The antidotes are simple, but you’ll need solid commitment.
The expert: Leadership coach Zena Everett helps executives and teams learn to set goals and priorities.
The main point: Crazy busy-ness usually stems from personality traits. To end it, you need to get real, get focused, and set boundaries.
According to leadership coach Zena Everett, the roots of busyness lie in four areas:
- Perfectionism leads people to select low-priority tasks they feel confident of performing well, and avoid high-impact tasks that challenge them. Perfectionism can manifest as procrastination.
- Failure to delegate results in an overwhelming amount of work on your own plate. It can stem from either a desire for control or insufficient trust.
- Codependence can show up as caring for others to the extent that you neglect your own priorities, or as believing being super busy proves your worth. (Codependence can also translate into perfectionism and procrastination, because it can make failure or even just negative feedback feel intolerably uncomfortable — so you avoid challenging tasks.)
- Lack of organization can result from a simple need to learn time and task management, or from information-processing differences. Specialized apps and using tools such as a timer or whiteboard can help in this case, Everett says.
The antidotes Everett offers sound simple, but she assures they can, when implemented, reduce your busyness, ensure you accomplish your priorities, and help you stay motivated.
“You should be able to do a great job, in reasonable hours, then go home, have a life and return to work the next day as your very best self. That shouldn’t be a big ask.” — Zena Everett
Everett recommends the following:
- Set aside a specific time to work on each of your priorities, starting with the most important one — your “game changer.” Everett suggests using the PIMP acronym to remind you to select a Priority, Insert it in your time management system, Mean it (commit to utilizing the time for that task), and Prompt…
