So one week back into the new working year, it has become so clear to me that we have glorified the frantic feeling of “getting things done.”
Emails have been sent.
Items have been ticked off lists.
Crises have been averted.
Busy, busy, frantic, busy.
So busy we don’t have time for lunch. Or thought. Or big ideas. Or planning. Or dreaming.
Or ourselves.
Over the Christmas period I spent two weeks away skiing, with limited access to email and internet. It was two weeks where time meant absolutely nothing, and ideas and plans flourished. I had great ideas that I was so excited to come back and get started. Yet on my return I lost myself in the busy-ness of work and life and that saddens me.
In the frantic-ness of busy are we really doing the best for the people our business is serving? Are we making decisions that are right strategically rather than reactively? Are we making time for what is important to us, rather than what is deemed important by colleagues, bosses and others?
Perhaps we need to change the metric of a successful day at the office. It shouldn’t be about how many meetings we had or how many emails we sent, but rather what impact did we make to the people we are there to serve.
I think it is time to stop glorifying busy.
Let’s start celebrating clarity and simplicity and meaningful change to those around us. Let’s start focusing on making space and time for thinking, dreaming and then taking meaningful action.