Busy vs Productive

All of us are busy all the time. You are busy. You are likely very/crazy/incredibly busy. I am busy. They are busy.

Sure you heard and said that many times. So have I. Today, I invite you to reflect on this statement. I am worried that this attitude of all of us being busy all the time is not good for our health. In fact, I think this mindset also reduces our potential to innovate, create, and love! Days, weeks, months, and years go by being very busy! Very scary. I enjoy working very hard but I feel that this does not necessarily mean that I need to put myself into the state of being very busy all the time.

This year, I am trying to be more mindful and focused on my key priorities. I try to prioritize and not to think about all the other things that seemingly require my attention. I would like to make significant progress by investing focus and energy into my teaching, mentoring, and research. Hopefully, this will help me shift my focus from being busy to being happy about the impact of my work. Here are some roadblocks that I have identified, which I will try to reduce/eliminate:

• Checking my phone every few minutes for some kind of update. There are always new emails, tweets, and basecamp messages. When on Sunday the email storm gets a bit calmer, there are always news updates, checking frequent flier miles, and worst come to worst checking on bank accounts and credit cards. I enjoy all these modern tools of convenience and communication but I have decided to partially wean myself off my smart phone. If somebody needs my urgent attention, they can still make use of the perhaps least used function of phone, namely to call me...
• Not planning ahead for how I spend my day. If you do not run your day, the day will run you! By changing this, you will no longer feel busy but will feel productive and happy!
• Procrastination. Now and then I catch myself doing things which are really not that important just to avoid having to start writing the next grant etc. I am now working first on the big and important things (yes that next grant!) such that by lunch time I am filled with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
• Lack of a clean separation between work and home. I am now dedicating specific hours to my family and I make sure I only get interrupted by work in case of an emergency. This helps me recharge my batteries and be more productive when I turn my attention back to work. Increasing the distance between all my computers, tablets, and phones on one hand side and myself on the other hand side really helps with this!

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