Month: August 2020

Being Busy

Why do people always feel the need to play up their busyness, saying or pretending your busy all the time is not sharing anything of value. When you constantly wear the “busy bee” badge your really just showing the world that your not making very good choices with your time. Being busy is a passive excuse for not getting things done.

Work on being available, make it seem like your available, it sends the message that your available for new opportunities. Good, smart people make time and prioritize for themselves or what others prioritize for them. I don’t know one successful person who does not understand the value and importance of a “to do list”. Your to do list helps you prioritize what is important to you. Fill your days with what is important to you professionally and personally.

If you want to be successful and succeed at your craft the best way to reach your goals and objectives is to write down what your going to do each day and then do it. I believe the first 5-10 minutes of the start and finish of each day is most important to being really productive. Notice I flipped the word from busy to productive. How many other words can think of that mean busy: productive, active, bustling, thriving, engaged, brisk, lively. Think about how many times you ask people how they are and the answer is busy, very busy, crazy busy. Busy doing why? If you really want to be the best you need to take a look at what your busy at.

Try this exercise, it works, for two weeks from Monday to Friday diarize everything you do, from the time you wake up until you go bed. You can do this, I did and I’m not brilliant by any stretch. You will be amazed at what you do in a day. Let me give you an example of one of my days.
Woke up 5 am.
5am      Coffee, read, review to do list
6am      Walk dog, shower, eat breakfast
7:30am Talk to industry friend
8am      Office: calls, association call, TCA call, Transrep call answer emails
12pm    Home for lunch, more emails, Instagram, Twitter back to office
1:30pm KRTS sales calls, follow up on business opportunity with X. Calls with personal friend, call with existing customer.
3:30pm Walk along river back to office
4pm      Team meeting to review proposal
4:45pm Prepare to do list for tomorrow
5pm      Prep dinner, dishes, family time
7:30pm Watch hockey game, social media time
10pm    Go to bed

Now break your time down, work time approximately 8.5 (productive work time) family and personal time 5.5. TV time 2.5 hours, totalling 16.5 hours. Do this for a week and then total up your weekly time. You will be amazed (or not) at what you are getting accomplished. This breakdown of your time will help you decide where you can improve your time management and truly stay busy, I mean productive.

I am often asked how I am able to do what I do, be involved in so many things and manage. For me, work and life balance is important and time management is critical to my success. A terrific support team both professionally and personally is critical to the recipe as well. I am very fortunate in both cases. Without a doubt managing your time and your daily to do list is paramount. Want to learn more about being busy, time management and life lessons learned? I have committed to sharing this information with companies, groups and organizations in a presentation. I am happy to speak with your team, your company, your association either on a webinar or at your conference or board room. Give me a call or drop me a note via email if your interested to learn more.

I can’t believe it’s coming to the end of the summer. For me that means fall fishing in the far north, 1 week unplugged, no phones, no emails, no work and definitely no to do list!
This is important to success as well, relaxing and recharging the batteries.

Enjoy the rest of our summer.