Productivity for Entrepreneurs: Are You Too Busy For This?

Recently, I was driving my daughter home from preschool and we were arguing about what music to listen to. While her children’s music can be sweet and cute, after 500 times of listening to the same CD, you too would put up a bit of a protest when she requested listening to the same song over and over again. (In fact I think I still have the words of “Free To Be You and Me” running around in my head 7 years after my son was obsessed with that CD.)

Arguing with a 4 year old is not a fair fight. The reason is that most children have so little control over choices in their everyday life, (parents choose their food, their schedule, their school, occasionally their clothes…) that when it comes to asserting themselves in a battle they think they can win – they will fight harder and longer than you are willing to.

This exchange got me to thinking that as adults, when have we tricked ourselves into believing we have no control over our lives?

WHAT?!? Of course we control our own lives. We control our own destiny right? Many of you might believe that but do you act that way?

As a coach, I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard from clients, “I know that I need coaching (or better time management skills or another employee), but I don’t even have enough time to deal with that right now.”  Basically, we’ve convinced ourselves that we are so busy in the present, that we don’t have enough time to invest in a more satisfying future.

This is the kind of situation you always see famously depicted in movies and books with dying workaholics and is embedded in inane questions like “Will this matter when you are on your deathbed?” The reality is that happily most of us are not on our deathbed and don’t anticipate being there for quite some time. So the relevant question is, how do you make time for what really matters when there is so much else pressing on you, demanding your time?

The secret, it seems to me, lies in recognizing who is really in control. In my daughter’s case, yes – ultimately I am more powerful in any situation that really matters to me. And so the answer I suspect is that you also are ultimately in control where it really matters.

The honest truth is when you feel too busy to make time for date nights with your spouse, for calling your grandma, or for getting to sleep before midnight – you are CHOOSING to prioritize something else over those things.

So the operative question here then is: are you making the choices that you want to be making (i.e., the ones that are aligned with your values)?

If you recognize yourself in this situation, where you don’t feel in control of the busyness of your life, I recommend the following self-awareness exercise which you can do over the next 2 weeks.

Note: Keep in mind that even if you don’t do this perfectly – you can still get great learnings from this exercise.

Week 1:
Use a piece of notebook paper, computer file, or note keeping app that you can keep with you during your day.
1) Stop twice a day and note what you did during the past time period.  For example you might notate: emailed customers, emailed contractors, had lunch with my friend.

2) At the end of the day rate your overall stress level during the day on a scale of 1-10.

3) Then rate your overall happiness during the day on a scale of 1-10.

Week 2:
Use a piece of notebook paper, computer file, or note keeping app that you can keep with you during your day.
1) At the beginning of each day: write at the top of your paper/file one thing that feels very important for you to accomplish that day. Try to find the most important thing for you to do that day if you can (this could be work or personal).
2) Stop twice during the day and note in shorthand what you did during the past time period. For example you might notate: emailed customers, emailed contractors, had lunch with my friend.
3) At the end of the day rate your overall stress level during the day on a scale of 1-10.
4) Then rate your overall happiness during the day on a scale of 1-10.

Wrap Up:

At the end of week 2 – compare your results from Week 1 and Week 2. What did you learn? Leave me a comment below about whether you are willing to take on this reflection.  And if you do – please let me know how it went!

I’m betting if you are like most of my clients, you will be shocked by the power that just a small amount of awareness and intentionality can have to change the tenor of your days from too busy to . . .?