Do you feel like you are busy all day? Seth Godin commented on modern procrastination:
“Honey, how was your day?”
“Oh, I was busy, incredibly busy.”
“I get that you were busy. But did you do anything important?”
Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered.
He states that it is incredibly easy for knowledge workers to be busy because there are so many interesting distractions. We can do any number of things that feel like work, but are really just keeping us busy, such as responding to email. Knowledge workers know that there is always email to respond to; it never stops. However, is this busy work really providing value?
This reminds me of Stephen Covey’s Time Matrix from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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I came across some blogger who said she was going crazy with all sorts of work, but someone told her to sit down and make a list of the top ten things which were important to her. Then make another list of the top ten things she spent her time on.
Surprise surprise, coaching the junior high cheerleading squad took up TONS of time but was nowhere near her top ten, while spending time with her daughter was #1 in importance but only barely in the top ten for time. She quit coaching and rearranged her priorities and now she can dedicate more time to the things she loves.
I don’t think this is perfectly foolproof – most people spend more time at work than they really want to – but it did really make me think. It’s part of the reason I’ve all but quit the search dog team – as much as I loved it, it was just too big a time (and emotional) investment for the benefit I was getting. I also quit the church activities which really weren’t enriching my life and weren’t enriching anyone else’s lives either.
I have fewer commitments now, which I really like, and the commitments I do have are pretty nebulous – fewer deadlines, okay if I miss a week, and more flexible scales of success. I like it that way. Would I go back to the old nine-to-five grind? Yes, if I had to (I may yet) – but at least now I’ll have an easier time keeping my time use in perspective.
I believe that is an important activity to undertake periodically. Every so often, everyone should evaluate their commitments and make sure that they align with their priorities. If they do not, then something has to change.
I think that this is something that I should do. Maybe then, I will be able to let some things go that have consumed my life!
It is a good exercise to go through.
I’m not entirely sure that e-mail isn’t necessarily important, but I will agree that it depends on the job. Part of my job is to communicate to the customer any technical issues that we’re having, which means I spend the better part of my day passing e-mails back and forth with the customer. I think that that’s an important part of my job, not just busy work. That being said, there’s also another pile of e-mail that I respond to or read that I absolutely agree is busy e-mail. It just depends on the job you’re in as to what is “busy” and what is “important”.
Well, yes, if your job requires you to keep in constant contact with your customer, then email is important. For me, though, answering email means that I am not solving problems. It depends on the job.
I concur, but the big thing here is that one person’s busywork is going to be another’s important work, and vice versa.
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