STOP THE GLORIFICATION OF BUSY.

I often hear, “I am so busy that I don’t have time to breath,   I have no time, I am so full of work, I will have to stay back today, I work from home even on holiday,  My boss keeps me busy” etc. etc…. Have you ever observed the CEO, MD or even the PM of the company quoting the above statements!

And I feel like shouting aloud “STOP THE GLORIFICATION OF BUSY”. Such people are the most incapable people or are highly overloaded. There is solution for overload of work but treating incapability is a bigger issues and a bigger problem. During one of our training program on time management, our trainer had identified some of the late sitters of our organization and to our surprise she was able to identity as much as 50% of the their total time as being put into unproductive, repetitive and time wasters activities. Every assignment that you do has a set of productive and non-productive set activities. Idea is to identify the unproductive ones and reduce/remove/re-engineer them to optimize the time.

No work requires more than 8 hours of effective time. We tend to stretch our work to fit the time. It’s ok at time but a perpetual habit creates a work dent and eventually a he backlog. And that’s what keeps people busy and over occupied forever.

Few things can help to identify such people:

·        Check the internet/Desk phone(not the personal hand-set) log history after office hours

·        Whenever they say they are sooooo busy just ask them can we discuss what keeps you so busy. Let me help you.

·        For weekend workers- I will compensate the day off if you are able to give me list of things that you did and are productive. MIS making, documentation etc. etc. do not qualify as these can be a one- time activity.

I recommend the HOUSE-WIFE therapy for people who look forward to balance their work life. Being a working mom, I am working 24 X 7 either in office or at work. (24X7 because ever since my son was born my brain is occupied with things like “is he sleeping in right posture”, “did he wet the bed”, “are the pullovers on” etc.). But believe I am happy that I never use the term “busy”. I would rather say “I am little tied up”.

OK coming to the HOUSE WIFE therapy, few points to note:

·        She exactly knows what’s where and how much(grocery)

·        She knows what she needs to do the whole day(cleaning, dusting, shopping)

·        She does multi- tasking wherever possible(cooking, using washing machine and say ironing)

·        She has perfected the art of doing routine things and saves lot of time (keeping the masala/gravy for the whole week ready, chopping, cutting etc.). And mind it she does this in her spare time may be watching TV, talking to a girlfriend etc.

·        If she makes the pending list, she never keeps it for more than a week and ensure she closes all of them(reorganizing the almirah, dusting the store room )

And so many of them!

“BEING BUSY” is old fashioned. The new mantra is “BEING ENGAGED”.  A mother is never busy but always engaged and she is the back-bone of our family. Similarly if you engaged and not busy in your work you will not only enjoy but also become the most valued member of your organization. Let your work keep you growing than busy.

# the views are purely of personal experience of the author and does not reflect against anybody in particular