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Do you think you do your best work when you are under pressure? Really? Maybe you should ask your customers if they agree…or maybe your coworkers…or boss.
When you think about it, you probably know this isn’t true. But people claim this all the time. Why? Because they have become addicted to urgency. So much so, that they depend on it routinely to get things done. But in reality, it keeps us from doing our best work…especially any kind of knowledge work.
The Busyness Trap
It has become an epidemic. You have probably heard this before and see it in your life. But why does it happen? And how do we stop it? It all starts because initially it feels good. We get a hit of dopamine by checking things off a list. It doesn’t matter if the item is important or not. It is the fact that you got it done. So we go for the cheap hits. We create a busy life going for more. But just like any addiction, it only feels good in the moment. You feel worse after you realize what you have done.
But if you keep yourself busy enough, you don’t even make that realization and you avoid the confrontation. The truth of our lives doesn’t catch up with us. You never really stop and realize that all the stuff that you “had” to do didn’t even matter. It wasn’t actually moving you or your business forward…it just felt like progress. So you kept doing it.
I am Important
One of the reasons that this trap is so seductive is that we have come to accept it culturally as shorthand to validate our worth. Important people are busy. If you are busy, someone must need you for something valuable. If I am not busy, than what am I? What would happen if you slowed down? If you had time to think about it? Would you wonder about the meaning of your life? What is it that you are doing that really matters?
What you are really saying
Constant motions says that you are dependent on that urgency to motivate you to get things done. You haven’t developed internal motivation. You need that external deadline or pressure to move yourself forward. The problem is that this pressure doesn’t help. Great results requires quality thinking time…impossible to do under pressure.
Procrastination
When we don’t have internal motivation, procrastination takes over to create that external motivation as we get closer to the deadline. Procrastination is really a result of fear of failure or uncertainty. When we have this fear, we need to have a bigger fear to force us to move. So until the deadline closes in on us, we don’t have that bigger fear.
How do we get out
Reclaim margin in your life. Bring back that quality thinking time to your life. Start saying NO to things that aren’t important to you, and use that time to get yourself into a place where you can really think about what trade-offs you are making with your time. Remove yourself from the reactive life and start crafting your life and your business.
The crafted life
Only you can decide what is important to you and your business. You are the artist of your life. Think of it in terms of a blank canvas. Start with nothing as a given. Momentum has probably taken over your life in some way. You started down a path and now, because of momentum, you continue that same way. But that lack of internal motivation is a sign. A sign that this isn’t the right path.
The Vision
What is important to you? Have you spent time thinking about that? Or have you gone along with what someone else told you was the right path? Or what seemed right a long time ago? It is time to reset that vision. Spend the time to think about what really energizes you and what drains you. How can you build a life that spends more time in the areas that energize you? What would that look like? How would that change you?
The One Thing
Then start with something small. What is one thing that you can say NO to that will give you the space for a better yes? You don’t have to stay on that urgency path. You can craft a better way. A way that builds that internal motivation. A way, that allows you that thinking time to do your best work.
What is that one thing that you can delete from your life today?
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