What to do when you’re way too busy all the time
This article is for you if you find that you’re just busy as hell all the time; like you live with this sense that there’s always 40 hours worth of stuff to do within any one 24 hour period. This then leads to a sense of overwhelm, as well as a feeling of being constantly behind on everything.
Even though there’s so much to do, you ironically still end up wasting tons of time on internet browsing and whatever else until the work just can’t be delayed any further.
… And then when it can’t be delayed any further, you jump into a frenzied, super-productive state of getting the work done, but hectic, stressful, and NOT your best quality stuff. In the end, it’s enough to not get fired.
Is that you? Good! Let’s talk about how to step out of this chaotic loop of inactivity/hyperactivity and into something more balanced and in control.
Three ideas for you, as follows:
- Stop overcommitting.
- Close your open loops.
- Identify your most important work.
I’ll detail what I mean by each of these points. If you take this info and sincerely apply it to your own situation, I can guarantee you’ll take the intensity of your whole life down by like, 3 notches in very short time.
You’ll see what I mean.
ONE: Stop overcommitting.
We’re starting here because we need to plug the hole in the canoe before we start bailing out the water. In this case, the hole is our tendency to take on more work than we can actually do.
So let’s begin with a commitment to stop doing that.
The most basic way to become a productive person is by focusing on the connection between our word and our action. Every time we say that we’ll do something, and then do what we say we’ll do, then we increase self-integrity; self-trust. By contrast, whenever we fail to do as we say we’ll do, we disempower ourselves.
What we want here is to become skillful at assigning ourselves exactly the right amount of work that we can handle so that it’s neither too much nor too little.
Why do we over-commit? Perhaps it’s because we feel guilty, or that we’re not doing enough, or that “I have to do everything, because only I can do it right”.
When we take on too much work, we say “It’s a lot, but I can do it.” … only later do we discover our error.
Don’t get me wrong: The truth is that you CAN get more work done per day and become a more effective person, but for now let’s start where you are. Start with promises that you’re actually capable of keeping now, and then scale up once you’ve established a better track record of promise-keeping.
Final note on this — become skillful at saying ‘no’. Become comfortable with it. Recognize how respectful it is to you and them when you know your limits.
TWO: Close your Open Loops
Do you have so much that needs to get done, that it all coalesces into a big dark mass of “Shit To Do” that becomes too intimidating to even look at?
Let’s take a look.
What needs to get done? Take some time to create a full, exhaustive list of all the things that need to get done. This might be a big list. It might surprise you with how many things there are to do.
The term “open loop” refers to anything that hangs over our head as something undone that needs to be done. Chores, work tasks, around-the-house projects, doctor visits, anything else. The idea is to close the loops more quickly than we open them. As long as we’re doing that, then time is on our side, and we’re moving in the direction of organization.
When you run out of things to put on this list, start going through it to see how many items you can simply abandon! What things are kicking around in your mind that you have no actual intention of doing? See if you can let them go.
For the open loops that you DO intend to complete, put them in your schedule so that they have a fixed time to be done. Even if that’s next year. Or otherwise, just abandon the loop.
The idea is to stop growing this list and instead begin shrinking it. We want to get it down until it’s satisfactorily manageable. As you do this, you won’t believe the immaculate clarity and focus that will return to your mind as you are able to keep your focus on fewer and fewer priorities at one time. It’s a fantastic process.
So here’s where we’re at so far: we’ve ceased over-commitment which means that we’re no longer growing this list and falling further out of control. Second, we’re “turning on the lights in the basement” in order to truly look at the extent of all our open loops.
NOW we can create a process that will help us identify and focus on the most important stuff.
THREE: Identify your most important work
People usually don’t know what their greatest priorities are.
This is true even for people who have spent time figuring them out. We usually don’t know. Either the goal subtly changes over time, or we don’t go sufficiently deep into ourselves to figure out “the why behind the why”.
Yet it’s so important to have this figured out because when we know what our highest priorities are, then we know which way our compass is pointing.
This means: no more taking on endless time-wasting tasks; no more distractions; no more needless overwhelm generated as a procrastination device.
Thus is the importance of identifying our most important work.
How to identify your most important work? Just start by sitting with that very question and seeing what answer comes up for you.
You’ll likely find that this question cuts through tons of bullshit. It’s like how are you distracted in life? What are you wasting time on that’s not totally relevant to your highest actualization?
Other productive questions include:
- If you only had 3 more months to live, what would you do with that time? (The answer you give will point to what you value most.)
- If you were totally free of fear, what would you do? (Fear being what stops us from moving congruently forward toward our greatest vision.)
Spend some time with these questions, answer them completely, and then arrange your life so that you are taking action on your highest priority every day.
That’s all!
That’s the 3-step process to becoming a less busy person. As I was writing this, I realized that each one of these 3 points really should get its own article, so that's what I’ll do next. I’ll come back here and link the articles so that they can be more easily indexed.
Let me know if this helps, or if you need any other clarification. I’m around.
Brent
ps — If you need any actual 1–1 coaching support, I definitely suggest getting a session with me for just $5. You can learn more about that here.
