Thursday, August 20, 2015

Why "Busyness" is Ruining Your Career and Business


Shaa Wasmund says she often advises entrepreneurs or those scaling their business to identify the one thing they can do that day that will make the biggest difference.
Not five things. Not three things.
One.
That’s when she usually sees the panic start to set in. People who are always, always busy – multitasking their way through life – often are very resistant to the thought of only doing one thing. They may even get angry.
“Most people seem to believe they need to do more, when really they just need to do what matters,” says Wasmund, author of “Do Less Get More.” “They need to filter out the distractions and focus on the things that make the difference between surviving and thriving.”
Wasmund speaks from personal experience, acknowledging she is often distracted by “shiny objects.” But she had an epiphany when her partner passed away. “I became trapped in a straightjacket of my own making. If my mind wandered I’d just pull the ties tighter with more responsibilities, more emails, projects, people, more, more, more….,” she says.
Learning to let go is not an overnight process, and many will find it’s not an easy thing to even think about, let alone put into practice. Wasmund  stresses, however, that once you begin the process you will find yourself focusing on the things that will bring you the greatest success, and the people who will bring you the greatest personal and professional happiness.
“When you’re caught up in ‘busyness,’ – being bombarded by emails and tweets and status updates – it’s literally like a hail storm. It doesn’t stop. There’s no time to slow down and think,” she says. “You think: ‘Oh, I’m so amazing because I’m so busy.’”
The truth, however, is that your “busyness” is crowding out the things you need to do to be successful and happy. With that in mind, Wasmund provides a roadmap for those who want to get off the hamster wheel and take control of their life:
  1. Acknowledge your fear. You may be afraid of saying “no” because you’ll disappoint someone or lose out on a promotion. “But that stops you from saying ‘yes’ to the things that really matter,” she says. “Your friends may be telling you how busy they are all the time, and you start fearing you’re not good enough (read more here)




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