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BUSY-NESS DOESN’T MEAN BUSINESS

BUSY-NESS DOESN’T MEAN BUSINESS

by | Jun 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

Being active doesn’t necessarily mean that you have been productive. At work, the metric that makes the difference is “growth”. Every leader starts off with the vision to grow the organisation. But that is easier said than done. More often than not , rather than focussing on the core activity that will ensure results, their time & energy is expended in putting out fires in different facets of their businesses. As a result of which the time that was originally set aside to perform productive activities, shrinks. The challenge therefore is in having to do a lot more in less time. A leader must be smart about how they spend their time and energy to drive growth for their businesses.

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” – Arianna Huffington

Another pattern that unknowingly yet surely sets in when one is dragged into this melee, is that many managers appraise themselves on the number of hours that was spent at work, even if the results were not achieved. Keeping “busy” at work then becomes the focus, and the end result gets clouded.

Here are some simple tips to stop ourselves from falling prey to this pattern of “busy”ness


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  1. The good old diary :
    We could write down the activities that need to be accomplished for the day. All the while asking ourselves, the relevance of this activity to our stated goals. One must begin by classifying them into urgent, important and others. Always stop as many times as you can, during the day to check on the progress being made in these areas.

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  1.  Preparation is as important as action :
    Anticipate chaos. Anticipate that unscheduled meetings are bound to come up. One of the most important steps of being productive is being as well prepared as possible. Knowing what to expect and how to carry out the task already puts you in a favourable position. Developing a solid plan can help save leaders a lot of time and effort by helping them avoid any foreseeable mistakes or complications that may arise along the way.

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  1. The devil is in the delegation : 

“When we tell people to do their jobs, we get workers. When we trust people to get the job done, we get leaders” – Simon Sinek.

A common shortfall noticed amongst many under performing leaders is that they don’t delegate their tasks well. A good leader must focus on their strengths and trust their teams to deliver the tasks assigned. Evaluating your team and charging the most capable person/s with important tasks takes a lot of the pressure off and helps you perform more important activities while also developing your team. 

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  1. The eye of the bird  
    Multitasking is overrated. It’s a sure shot way to drain your energy. This has a negative effect because you will go through the day just being a participant. Instead, focus solely on the most important task at hand and try to complete it as soon as possible because as the clock ticks, the energy to contribute effectively will wane.

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  1. Take a break :
    This is as important as any other item on your schedule for the day. As counter productive as it may seem, taking a short break between tasks is great as it not only helps leaders refresh and reset, but also provides the much needed space for their reportees to carry out their work without the pressure of having their leader breathing down their neck constantly.

Organisations across the world work with business coaches to boost the productivity of their teams. A business coach can help leaders be more productive and drive growth within their organisations. Working with a business coach can give leaders an edge by helping them develop a personalised framework to be more productive with their time. Coaches work with leaders to help analyse and understand priorities and how best to spend their finite time and energy towards achieving their goals. A coach questions your decisions in order to help you think more clearly before making the right decisions.

Take this survey to find out if and how business coaching can help your organisation : Development Coaching Assessment

5 Time Management Hacks to Boost Productivity

5 Time Management Hacks to Boost Productivity

by | Oct 29, 2019 | Typo

Time is the greatest equaliser, We are all given the exact same amount of time every day, and how we choose to spend it defines us. When asked about the importance of time management, Warren Buffet once said, “I can buy anything I want basically, but I can’t buy time.’’

So what do successful people do differently? How do they spend their time to achieve more than everyone else? To answer this question, we’ve put together a shortlist of time management hacks that will allow one to take more ownership of their time.

1. Gamify your to-do list

Maintaining a to-do list is the first step to boosting your daily productivity. You could start your day off by giving yourself a list of tasks that must be completed by the end of the day. At the end of the day, go through your list again crossing off tasks you’ve completed, and record how much time was spent on these tasks.

Tracking your activities gives you a clearer picture of how you’ve spent your time and where you could save it. Leave comments and feedback for yourself. Once you identify areas for improvement, you could incorporate the same next time and manage your time.

2. Blank spaces are your allies:

Unforeseen meetings and appointments often disrupt schedules. They cause postponements and cancelations thus wasting a lot of time for all parties involved.

Pro Tip: while planning your schedule would be to leave as many blank spaces as possible between appointments and meetings in order to accommodate any unforeseen emergencies or delays that arise.

3. Small steps lead to big changes:

Completing the easiest tasks first gives you the confidence to proceed with more challenging ones. Your mind is set to believe that if you’ve completed this task, the next one is also achievable. Adopting this mindset can help you stay motivated and focused on completing all the tasks you’ve set out to do for the day.

Similarly, it also helps to break up large projects into smaller, quicker, and easily achievable tasks. Tricking your brain into completing multiple smaller parts of a project motivates you, helps you focus, and allows you to complete these tasks sooner without letting a sense of challenge or monotony set in.

4. Be smart. Delegate:

As the day progresses, our brains get tired of making decisions. Successful people are all key decision-makers, and the important decisions they make have a huge impact and consequences. This is why leaders try to limit the number of decisions they take every day by instilling and following a routine by reducing the number of unimportant decisions they may have to make. This way, they can resolve matters that actually require their attention.

Delegating your work and targets to your team can help you take more ownership of your time, which will in turn allow you to complete more work and make better decisions. You could evaluate and empower your teams to have initial discussions and meetings in your absence and ask for the minutes of the meetings instead. This saves you a lot of time as opposed to being in meetings where your inputs aren’t immediately necessary or when deals could have been negotiated by your team instead. You need to know what requires your immediate attention and input and delegate the rest to others on your team.

5. Task-Bundling

In our previous blog, we spoke about how multitasking isn’t actually as effective as it sounds and how it could take away more time from your day. Task Bundling is a creative way of completing two tasks simultaneously and may not require double the focus. For example, you can listen to a podcast or watch a show that you enjoy during a workout.

A smart hack that successful people use is that they reply to emails, read a book, or read the news while on their commutes. Certain activities don’t necessarily require your complete attention and can often be paired with another simple activity, thereby completing both in a shorter span of time.

100% productivity is an unachievable goal for anyone, but there’s always an option to do better. A coach helps you track, measure, and record your progress to identify where you can do better. A coach ensures that you’re accountable for your goals and will handhold you while constantly pushing you to achieve them.

Working with a coach can help you and your organisation get very close to 100% productivity by taking the right steps towards overall growth.