Does it seem like you never have enough time to finish anything thoroughly? Every day your task list grows and if you dare to have a break you know the preparation and return will be manic.

 

There is no doubt that life seems to have become more demanding in the last few years and with the World Health Organisation predicting that depression will be the second largest burden on society by 2020 this trend is likely to continue.

 

But does it have to be that way? I’m sure most of us have asked ourselves that question and experienced moments of calm and satisfaction that give us hope that it doesn’t.

 

Many of us have probably made systems changes such as turning off email alerts and read about or attended time management training. These sorts of steps can certainly improve our productivity but often leave us feeling just as over worked as we were before the changes.

 

To make substantial changes to our experience one of the most important thing we can do is to spend some time and effort considering the possibility that we’re too busy because we want to be – we stay busy because we get something from it – we’re not just victims of circumstance. Because if that is the case then we can do something about it.

 

There seem to be numerous reasons for staying busy including the promise of reward, seeking approval and a defence against anxiety – staying busy to avoid our feelings.

 

The challenge in considering what’s driving us is that we may not be aware of some of our motivations – we’ve hidden them from ourselves because they disturb us for some reason. So we don’t know what we don’t know.

 

We may have an intellectual suspicion that something is going on if, for example, we notice that we keep ending up in similar situations with people even if we move or change partners or jobs.
If this is the case, we may need to consider enlisting the support of a coach or therapist to help us make the necessary paradigm shift.

 

Working in this way can result in a substantial change in behaviour but no matter how successful we will always have some level of unconscious behaviour. The impact of this can be minimised and managed with techniques such as mindfulness.

 

Once we have gained an understanding of what is driving us and we’ve taken steps to manage unhelpful impulses the next step is to look at what really matters to us. In organisational terms this could be embodied in a vision, values or strategy and provides a tool to focus and direct our efforts so that we don’t waste time and effort on tasks that aren’t aligned with what matters to us.

 

With these steps in place you should hopefully find that you spend more time in the present working on things that interest you, resulting in a more satisfying experience of life for you and, to some degree, those around you.

 

Have you experienced any of these steps or tried completely different approaches? If you have any thoughts or comments, please share below or send me a LinkedIn connection request.