This situation is an epidemic, unique to our age. Richard Swensen accurately described it in his book, Margin:
“The spontaneous tendency of our culture is to inexorably add detail to our lives: one more option, one more problem, one more commitment, one more expectation, one more purchase, one more debt, one more change, one more job, one more decision. We must now deal with more ‘things per person’ than at any other time in history.”
There are several problems with being too busy. Here’s a couple of the big ones:
1. We open ourselves up to allowing activity to crowd out contemplation.
In other words, we spend so much time doing, that we have little to invest in thinking about what we’re doing – whether this thing is really worth our time and energy.
Activity becomes addictive and we become automatons, forever pursuing the satisfaction of accomplishment but rarely assessing the value of that accomplishment. We do it because it’s there, not because we have decided to do it. Intentionality suffers as activity prospers.
We run the risk of living a busy life, but being busy with the wrong things. What if all these things we’re busy with really weren’t worth it? And we never saw it?
2. Mindless activity keeps us from achieving our potential.
When we do too much of the good stuff, we find ourselves rarely doing any of the best stuff. And, since we don’t invest our time where it will get the best results or use our best gifts and talents, we settle for mediocrity as a result.
Ned, the best manager I ever had, said this to me: “I’m at my best, doing my best work, when I am not needed in the office. When I can shut the door and have no one need me, I can have my best impact on the business.”
I’ve found that bit of wisdom to be true. While there is a time and place to be assessable and engaged in the business, you’ll never reach your potential nor your business’s potential unless you invest in working on the business, not in the business.
Activity keeps us focused on what is, while the more effective introspection, vision-casting focuses on what could be. We generally come closer to achieving our potential, and the potential of our businesses, when we have a vision of what we could be an strive to attain that vision. We’ll never achieve what could be if we are too invested in what is.
How to Overcome:
