Busy is a choice

How often do you find yourself running around the office trying to get everything done and finding that there are simply not enough hours in the day?

Emails continue to pile up, you went to a meeting over lunch, and you’re taking your laptop home over the weekend once again to finish a report you didn’t have time to complete on Friday. 

You’re busy.

But I want to remind you of a sneaky revelation: You’re busy because you chose to be busy.

Busy is a choice. It’s a conscious decision.

Allowing yourself to be easily distracted is a choice.

Responding to email is a choice.

An immediate reply that text message or gchat is a choice. 

Reacting to a colleague’s request is a choice. 

You may argue that it’s not always your choice. Maybe you’re the lowest rung of the ladder. Maybe you’re expected to do the day-to-day fire fighting. Maybe you work for a manager who has come to expect immediate action on all her requests.

Don’t fool yourself. No matter the request, no matter the medium, no matter who’s asking – your response is a choice.

Control what deserves your time and attention.

Control what deserves your time and attention. Don’t let others decide for you. Focus on the present moment. Choose to complete the task you started. Until another project moves higher in your list of priorities, ignore everything else and divert all energy and attention to the task at hand. 

In the pursuit of getting things done the name of the game is focus.

Eliminating the unimportant: An anecdotal lesson from Warren Buffett

Mike Flint was Warren Buffett’s personal airplane pilot for 10 years.

One day, while talking about career priorities, Buffett asked Flint to write down his 25 career goals. Then Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals. 

At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled  and the 20 items he had not.

Thinking he understood Buffett’s simple message on narrowing his list of priorities, Flint confirmed that he would start working on his top 5 goals right away, upon which Buffett responded, “And what about the ones you didn’t circle?”

Flint replied, “Well, the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”

To which Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”

Focus on the few

Do you know what your top 5 priorities at work are right now? Are you clear about what would define a successful week for you? 

Too many of us float through the week on an adrenaline high fed by staying busy. We run around answering every email, jumping at every request, scared to say “no” out of a misconstrued notion of what it means to be a team player. 

Effective leaders acknowledge that busy is choice. 

According to Peter Drucker, author of The Effective Executive, top performers refuse to get bogged down with the daily flow of events and stay clear on their contribution and results.

Effective executives focus on those few things that produce the greatest results and ignore everything else. They don’t react to the work in front of them and they don’t react to distractions. They choose their agenda and focus on business priorities.

Strategies to Minimize Distraction

If it’s not already the culture of your company, encourage team members to leave laptops at their desk for your next meeting. Phones should stay silenced and upside down on the table.

Consider checking email at specific times throughout the day. Cut down on the amount of emails you send and I guarantee that your number of emails you receive will decline as well.

Think twice before you agree to do something for a colleague. Question if it’s really deserving of your precious time and attention. Decline requests with tact. Explain why you will not be able to help at the moment, but offer to refer them elsewhere for assistance or suggest that you could revisit helping in the future once it better aligns with your work priorities.

Be an effective team player. Know the business needs. Prepare to communicate why the work you’re doing is a priority to your manager, your directs, and to yourself. Above all, remember that you, and only you, are in control of your time, energy, and focus. 

At the end of the day, if you strive to be an effective team member who knows how to get results, then step one is acknowledging that busy is a choice.

On the path to effective leadership you would be wiser to choose focus.