This Business of “busy-ness”

In South Africa we have developed a new way of greeting each other we say the obligatory “hello’s” and “how are you’s” and we have now added a third question, “are you busy?”

Recently when I was being asked this question, I found myself nodding and responding enthusiastically that I was indeed very, very busy.   Life is hectically busy.  Then I stopped and thought “what is this busy-ness really all about?”  In our society and business lives we are starting to wear busy-ness like a status symbol, like a label of our importance, our right to exist in the world.

We are living in a time that is obsessed with achievement, productivity and getting things done yesterday.  We have communication bombarding us through a myriad of channels – emails, sms, faxes, phone calls, meetings, media.  Colossal amounts of content are vying for our attention; the quantity is increasing every day but is it really improving the QUALITY of our lives?

How much of our busy-ness is noise and distraction rather than meaningful interaction?

A huge building in Johannesburg is now wallpapered with an advertisement for a Blackberry that proclaims “Now your email can find you anywhere in the world.” Yet, instead of jumping with glee at the thought of this new technological advancement, I shrink back in horror – what if I don’t want to be connected 24 hours a day to my email?

All of these realizations have caused me to start examining my own life and my work.  I have begun to understand that my busy-ness is not effective and just leads to me being overwhelmed, stressed-out and unpleasant with the people in my life.  In conversations with people, there is often a subtext of busy-ness going on in the back of my mind that actually stops me from actually being where I am and enjoying the moment.  I get so consumed with my own busy-ness that I forget what is important – like time spent with loved ones, doing things that I enjoy or just stopping and admiring nature.

As a Fairy Godmother I help people and companies get clear on their dreams, goals and vision and in my work I find that we are so busy with our projects, plans and palm pilots that there is no time in our lives for reflection on what we really want or what is actually important, our dreams and goals. We attend to what is in front of us, not what is within us.

A few weeks ago I took a stand to move OUT of busy-ness and into quality of life – which includes time for reflection, time for me and dedicating quality time to the things that are going to further my dreams and goals.  I have now opted to do the things that are important to me rather than the things that are urgent.  I have started to take a few key actions in this regard that are miraculously transforming my life and the results have been amazing.  Here are the steps I have taken

1.    Stop being a slave to your email.   Constantly checking email is a huge time waster.  I have recently put an auto-responder onto my email which politely says that I only check email once per day at 3pm and if someone has an urgent enquiry they can call me.   It takes me about an hour to go through all my emails one a day and respond to the things that require my attention, rather than being distracted throughout the day by my inbox.  (To see how it works send me an email – donna@fairygodmotherinc.com)

2.    Write down every morning the two key actions that you can take that will move you one step further to your goal.   Then do those two key actions first.   Suddenly you are doing what’s important rather than being in reaction and responding to what’s urgent

3.    For a few hours each day, turn your phone off. A few hours of uninterrupted work time or family time is a huge relief to the system.   The reason why voicemail exists is so that people can leave messages.

4.    Start scheduling into your week things that you love to do, the things that make your soul light up.  It may be a massage, a walk on the beach, a glass of wine, a chat with a friend, some exercise.    By adding quality moments into your week, life becomes much more rewarding.

Taking these four simple steps above has allowed me to feel liberated and the results that are being produced in my business and my life are incredible.  Letting go of busy-ness and staying in inspiration and vision is bringing me a whole new level of success.   I feel like I am truly living and am aware of the beauty and texture of life rather than being caught in the overwhelming hamster wheel of busy-ness.