Friday, October 03, 2014

Are you too Busy?

Imagine this: you've been filling out applications for weeks and weeks looking for a new job - and finally you get a callback. They're excited about your application and they want to meet you tomorrow at noon!

You can barely sleep the night before, and when the time comes, you're burning with energy. You hop the bus to get there and rush in the building, only to find the elevator is broken.

But you don't let that stop you. You rush up the stairs, and by the time you make it to the top, you're completely out of breath. It's only then, when you look at the sign hanging above the receptionist, that you realize you were in the wrong building the entire time!

Now you've both late AND worn out. You might have been busy, but you didn't DO anything.
We live in a culture that empathizes hard work over everything else. Rarely do we stop to ask whether we're working hard on the right things for the right reasons.

If you feel like you're climbing  a whole building's worth of stairs in the wrong building, chances are that you're not working very effectively.

First: Take a couple of days off.

This can be a very tough decision to make, especially if you're hanging on by your fingernails. But the fact is that you need to have a clear head when you analyze your business. That's very difficult to do when you're burned out. Give yourself a little time to emotionally and physically reboot, even if it's only for a weekend. You'll be amazed at how much better you feel.

Second: Are you being a perfectionist?

Too many people try to do everything perfectly because they're afraid of being "caught" or looking bad, or they have a "personal standard" they feel they need to live up to.

Drop the idea that all your work needs to be flawless, because it will explode the amount of work you need to do. Chances are that you need volume, more traffic, more customers, and more buyers.
So start going after it!

Third: Give Yourself An Audit

Take a look at the time you used for the day - rate their activities on a scale of 1-10, with a 10 being very helpful to your business, and a 1 being something very counterproductive. What were the reasons for doing the low-rated tasks? Can you attack them and get rid of them?

Remember, your goal isn't to be busy, it's to accomplish more. Work less and spend more time thinking about how to improve your efficiency, and you'll love the results you get.

To your job search success

Fran Watson