Is Busyness Affecting Your Business?

I'm too busy; I'd love to but I'm very busy; I'll get round to that when I'm not so busy.

How often have you said any of those phrases? How many times a week do you hear someone else say those phrases? They're very common and busyness seems to have become a way of life for many people.

I've just finished writing my first ebook called Take Control of Your Time and when I was doing some research two of the most common problems people said they faced were too many priorities and too busy to plan and take time for themselves.

So why is that? What is it about being busy that seems to dominate our lives? We moan about it and spend time trying to figure out why. In Japanese the word busy when translated literally means "dead-hearted".

So when you say I'm busy, you are in fact saying I'm dead-hearted. Well that sounds a bit morbid to me yet isn't that sometimes how you feel when you feel busy?

In this article, I'm going to answer 3 questions.

* Why do you get so busy?
* What is the single biggest cause of your busyness?
* What are the problems with allowing your busyness to take control of you?

I'll then reveal to you the top secret, "highly complicated" solution to how you can take control of your busyness!

So why are you so busy?

Well some of the excuses ? sorry - causes might be too much work, too much trivia, too many priorities, too many emails, too many meetings too much of everything!

Well actually I disagree. There is only 1 reason for your busyness. It's true. There is only 1 cause of your busyness and it's not email, phone calls, meetings, school runs or anything else like that.

What is that 1 cause? Because U Say Yes

What is it about your need to take on more stuff? What is it that drives a sane intelligent person like you to take on more jobs and more responsibilities? Because You can; Because YOU say yes.

This can cause numerous problems. Once people around you learn that if they want something doing, you'll do it, they develop a habit and so do you. Once you become used to taking on extra jobs, doing other people's work and making "favour doing" a part of your every day life, time no longer becomes your own but driven by the needs of others ? because you say yes.

If you work in an office and you become known as the PC fixer or IT expert, whenever anyone has a problem they come to you for help and guess what? that soon becomes the way we do things around here.

Now I'm not saying don't help others just be mindful that when you do you are making a conscious decision to take on an extra task, which may mean you have to stop doing what you were doing, take time out and suddenly time slips away; your time slips away; because you said yes. You said yes to a change of priorities, which may have the consequence of making you feel even busier. I say this to my clients and many of them immediately say,

Yes But...You don't understand my situation
Yes But... that's not true in my case
Yes but... I can't not do that
Yes but... followed by a whole line of excuses.

Well you can yes but all you like, however the fact remains, you are constantly saying yes, consciously or sub consciously, to everything you do. You are choosing to do everything.

You choose to answer the phone.
You choose to take the children to after school activities.
You choose to react to your email.

Equally you have the choice to not do all of those activities.

You can choose not to answer the phone every time it rings.
You can choose not to take the children to their after school activities.
You can choose not to react to that "you've got mail" ping!

As Robert Orben says "Time flies its up to you to be the navigator."

Your level of busyness is 100% down to you.

Now I sense some yes buts out there. In saying you have the choice, which you do, of course there are consequences to those choices.

If you choose not to pick up the phone - there are consequences.
If you choose not to go to those meetings ? there are consequences.
If you choose not to take the children to their activities ? there are consequences.

The point is ultimately you decide. You choose whether you are busy or not

Because U Say Yes.

Now I said I would give you the top secret, highly complicated solution to controlling your level of busyness so here it is.

SAY NO!

©2005 Beverley Hamilton

About The Author Beverley Hamilton is the author of the recently launched ebook Take Control of Your Time. To learn more, sign up to Quickstart her free ezine and get more free tips, tools and articles visit her site at One Step Further

NOTE: You're welcome to reprint this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered including the "about the author" info at the end.

---

Workplace Violence - People are Dying Going to Work

Workplace violence has become a tragic reality today. From minor... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management: The Creative State

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

IT Expenditure - Why Businesses Spend Huge Amounts on Ineffective IT Investments

Another IT White Elephant!It seems that almost every day we... Read More

Understanding Every Aspect of Your Organization

GET TO KNOW YOUR ORGANIZATION: If you don't understand an... Read More

Organizational Culture, Creativity, Innovation

It can be concluded with great certainty that certain organizational... Read More

Cold Water Comments - What They Are and How to Manage Them!

Cold Water Comments - What They Are and How to... Read More

The 70% Solution: Practical Testing and Version Control

"What do you mean you need to push back the... Read More

Innovation Management: What Problem Is Being Solved?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Importance of Just-In-Time Inventory System

In today's competitive world shorter product life cycles, customers rapid... Read More

Manage Communication to Add Value

Management guru Tom Peters says white collar workers and managers... Read More

Hiring Great People And How to Be One Yourself: Five Secrets

Bad news.Your senior vice-president, your marketing director or your accounting... Read More

Six Sigma Training 101 ? Better Management Basics

What is Six Sigma?Six Sigma is a quality management program... Read More

Whadda Jerk!

If one does not understand a person, one tends to... Read More

The Death Spiral

Sometimes things just happen. Maybe we lose focus and take... Read More

Use Every Weapon You Have

One of the strongest weapons available allows business, non-profit and... Read More

What is the Most Difficult Part of an Improvement Program?

Answer: Starting one.Most of us realize that there is probably... Read More

Getting Information From Prospects

You're at a networking function and you've made that all-important... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Employee Ideas Achieve Work Life Balance

This article relates to the Work/Life Balance competency, which investigates... Read More

Juggling Demands in an Organization

JUGGLING DEMANDS: All leaders constantly juggle a multifarious array of... Read More

Innovation Management ? Raw brainpower versus experience

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Coworkers Collaborate to Complete Successful Initiative

This short story, Coworkers Collaborate to Complete Successful Initiative, was... Read More

How To Prevent Your New Manager From Becoming A Statistic

According to a study by the Manchester Group, 4 out... Read More

Five Steps to Increase the People Power in Your Business

Take some bold steps and help your employees and business... Read More

Have You Fixed the Broken Window?

Left alone it doesn't take long for a building with... Read More

How To Decrease Downtime and Increase Productivity

All maintenance activities of the workforce must be documented, this... Read More

Allan Kempert Discovers That Truly All You Gotta Do Is Ask

A year or so ago, I met Allan Kempert. Allan... Read More

Succession Planning for Your Business - 7 Key Benefits

A core activity in many successful businesses, Succession Planning is... Read More

The Comfort Zone

The Comfort Zone I... Read More

Setting a Pitiful Example: Twenty-six Warnings to Heed *

TO: All Parents [and Employers and Managers]From: Your Child and/or... Read More

Hire The Person, Not The Resume

"? [get] the right people on the bus, the right... Read More

Transform Any Business into a Go-Getting Power House by Working SMART

Probably as well known as SWOT, SMART turns goals, objectives... Read More

The Cheapest, Forget It !

Wouldn't it be great if we got get the cheapest... Read More

Efficiency Around The Office

Nearly every office, be it commercial or home-based, may have... Read More