As a continuation from my previous thoughts on the HABIT of “being busy”, I believe there are a couple of things that contribute to this habit but I will speak to 3 that have affected me most:

1. The tendency to say yes and taking on too much, and overcommitting. I’m guilty of this, as are most of us. I’ve been working to change it because it hurts my mission and the people around me. Sometimes it’s because we just have a hard time saying no — we’re worried what will happen if we don’t say yes – I call it the people-pleasing chasm. It hurts us – Commit to less but be more committed.
2. Overcomplicating the task and anything meaningful. Most of the time, we actually overcomplicate simple tasks that would otherwise have actually taken us less time to accomplish. Because there’s a deadline, we tend to try and focus on the task at hand never do anything else even if that other task is more meaningful.
3. We procrastinate on complex tasks. I believe procrastination is the mother of all time-wasting and sad thing is, we keep ourselves busy so that we don’t have to focus on the complex, high-impact tasks. We procrastinate! So we do busywork and stay in the habit of always rushing, so that we don’t have to feel the fear of doing hard, complex tasks. There are a number of remedies to our usual habits, but the idea is to not let ourselves engage in our usual habits, we have to intentionally shift them.

So here are 3 remedies that I personally use:

1. Prioritize high-impact tasks. Instead of rushing around doing small tasks and responding and doing busywork, focus on the tasks that actually matter. Apply the 80-20 rule. 80% of your results will be achieved from 20% of the most important tasks you prioritize and focus on. So the habit is to find those high-impact tasks and engage yourself in those tasks most of the time, like 80% of the time, if possible.
2. Focus on one small task at a time. As humans, we can only really do one task at a time. And yet, our minds are always wondering about the many other tasks that we’re not doing right now. This eventually leads to procrastination and “busyness” while achieving nothing in many cases. And remember to always use KISSES – Keep it Simple Smart Enjoyable Standard!
3. Let go of poor time management. Time management in itself has nothing to do with the actual managing of time BUT the art of prioritization of key tasks. One of the ways to this is to get yourself a notepad or iPad or notepaper whatever works for you. I personally have a to-do list on my phone and a great calendar. Everything I do or plan to do is both on my calendar and a to-do list. I set reminders and dates on every task and when I complete every task, I celebrate my small wins.

It gets easier with practice, of course. But in the beginning, it’s as hard as a discipline you ever came across. Do this for 21 days and it will become an uphill habit for your uphill goals – Be intentional about “not being busy”.