Are You Too Busy? Read this.

Please do us all a favour and Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are. We all do this too much these days.

Everyone is too busy.

The majority of what we do is waste time on things that ultimately don’t matter. We all could work a little smarter and plan our lives a little better. It’s not impossible.

Do you really think Jeff Bezos has more time in a day than you? Do you think Larry Page and Sergey Brin sleep much, much less than regular people and work more hours? Do you think the smartest CEOs, Entrepreneurs, and Leaders just work more hours than most people? Or is it something else?

Einstein Time

Einstein believed (and proved) that time isn’t absolute but relative. Which means an 8-hour task could eventually take you 20 minutes to complete with the proper practice. That means you can get a lot done in a small amount of time, to others a seemingly impossible amount accomplished. That’s pretty powerful if you think about it (read more about Einstein time here).

Successful people definitely do not get more done by sleeping less, sleep is very important to your body.

From Jim Collins’ (author of Built to Last, Good to Great, and Great by Choice) visionary companies are better off not having a “to-do” list but instead a “stop doing” list. Instead of trying to do more and more, why not for once do less. Identify what really matters and focus on that. Stop trying to be all things to all people and start being ok with not impressing everyone.  In life, it’s impossible to impress everyone, based on the bell curve, no matter what situation you’re going to have 20% of people who love you, 20% of people who hate you and 60% who are relatively indifferent. Stop caring about the bottom 20%.

If you want to get more done in your day, try focusing for an uninterrupted amount of time on something. Start with 10 minutes, then 20, then 30 minutes, work your way up to two hours and it’ll become natural.  Uninterrupted long moments of flow are when you get your best work done.

About Your Cell Phone

Why do you still have notifications on your phone on? Is anything really an emergency? Don’t you think people will call you if it’s actually important? If you still have e-mail notifications on your phone, have you ever asked yourself why? Is any email an emergency? Is a text message something you need to see respond to immediately? If not, then why do you need to be notified by your phone?

Once a week I don’t go on my laptop at all, one day a week I’m unconnected. It gives me a break, creates clarity in my week and allows me to appreciate being on my laptop more. Could you not open your laptop once a week? How would that affect your family? Your personal life? Your friends? Unplugging for a day could help you a lot, try it.

Stop Checking Your Phone

The most important reason for turning notifications off on your phone is that studies show you can’t multi-task. Every time your phone goes off it takes you away from what you were doing. This isn’t just affecting your work, it’s affecting your friends and your family. Every time you have to check your phone you’re telling the person you’re with that someone else is more important then them. A horrible message to send. Stop it.

Remember, there’s always someone busier than you who’s affecting more people than you. You’re not the only one in the world who’s doing a lot. Life’s about trying to get a lot done but managing your life so you never become “too busy”. Remember what Ghandi said “I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.” There’s no better time spent in a day than working on yourself.

 

 

 

Photo Credit: No thanks, I’m too busy to listen to you