The myth of being busy
It's not always good to be busy. In fact, it can often be counterproductive to your goals.
I am surprisingly unbusy. I do a lot and I can easily fill a normal working day but I don’t need to. If I want to sit in the sun and read all day, I can. Or if I want to dump seven straight hours into a new video game (hello, Moonlighter), I will.
Perhaps part of that is the freedom running your own business brings.
But people always ask me how I do so much and they remark how busy I must be but I’m not. Before I go into why that is, I want to focus on how being busy can actually be counterproductive.
When you work full-time, you are required to fill every minute of your day being (or at least looking) busy. Popular culture tells us that busy means hard-working. If you’re busy, you must be a success.
In my experience, I’ve found quite the opposite to be true.
If you’re busy, you’re just a step away from stress, overwhelm and burnout. Whatever your reason for being busy (managers giving you too much to do, personal pressure, taking on too much etc.), the stress of that kind of workload can weigh heavily on you, even if you don’t realise it.
Being busy often means you have to rush things and you don’t have time to step back and see the big picture, let alone take the time for self-care.
Of course, I’ve worked through lunch breaks and into the evening to hit deadlines but those times are rare. Some people do this every day and while you might feel like you’re getting a lot done, you’d be surprised how much more you could do by tweaking the way you work.
Now, my experiences might be very different to someone who works full time in a high-pressure job but hopefully, there’s something you can all take away from what I’ve learned over the years.
I have work I can scale back on
Let’s say I have a tight deadline on a new project, I don’t suddenly need to fit that in around everything else I do. Racing Mentor is very flexible, as is Vixe, so I can scale back how much work I’m doing on those. Both those businesses bring in residual income so they don’t just stop dead if I need to take time away from them.
I use automation to keep things ticking over
As I mentioned above, a number of my businesses still run even if I’m not actively working on them. People can sign up to a Racing Mentor course and learn from what I’ve taught without me needing to do anything, so even if I take time off, I know I’ll be able to make some money.
I schedule things
I make sure a lot of my social media is scheduled ahead of time. I will still post on the fly but I know if I need to step away from social media, or if I have other work that needs to take priority, my social channels won’t just be tumbleweed.
I outsource the little jobs
There’s a lot of business things I don’t want to do because they are too time-consuming. For example, I used to have a podcast for Racing Mentor but I stopped doing it because the editing and uploading just took too long. Now that I’ve relaunched it, I decided to outsource all the editing to someone else. All I have to do is take an hour to record and that’s it!
I also often outsource blog post writing, creation of social graphics and video editing. I quite like doing all those things but it takes so much pressure off to know I can rely on others to make sure those things are done when I have big paid projects to work on.
(If you’re interested in how to delegate tasks like this and collaborate with others, this webinar on How to Grow a Resilient Freelance Business is gold.)
I manage my time properly
I write a hell of a lot of lists. I use Trello boards to organise my head. I batch tasks. I plan in my breaks. Some days when there's lots to do, this is really necessary. But on the days where there’s less to do, I keep this practice up. Time-management is as much a habit as it is a skill.
I start the day right
Most days, I get up early so I have time before work to exercise, read, meditate and listen to affirmations. Being in the right mindset before you start work can help you complete more in less time.
Don’t get me wrong, my work-life balance is far from perfect but I’m not as busy as you might think.
I’d love to hear from you on this. Do you think being busy is counterproductive?
Social Experiment
My mastery of Instagram continues and having added more than 150 followers in a month (a HUGE leap compared to before I started to focus on this platform), I can see that what I’m doing is paying off. Updating my bio is a big part of that.
A bio needs to be visually appealing and easy to read but it also needs to get the point across as simply as possible.
I use emojis to make my points clear, the use of multiple lines makes it easy to read, I bring a little of my personality into the first line, and there’s a clear call-to-action.
This means that when people discover my profile through hashtags or shared images, they’re more likely to click the follow button.
Could your social bios do with a tweak? I think it’s time for me to start focussing on my LinkedIn presence next.
Jess Recommends
📖 Read: Black Lives Matter - Resources — I wasn’t sure what I, a white woman, could add to #BlackLivesMatter. But I think it’s important we’re all educating ourselves and listening to black voices. This link is a good place to start.
I’ve been reading a lot of stories from people on Twitter and Reddit and I’ve realised how vital it is that we’re exposing ourselves to what’s going on.
In some effort to help educate, this is going to be my only recommendation this week. Read, learn, share resources, offer support.
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