Busy or Productive?

I'm writing my first ever "Unscramble Me" blog today, April 1st 2022, so I thought it was only fitting on April Fool's Day to write about how we can end up being "busy fools".

We are ALWAYS busy, sometimes feeling that our brains are full to bursting, but also seem to have a list of things a mile long that we can never to get to. Things we have been "meaning to do", and that would make a real difference to us if we did them, but other stuff just gets in the way. This can apply equally in both our work life and in our home life. So what do I mean exactly? Well it's all about how to prioritise work and how to prioritise tasks in general.

Well lets start with the things that always jump to the top of our list. Examples would be, the heating is broken and it's the middle of winter - we WILL find time to get that sorted. If school call to say your child is sick and you should collect them - you go straight away. We don't think about these types of tasks or procrastinate over them - its a job for now.

Then there are those things that you know you need to do, you know they're really important, but they don't really NEED to be done now. I have one of these hanging over me at the moment - sorting out pensions! I know it's important but it doesn't need doing right now, I keep procrastinating, so it drifts, because I am letting it drift, and there is no push to do it, even though its MUCH more important than the things I AM doing.

Its human nature to instead pick off smaller, easier tasks. We're programmed to feel good about ticking things off our list, it makes us FEEL organised, but are they the right things? We might lean to tasks we like doing, or that are easy for us to do. One example could be replying to non urgent, quick emails at work - often doesn't add much value but it's easy to do, it helps us feel good to have a clearer inbox, less stressed and frazzled in the short term, so we do it. Another example is doing jobs that actually could be done by someone else, but we think "I will just do it, it's easier". Putting away the washing for everyone in the household, or taking a call when it isn't convenient for us because we want to be helpful, even though we have other priorities at the time.

Then there is the time we spend scrolling social media (for too long), making that presentation a bit prettier (like who would even notice?!) or sitting in a meeting where we are not getting anything out of it or contributing anything to it (we've all been there).

If some, or all, of this sounds familiar to you- you are not alone! A really good way to think about this was described by Stephen Covey in his famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". He categorises tasks into four quadrants:

As you can see - the examples I have spoken about fall into the different categories:

- Heating broken - Urgent and Important - Quadrant 1

- Sort out pensions - Important but not urgent - Quadrant 2

- Fulfilling other people's priorities - Not important but "urgent" - Quadrant 3

- Scrolling Instagram mindlessly for 4 hours - not important and not Urgent

So what can we do with this information? Well if we can be mindful of it we can start to think about our tasks and categorise them into their correct quadrant - this is going to help us with how to be more efficient with time. Then Covey helps us know what we can do. Have a look at this illustration that I think explains it well:

Applying the above to my examples

DO IT: we still sort out the heating or collect the ill child from school

SCHEDULE IT: To help me get on with that pension sorting I need to commit a time to do it - as soon as i've written this blog im going to diarise it!

DELEGATE IT: That laundry putting away? a chat with other household members to ensure everyone is responsible for their own. Or cleaning is another example - if you are in a position to outsource then look into it

DELETE IT: personally I prefer to call this "LIMIT IT". How boring would we all be if we did nothing mindless ever!? This is the stuff we need to do in moderation

Now - look at your list - what important thing that's been there for ages are you going to schedule in?

This topic is MASSIVE - and I could go on but i won't today. It can help you with how to be more efficient at work as well as at home. Find out more