Sunday, February 14, 2010

Busy or Effective?

It annoys me when I ask people and *cough* friends how is work and they reply "busy".


Busy...?  So...? If you weren't busy you would have been made redundant. No employer is going to hire you if you have no workload.

When I ask how is work, I want to know what projects you are working on, if you are enjoying it, how your collegues are etc. I'm not shallow in that I ask how is work like I ask how are you.


People are so obsessed with saying how busy they are and how the organisation will crumble without them.  People even compete to see who is the more busier!  "...I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The winner is the person who has the most insane schedule, who rushes from one thing to the next with the energy of a hummingbird, because obviously that means he’s the most successful and important..."

"...Maybe we’re playing the wrong game — we’ve been conditioned to believe that busier is better, but actually the speed of doing is not as important as what we focus on doing...".  How about being more productive? Try being more organised. Enjoy work, take the time to realise what you are doing, work on improving it.  


Photos:
1. http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cza0844l.jpg
2. http://zenhabits.net/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree on this topic, but am sometimes guilty of it.

This is especially more evident when I speak to a colleague at work. It's like we are competing to sound busier than them! (Could this be a sign of tall poppy syndrome?) But sometimes I believe we do that as an excuse for the procrastination that is to come (i.e. if I don't get to the work you've asked me to do on time, I have a reason for it - I'm busier than you!)

If it's friends outside work, I'd say, "Same shit, different day!" But that wouldn't sound "glass-half-full", would it?

Denise Duffield-Thomas said...

I never ever say I'm busy - because I've designed my life to be exactly how I want it. I choose how many clients I have, what events I go to and how much I work.

It's awesome being able to go to the movies in the middle of the day! And, sometimes working til midnight doesn't feel like a chore because I'm doing what I want to do.

My pet hate is people who say "I just can't relax on holiday, I get bored!".