Productivity Arata! It is important that you know the difference between the real work you need to do and the complementary work that keeps you busy.
For example, imagine that you are a sales manager for your company. Your real job is to sell more, to increase the amount of revenue the company generates. If you are a professional in charge of developing new products, creating new lines or producing new solutions is your real job. What is not real work in both cases is participating in bureaucratic meetings, replying to emails, answering phone calls and performing small tasks that ultimately do not contribute directly to the bottom line.
We are busy making ourselves busy. The problem is that in this harried lifestyle, we simply don’t know how to say no to people. The sad part of the story is that running has become the new normal. Everyone is on the run.
1. Invisible emotional benefits of being on the run
You know this kind of conversation…
– Hi how are you?
– I’m always on the run. I can never do all the things I need to, and no matter how much work I finish, more work appears!
It seems that being busy is like a badge of honour. We talk about how little we sleep and how hard we work as if we expect admiration because we are a highly productive machine. There are emotional issues lurking behind this attitude.
The rush serves to create walls that prevent the possibility of closer connections between us and others. On an unconscious level, we are trying to impress people saying that we are important, busy people, doing great things. It is as if we were martyrs in a society that is asking too much of us. We are sacrificing ourselves to accomplish something great.
On the other hand, the rush also puts us in a state of anxiety. We feel guilty that we are never good enough. We are overwhelmed, exhausted and on the verge of collapse.
2. Invisible emotional problems of being on the run
In some cases, we are running from emotional connection and vulnerability. We are not humble enough to recognize our limits.
Running also shows that we have not learned to delegate. The art of delegating properly is a necessary skill for professionals who want to perform management functions. You will never be a good director, a good executive, a good manager or a good president in your company if you can’t work as part of a team, if you don’t know how to empower your employees, and train, supervise and delegate. The Productivity Ninja course lesson number 20 is will teach you how to create your clan of ninjas and to have several people working with quality alongside you.
Here’s a bit of brutal honesty: being constantly in a rush shows that you are not managing your time properly. You may be wasting a lot of time doing activities that have little value. Or worse, wasting time with distractions. Maybe your running has nothing to do with efficiency but rather with not having the skills to do your job quickly and with quality.
Worse, your rush reveals a lack of ability to say no.
The person who is on the run is also suffering from a lack of long-term vision, forgetting the value of rest and relaxation for renewal of energy. So the day of collapse should come as no surprise—this chronic stress was an obvious sign; we cannot run forever without having health problems.
Many people use computers and smartphones as a way to remain permanently occupied, because they don’t know how to behave in a quiet moment. They’re unprepared to be mindful and living in the present moment with peace of mind.
The ideal use of technology is to save time and to enjoy the free time. This is the motto of Productivity Ninja: do more and do better in less time, and enjoy the free time.
The wrong use of technology and wrong ideas of productivity means that we are even more busy and trying to fill all our time.
This lifestyle is like quicksand: the more we move, the faster we sink. When we claim to be on the run, we suggest that we are in high demand. By always running, we are taking care of small fires without thinking about the greater purpose in what we really want for the future. We are rarely present in the moment.
3. If you are a leader always on the run, you’re not leading.
Many leaders end up alienating their own teams because of this.
They feel isolated. Or rather, they feel surrounded by incompetent people.
The executive who lives in the rush thinks he or she is the only person who can solve the major problems and therefore does not trust the rest of the team.
What is the message they’re sending? The team as a whole cannot do anything right.
The worst answer you can give to your subordinates is that everything is for yesterday. It is impossible to travel in time and do something yesterday. You as a leader have the obligation and responsibility to set priorities and work alongside your team. If your employees say they are already busy with a task, and you delegate a new activity, you need to clarify what items need to be completed first. Never say that everything is urgent. This only confuses your team and will alienate your best employees, who will fall out and look for another job where they are respected. The result is that you will become increasingly isolated and overwhelmed. Therefore, do not freak out because of being in a hurry. This is not the attitude that is expected of a leader.
In the advanced Productivity Ninja course, you have a complete training programme to be fully productive, physically and emotionally connected, with mental precision and aligned purpose.
Please note: if you come to a point where you cannot even take care of yourself— if you feel that you have no time to define your priorities, to take care of your health, if you’re always having emotional crises, difficulty focusing or you can’t find the purpose behind your work—this is a serious situation that must be remedied immediately. The more time passes without addressing these issues, the more you sink into quicksand. You can now visit the link here to stop living on the run.