Always Being Busy is the Killer of Productivity

So guys, this is something that came in my mind recently as i am about to take on more roles in my professional life as well being at a cross roads in my life. I will eplain further about this in my next post. So for doing better in my life i want to make a point that i am in a kind of position where i am trying and testing a few new business ideas and opportunities to see that what i focus on now is a stable venture. This has resulted in working a lot over the past year, working 12 hours a day and seven days a week, and even i am not working but still i think of work.

The interesting part of this is when I speak to friends or family about how I'm doing with work. As soon as I say "everything’s going well, I'm really 'busy'". Every time it is met with a projection of praise and "oh that's good". After you've worked at the rate I have on multiple things, not taken a proper holiday in last 3 years and your social life has dropped off a cliff it gets you thinking if "busy" is really worth it.

Being busy and working

I am also considering myself in this. I am some crazy startup entrepreneur, I am saying I started a business I was incredibly passionate about a few years ago and I have done the same more recently in another venture. Both times I tell myself in order to be successful I must work all hours, I must do all the work myself and I must set crazy deadlines to get things accomplished. Whilst this works well to get things done, I am learning the end result is quite damaging.

If I compare my work performance of around a month ago to what I was like 3 years ago when things were a bit simpler I can see a clear difference. A month ago I was starting to struggle with getting up in the morning, simple tasks required for work took longer, I was getting distracted easily and just not really giving anything my undivided attention.

Looking back at this situation, even though it wasn't that long ago it was clear I was out of momentum. I just hadn't realised it yet.

When I realised everything needed to calm down

It was just a month ago I realised that working at a crazy rate wasn't getting me anywhere. I was on a business trip going to Africa of all places. The trip was to pitch to a new client that wanted my support. It was a hectic trip that involved creating the pitch deck on the plane, practising it that night and then presenting the day after. It was quite "busy" up until after the presentation. At that point I had a around a day to relax about everything and just enjoy the fact that I was in a 4 star hotel in Africa, next to the sea where the weather was incredible and the food was amazing.

It was only that day where I started to notice things. I had a lay in that day, got up and grabbed coffee, went to the restaurant and had breakfast outside and just chilled out. In the afternoon, as always, my thoughts about current business and new business started flooding back in but with one major difference. Certain road blocks that had been an issue for months was completely clear in my head now. I was able to think more logically about it and put a step by step plan on what I needed to do. Not only that, certain problems that were causing a huge stress and headache for me suddenly didn’t feel that bad and I was able to solve them. I t was so lucky for me which i never expected.

I started wondering what the hell was going on. How could I work all this out now? Was being in Africa the answer to all my issues?... Maybe not. The reality is that once I chilled out a bit and stopped working, I had the time and space to just sit back and look at it from a different perspective. It gave me the chance to remove my emotions from what I was working on and that changes everything. After returning back this has changed my work mindset and really made me think about my time out and time off. It was a trip that gave me a full positive power.

Since that point, I am now cutting work off in the evenings (bar a few Steemit posts but I enjoy that anyway) and I am getting back my weekends to do life stuff (again ignoring the Steemit post I am writing on a Sunday morning!). In fact after finishing this post I am watching some sports while doing NOTHING else and then going to a friends place. To top this off, whilst not booked yet, I am looking to book a late holiday for next August/ September time which is something that hasn't happened for over 3 years.

The point I am making is despite how fashionable and good it is to be busy these days in either a job or business, don't do it. You will 100% be worse off making yourself busy and will not get as much done. Give yourself chance to recharge, mentally re-stabilise and attack your objectives with a fresh mindset. I guarantee you it will make a huge difference. And you will succeed in whatever profession you are involved.

Summary
A few points to take on-board from this post

Busy isn't good or cool.
Take time off for space to think.
Set working hours and stick to them.
Have at least one full day off a week.
As a new business owner, if you can delegate or outsource, do it.