexible, but at least you can be in control of how many tasks are assigned to each day.
“Time is what we want most, but what we spend worst.” – William Penn
Tip #4 – Set targets
Targets help us recognise when we have achieved a goal. Without targets or measurements we never know how well we are doing or how big the gap is. Setting short, medium and long targets will also help you with planning your week and months activities.
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” —Bill Copeland
TIP #5 – Scheduled down time
One of the downfalls to becoming overwhelmed and “busy” is the lack of down time, or rest and recovery periods. Trying to do too much without a break is a recipe for disaster. So while you are scheduling in your daily and weekly tasks, also schedule in your exercise and rest periods.
Sometimes you just need to stop, step-back, gather yourself and take the time to recover. Then resume the work with a fresh set of eyes.
”A day without a nap is like a cupcake without frosting.” – Terri Guillemets
Nicole is a certified professional coach as well as a certified trainer, advanced assessor and coach mentor. Based in Auckland, she provides a range of coaching options, from individual business owner and management coaching, group and team coaching workshops to personal coaching. Her coaching practice is aligned to the ICF ethos and ethics. Need to hire a professional coach? Contact Nicole
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