We often wear our busyness badge with honour, but the constantly crammed calendars, going from one meeting to the next and trying to multi-task, end up leading to some not-so-great outcomes. I’m somebody who thrives under a bit of pressure, without it I seem to procrastinate, which got me thinking about good stress vs. bad stress. I’m also conscious that I love what I do, so there is a real risk of overworking, especially when you work for yourself. Everyone wanted face-to-face delivery at the start of the year, so I travelled nearly every week for the first quarter. With a young family, it made me reflect on if this is how I wanted to shape my work and my life. Understanding that work and life priorities will regularly change, and what feels right now may not in 6 months. We need to regularly check in with ourselves and the people important to us to ensure it’s working. In Gallups' 2023 State of the Global Workplace report, they found that Australia is the second most stressed employee in the world, with 48% of Australians and New Zealanders reporting high levels of stress at work. This needs to be a focus for leaders with the introduction of a new code of Practice for psychosocial hazards in the workplace. With an increase in mental health issues and burnout across organisations, it’s almost impossible for this not to be a focus for leaders. Some ideas to overcome the busyness and not lead to burnout.
Prioritise the high value, high impact work. The Eisenhower matrix is a great tool to determine what is import and not, and what is urgent and not. Prioiritise the things that are most important, and dump the low-value tasks.
Effective vs. efficient is a great debate. We should we rewarding people working on the right things and not just getting caught up in activity.
Be the change you want to see – role model what the expectations are. Don’t send emails late at night or use the ‘send later’ function, so you aren’t setting the expectations that this is expected from others.
Set clear expectations about outcomes, and allow team members, dependent on capability to determine how to achieve it. Drive autonomy and agency in what people do.
Try not to overvalue people working excessively.
Keep people motivated when complacency sets in.
What strategies do you put in place when you are feeling busy?