Are you busier than you ever have been before? The amount of information we consume and the content we produce have both climbed considerably. Much of the gain in our productivity stems from technology. The result is that we are busier, but we also feel busier due to an increase of distractions.
When you go out in public you can always see someone doing something on their phone. Each time, there is a delay in life when the phone emerges. There is a societal pressure to feel busy, and in addition to that comes stress, which gives you the feeling of being busier.
Most people seem to prefer the stimulation they receive from busyness. Their behavior and use of technology illustrates an addictive nature. Research shows that whenever these same people hear a notification, their brain gets an injection of dopamine. Dopamine plays a large role in reward-motivated behavior that is similar to what addictive drugs do. With individuals having this type of reaction, the use of technology has indeed become a serious addiction for some individuals.
The Good News and The Bad News
Email and other communication technologies are great, because they allow us real-time access to the entire world. This is good, but the last thing we need to do is to compact more into every waking moment. When people overload their time, the result is a lack of focus. Consequently, we think less and solve fewer problems. We are also less creative and get caught up in a cycle of inactivity, shifting from one task to another.
The result is a lower level of production. Ask yourself, how do you do less and remain more productive? The large industry of time management has given us many great systems. By managing time and being more organized, we can feel great about having a more productive day. Take the time to consider the bigger picture. Making urgent decisions does not lead to being more productive, but rather it leads to erratic behavior and poor decisions.
2 Ideas to Be More Productive and Less Busy
- Close down your email and mute notifications until you have tackled the toughest thing on your agenda. This is simple and easy to start. With procrastination, you are avoiding more difficult projects by finding other things to do like email, creating a list, organizing, planning, etc. You are not doing the important stuff. If you begin to do less important tasks first, your day will disappear and you will not become more productive.
- Throw out the to-do list. Yes, throw it out. Why? Because you will add more items than you can complete. You will most likely spend a longer amount of time managing the list than you will checking items off of it. I know you feel like you have achieved something when you cross off completed tasks, but all those small tasks do not equate to checking off your most important items, which may have been on hold for weeks or months.
Life does not always have to be reactive, because you always have choices. You can decide right now to slowly shift your behavior to become more productive and less busy. Reflect on what will make a real impact. Those are the things that pierce through the mold.
Challenging post, Kirby. I love to-do lists, so you have made me really think about my need for them. A huge problem that you’ve pointed out here is that people enjoy busyness. They feed off of it and are proud of it. This is the biggest problem with society, today.
I have “running TO-DO” lists, but they are digital in nature, and so it is easy to add new items by priority. I think this is key: really being able to keep the priority level straight on the list. This is melding between keeping that TO-DO list, and still applying Kirby’s advice on keeping the truly big stuff foremost and not worrying about the little stuff.
Adam and Erik,
The To-Do-List is pretty controversial. Some say keep it and some say toss it. To-do-list I feel was initially created to help remember items that are easily forgotten. It was not intended for larger priorities which you shouldn’t forget. Then along comes time-management and we use to-do-list to organize our lives. I currently use a to-do-list and I know I tell everyone to throw it away in this article. That is because I erased everything on my to-do-list several months ago. It was full of things that just were not getting done. It was growing out of proportion and hard to manage without taking away time from more important things. Two months later I started using it again and I was more selective about what I captured with it. I’m still developing my own rules for the to-do-list. Today it is much more manageable and doesn’t occupy my day. So I think maybe throwing it away and not having one for some time is a pretty healthy thing. I might just reset my to-do-list each year and start over fresh.
Kirby
Thanks for this Kirby. My To-do-list needs a reset too. I like the idea of re-evaluating priorities & taking off stuff of lesser importance. It sounds like it’s all about working smarter and not harder–Something I’m striving for, but haven’t fully figured out yet 🙂
Given the opportunity, you might have guessed which part of this very important post stood out most to me: “Life does not always have to be reactive, because you always have choices.” This is the theme of my life, speaking, book and blog: “You always have a choice.” I run into “busy” and stressed-out people all the time, wherever I’ve spoken or just out in life, who truly believe that busyness is happening to them or that stress is happening to them. They seem shocked, confused (or even defensive) when I suggest that they are choosing that frantic pace or that stress. But after about two minutes of asking good questions, they realize it’s absolutely true. And it isn’t a punishment or accusation – it’s knowledge that leads to freedom and regaining control. Busyness and stress have no victims. We choose them … or we don’t.
Great points Erik. I believe when I was a scatterbrained adolescent that I realized the lessons you are pointing out. The super power that I wanted most back then was speed like the Flash. I could get more done lighting fast. Too many things to accomplish, too many people to meet and life was too short. Stephen Covey’s books made me think and slow down. Life isn’t short, you don’t have to chase the next big thing. Focusing on the right things gives us more enjoyment out of life. When you deeply focus on a few things, you do them really well and make a significant impact improving the lives of your community, your family and yourself.