I've learned the hard way that busyness does not equal productivity.
The lesson came to me over a period of years when I had a small business as a newspaper distributor. Before you laugh, there can be lots of money in newspapers, people are hooked on them and, I found out, will get quite cranky if there's an issue with its delivery.
Anyway, the schedule was grueling, up at 1:00 am to deliver over 1,000 papers to subscriber's doorsteps in 'dry readable condition'. Once that was finished (at about 5 or 6 am) there was time for a tiny nap until the complaints started rolling in. We'd have until 10:00 am to run out and supply the 'missed' papers to customers who didn't get them in 'dry readable condition.' Then it was time to deliver the evening paper, which we had to pick up at 11:00 am and complete by 5:00 pm. Once again, customers who didn't get, you guessed it, a 'dry readable' paper called, and well, we were off again, delivering missed papers. That night, the cycle started all over again. Add to that a husband and two small kids and you begin to get a fuller picture of what my life was like.
Seven days per week, 365 days per year, we kept up that schedule.
What about vacations you ask. Ha! What vacations?
After total burnout and a bout with depression, I asked a few serious and personally important questions: is there a better way? Is there a way to do what needs to be done without killing myself in the process? Is there a way to have high success (and high income) without sending myself to the hospital or to an early coffin?
The answer is Yes! I'll share with you here the three most valuable keys to being productive without ever being busy. (As a matter of fact, when people call me and say "I'm sorry to bother you, I know you must be so busy..." I just smile to myself and think No, I'm not busy, I am engaged in productive activity. There's a big difference.)
Key #1: Employ leverage. I didn't learn about leverage until I was almost crazy, but it's never too late to make a change in the right direction. What's leverage? The easy answer is getting help to lift heavy loads.
Examples: a business owner employs leverage when hiring folks to do the multiple jobs associated with the business. A mom uses leverage when she makes the oldest kid look out for his/her little brothers and sisters.
How can you, in the working world employ leverage? One way is to get other folks to do non-essential stuff for you. I don't mean putting your work load on other folks, I mean hiring folks to do things. It might sound strange at first blush, and it did to me too, until I read Tim Ferriss' book, The 4-Hour Workweek. I was amazed to learn that employees can actually hire virtual assistants to do multiple tasks, including extensive spreadsheet analysis, creating business plans and/or any other labor and time intensive activity. If you consider that a virtual assistant in India may only cost $10/hour when compared to your own compensation, which may be quite a bit higher, it pays to get someone else to do some of your work for you. Of course, care is to be taken with company information and with what jobs you decide to hand over. Use your imagination with leverage and see where it gets you.
Key #2: Employ Systems. I was a financial advisor with American Express for several years, where one of the mantras was systems, systems, systems. Stop doing the same thing over and over. Never write the same letter twice. Never type the same e-mail twice. Never create the same type of report twice. Always, always, always employ systems. Systems are easy to set up. So why don't more people use them? The biggest complaint I hear is that it takes too much time to set up a new system. "I just don't have the time." Duh, you just don't have the time not to set up a system.
Here's the easy way to do it: the next time you're about to write a letter, or prepare a report or a spreadsheet, set up all the constants (info that always gets included) and do a quick save of that document as your template. Make templates for everything. Never start from scratch! I'll say it again, never start from scratch! The bold print means I'm yelling (-;
I'm the author of three books and I ALWAYS use a book template. I never face a blank page when I'm about to start a new book. The book template has in it everything except the guts I'm writing about in that particular book. It makes writing a book more of a breeze.
There's enough hard stuff in the world, make some stuff in your work life easy.
Key #3: Have a strong no. Most people do too much and are far busier than they need to be to fulfill the job requirements because they've taken on too much. Over-commitment is a disease that can be eradicated with a strong NO.
I can hear the whiners already, "But Val, I just can't turn people down..." or "Stuff just gets dumped on me..." or whatever else you're telling yourself about your propensity to over-commit.
The key to having a strong NO is developing a strong YES. Dr. King said it best, "The man who doesn't have anything to stand for will fall for anything." When we meet the day with a strong sense of what we want, with our core values and guiding principles clearly in mind and heart, when we've set a daily intention of what we will experience, when we set down on paper the 3 most important activities to be done that day and when we are focused on what we're doing and where we're going, no one gets in your way. No one strays into your office asking you to do random stuff.
The people who are too busy because they have over-committed are usually the same people who haven't fully committed to themselves. They don't know what they want, so they become a dumping ground for other people's stuff.
Say NO and mean it. Say it with a smile, say it compassionately, but definitely know when to say NO.
So there you have it, 3 of my keys to being productive without being busy. Get more done without breaking a sweat.
Life is grand, live it like you mean it.
Til next time,
Valerie Love
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