Ever feel guilty for taking a slow afternoon when you know you’re expected to be working? I know I have. There was a time when I was my own boss, and even still, I’d guilt myself into gluing my jeans to a Herman-Miller chair just to feign satisfaction of societal norms we’re engulfed in.
There were days where I’d write and ship code that had I could point at and call progress, but had no measurable impact on the business. Moments where I’d write a blog post early in the morning, but would not share it until late afternoon to accommodate the fear I’d be reprimanded if I hadn’t put my hours in synchronously with the rest of the team.
After all, if we don’t have anything to show for our work, what work have we done?
This prior statement, of course, is a farce. A travesty. Something I hope to never live by.
At some point in my meandering career, I’m very glad to have learned to attack the Hydra of societal work expectations head on. Work without substance isn’t work, and isn’t business: it’s busyness. Busyness is cringeworthy, not a badge of honor. I’m sad for all my personal hours and all our collective hours that have spiraled down the drain due to an optional subscription to busyness.
I’m sad for all the sunshine lost to the pavement that would have been better spent drizzled over my skin. For the hobbies left unpursued, the wondering and wandering forgone, the undialed phone calls with friends — all lost to busyness.
Somehow, we’ve allowed ourselves to associate a lack of busyness with laziness, disinterest, a lack of grit, hustle, determination, persistence, and tenacity.
Here are three reasons why you should feel urgent to combat busyness (and what you should try instead):
You cannot build on a weak foundation
The best way to improve your output is to improve yourself. This can manifest in any number of ways, including:
- Go to bed early (or take a nap)
- Watch some YouTube videos and level up your skills
- Head outside for a walk or bike ride (and leave your phone at home)
- Create something you plan to never use
- Clean your desk, meditate, listen to instrumental music or a podcast
- Write, take photos for an hour, scribble notes or drawings, daydream
The goal to any of these activities isn’t to delay or avoid working; it’s to smooth out all the bumps that stand in the way of putting out your absolute best self. It’s the stretching and nutrition plan to your marathon. The broth to your soup recipe. Absolutely critical, severely misunderstood, unfortunately overlooked.
Do not allow yourself to wish for the time to participate in any of the above. Instead, prioritize it over what is currently occupying your day.
Quantifiable ≠productive
Just because you can measure your output doesn’t make it meaningful. Many people have jobs because they’re so good at muddling quantifiable output with meaningful productivity. I could never work like that.
Some of my most productive and impactful hours stem from a moment of stillness. Actions and next steps born from an extra five minutes in the shower. Ideas exhaled when pushing through a five mile run. Structure for conversations and negotiations and stories resulting from wandering around the backyard.
Make space for the unmeasurable so you can hit milestones with what you do measure.
Celebrate what you didn’t do
We ignore the result of routes we elected not to pursue since their effects never came to fruition.
What we say no to should be highlighted, celebrated, recognized, and remembered to the same degree of what we chose to do instead.
My daily goal: just get better
There’s no hard and fast rule, criteria, or filter that can determine exactly what getting better means. This is why most people default to having something to show for their daily work. However, that type of output doesn’t necessarily correlate with improvement.
Some days, getting better means not sitting at the computer and instead finding ways to level up decoupled from my output. Sometimes it does mean literally make our products better: writing some example code, drafting a blog post, shipping to production.
If I got better, however that meant for the day, I’ll know I’ve done my job. And I’ll be even better tomorrow because of it.