Are you busy as a bee? Do you wear the word ‘busy’ like a badge of honour? Did you grow up hearing “the devil makes work for idle hands”? Is it difficult for you to sit down and do nothing both at work and at home?
You’re not alone. Many top professionals are diligent, industrious people who barely give themselves time to breathe, let alone think. They’ve been hardwired to fill every moment with doing, instead of thinking and being.
Yet the best ideas, innovations and business outcomes usually come when we pause to take a rest. That’s the way our operating system – our brain – actually works.
Even so, these chief executives and chief operating officers are absolutely exhausted – and so are their senior management teams. Personality-wise, most of these leaders have a strong drive and sense of responsibility to the team but struggle to switch gears during time away from the office.
RM Block
A study in Organization Science, an academic journal, found that many highly educated professionals strive for “optimal busyness” and then get hooked on the adrenaline rush it brings.
It is an approach that makes them feel energised and productive as well as in control of their time, researchers Ioana Lupu and Joonas Rokka found after conducting 146 interviews and reviewing more than 300 weekly diaries in two professional service firms.
One participant, Nicola, a partner at a firm said: “When I’m not that busy, I get frustrated. It becomes that you think, ‘Oh, I wish I had more to do to keep me going.’ You become a little bit bored I think, when you work so intensively for a period and then you have a bit of downtime, it’s, ‘Where’s the next thing going to come from?’
“You become a little bit of a junkie for a deadline and for work. It’s quite hard to switch off.”
These executives try exercise, meditation and yoga to still their minds. But their times of rest never seem to be restorative. Why? Because they constantly think about what’s next.
Rather than focusing their minds on the present moment – whether they’re on a park run or having a chat with their kids or partner – they are distracted. Their minds are set on all the work tasks or family admin that they haven’t done. Internally they feel anxious, guilty, worthless or like they’re letting people down.
From the outside though, they’ll seem preoccupied, unwilling to listen, self-absorbed or as if they just don’t care about the person they’re with in that moment. This is not a recipe for professional or personal success or happiness.
To-do list tyranny
Maybe, like many of your colleagues, you’re in love with your to-do list? Do you get a big rush of satisfaction every time you tick the box beside the task? Do you sometimes add something to the list just for the feeling of crossing it off? Does the number of items on the list mean more to you than the depth of the work? If something is not on the list – like walk, chat or hobby – do you feel bad doing it? You may be a victim of to-do list tyranny.
If the list has become a source of stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed because it is endless or poorly prioritised, then it has transformed from being a helpful organisational friend to a power-hungry ogre. The feeling that ‘if it’s not on the list, I shouldn’t do it’ creates guilt that makes life a relentless performance. It gives us the illusion of control and a sense of accomplishment in a chaotic environment.
Why are we so hard on ourselves? And where does this mindset come from?
Culture – our family, our nationality, our neighbourhood, our workplace – gives us an internal set of values that shapes how we see and navigate the world. It teaches us what’s good and bad and shows us the behaviours and attitudes we should develop.
Western culture values hard work, material success and status. Common phrases like “the early bird catches the worm” and “put your nose to the grindstone” emphasise vigilance and relentless productivity. And then, of course, there’s former taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s infamous catchphrase: “the people who get up early in the morning”.
In the business world, optimisation and efficiency are the buzz words and behaviours we strive to emulate to get ahead in our careers. But are we busy bees or busy fools?
Measure what matters
Optimisation is for machines, not humans. We need rest, leisure time, a space to do nothing to fully recharge our minds, bodies and souls.
The new year is the perfect time for this kind of reflection: what does success looks like at work? To you personally? Does this match where you’re focusing your time? Are you measuring and investing your time on the right things and people?
Working well should mean working more strategically, not longer hours. To become more strategic with time management at work, first examine what you’re working on and prioritise it. Is what you’re doing linked to the current strategy? If not, why are you doing it? What items on the to-do list should you stop doing?
Strategy should be your prioritisation filter. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll expend huge amounts of energy going nowhere. It’s a bit like having one foot nailed to the floor while you run around and around in a circle. Prioritise two or three items each day and get them done first.
[ How to talk openly about your mental health in the modern workplaceOpens in new window ]
Next, think about the success metrics you and the team are being measured on. If your top key performance indicator (KPI) is customer satisfaction but you don’t spend time speaking with your customers, then something is misaligned.
Once your key metrics align with strategy, you can think about your calendar. It might be chock-a-block, but is it full in the right way? Do you really need to be in all those meetings? Have you scheduled in blocks of thinking and planning time every week? Are you in charge of your own calendar or can others add meetings without your permission? Time to erase your calendar and start again in a strategic way.
Busyness is not a new thing. Roman stoic philosopher Seneca said: “There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.”
Learning to live well by being present, wise and content is extremely difficult. Busy people, despite being occupied with many tasks, are ironically the least engaged in true living, often getting lost in distractions and the pursuit of “busy” rather than meaningful existence. Don’t be one of them.
This year, give yourself the gift of boredom. Schedule time to allow your brain to wander. Avoid obsessively optimising your minutes and days and weeks. Make plans for doing nothing at all. Rest is not a moral failing, it’s a necessity.
Maybe the next time you think you’re busy as a bee, remember that worker bees die after only a few weeks or months. Time to take a rest and not feel guilty about it.
Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie
