Busy Doing Nothing - by Steve Crabb

As the old song says, “We’re busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do”. Of course this doesn’t refer to most people who are simply busy being busy. What can we do when there just aren’t enough hours in the day?

 

Last month, I completed the final day of a corporate training which was presented at the client's premises. The human resources department of a large company in the North of England were researching and developing learning skills. Hence they were learning NLP skills to enhance learning and development. It sounds a good idea, learning how to learn.

 

Where to start?

 

I remember many years ago sending off for some books: one on speed reading and another on having a better memory. The dilemma I had was when they both arrived at the same time which should I read first? Should I read the memory book first so I would remember how to speed read better, or should I speed read first so I could read the memory book quickly? Hmmm decisions, decisions, decisions.

 

We started with some foundation skills of NLP so that as the training progressed they would know enough about NLP to learn and experience and benefit from the subsequent days' trainings. The corporate training is designed so that each day builds upon the previous.  The final day's training was about maximizing potentials and resources, and included dealing with our most valuable resource - that of time.

 

The group wanted ways to improve efficiency and to get more done. They worked long hours and were all very busy and, in their opinion, overworked. So I gave them a simple technique that would help them to release time and so have more time to get the urgent and important things done.

 

There are so many time management systems out there that I wasn’t going to spend time giving them something that I hadn’t used myself and knew from experience worked. Having been a company director for many years, and on one occasion having four very different businesses to direct, I know the value of a good time management system and of good habits.

 

Most time management systems involve generating lists and prioritising them, which often leads to lists of lists - and then when the list gets interrupted by the urgent things or there isn’t time to do the list it gets put aside until the next time there is an attempt to organise time.

 

I trained the group in the first step of the system that I have used to great success to successfully direct my businesses and taught to 100’s of entrepreneurs. There was uproar.

 

“I can’t do that” was one reply.

 

“If I did that I would get a P45” was another response.

 

“Well in that case get on with the tasks that you have to do. If you aren’t willing at least to give this technique a go, then you have no other choice other than to get to work,” was my response.

 

“But we’re overworked and there isn’t enough time in the day to get it all done”

 

“Then do the technique I’ve just shown you and that will begin to change,”  I said.

 

They weren’t convinced; I know the group would have been a lot happier if I had shown them a complicated technique which involved making lists. Instead I was training them in what works, how to model success and do what successful people do.

 

Now all they had to do was practise how to say NO and mean it.

 

Saying the word NO is an amazing way to release time for more important and essential tasks. Of course, we have to know when and how to say NO.

 

Corporate busy-ness is the malaise of the century and the cause for more adrenal fatigue then you can wave a bottle of Prozac at. People are swamped by e-mails, Blackberries and iPhones, which all mean there can be communication 24 /7. Conference calls mean people can have meetings ad hoc, and because of office printers, everything can be designed, printed and published in minutes and distributed to 1000’s of people who probably don’t want the information but still have to scan the inbox to decide whether to delete or physically throw it or not. It all takes time.

 

The ability to say NO must be accompanied by the ability to make good decisions as to what to say NO to. If you say NO to everything then a P45 will be relevant.

 

The ability to say NO requires rapport, require personal state management, and the ability to persuade and influence and communicate well with others. All of these skills had been trained to the group in previous days, so they were well equipped.

 

Firstly, choosing what we are going to spend our time on is essential, and then choosing how we execute the tasks is next. There are simple yet highly effective techniques for both deciding and executing.

 

Both of which you can learn at the next Corporate Training.

 

© Copyright in all media, Steve Crabb, 2009