BUSY TO LOOK IMPORTANT

This post shall be made a short one, because you're busy and I'm really busy too right!!! This is one of the primary ways we let people know we are important, because if we aren't busy, then we are not important, right?

WRONG!!!

The most productive and successful people are busy, but you wouldn't know it. They find time that others don't. And while you may not get much of their time, when you do you get undivided attention. They are fully present and maximize every moment of the interaction.

Most of us we invest our precious time on things that we shouldn't.
Which means the time to invest wisely on things that do matter is minimal.
That might be improving our professional skills, pursuing a tremendous business opportunity, investing in a hobby, or simply spending more time with the people we love.

Why do most of us waste time and then make every attempt to express to how busy we are? As a society, we have come to glorify busy. We have been tricked into believing that if we are busy we are important. But that's definitely not true.

 They exaggerate their tasks – They’ll use any opportunity to make themselves sound like a true busy professional. An example could be them having a call with someone they know to discuss business opportunities but they decide to tell everyone they have an important conference call. Or they’ll post things on social media to give the impression that they are in a position of prominence in their job; such as travelling on planes, trains or checking in to all of the conferences they go to. If this is you, be more open and honest about your tasks rather than embellishing them with more elaborate labels. Avoid using social media to boast about work. 

Being busy makes us hurried, creates short-sightedness, expands blind spots, increases careless mistakes and results in missed opportunities that we can't get back. Busyness creates more woulda, coulda and shoulda than anything else in our life - which ultimately leads to regret.  And regret sucks.

Regrets for the things we did could be tempered by time , but regrets for tings we didn't do is inconsolable.
So the next time you find yourself apologetically telling someone that you would liked to have met them, responded to them, or just acknowledged their existence but couldn't because you've been so busy, consider the REAL messages you're sending them:

*My time is more important than yours.
*I'm not very good at prioritizing my time.
*I want you to judge me based on how busy I am, not how productive I am.
*You aren't a priority, or at least what you want to speak with me about isn't a priority.
*You do not worth my time

NOTE: No matter how busy a person gets they will find time for those who matter to them.

The world is in perpetual do-more-with-less mode and that means it's easy for all of us to fall into the trap of becoming busy. Just speak to someone a generation or two older than you to confirm that the world moves much faster than it used to, and that the pace of change continues to increase with each passing day, month and year.

Instead of using "I've been busy" as an excuse for your lack of responsiveness, instead simply say "it's not a priority for me".
Because that's what you're really saying.

Doing so will definitely set the cat amidst the pigeons and cause you to reflect heavily on whether you should have prioritized differently!  To opt instead for the mainstream response of apologizing and saying your busy is just plain weak, and probably constitutes a little white lie.  Because you could have chosen not to invest the last two hours catching up on email or sitting in worthless meetings. Because you could have chosen not to watch the last episode of Game of Thrones, or not taken that walk to play Pokemon Go and capture two more fictitious characters. You get the picture.

The importance of prioritizing my time, and not using the excuse that I've been too busy.  Telling someone straight up that they aren't a priority is a lot harder.  Saying "it isn't a priority" also doesn't glorify your busyness and imply that your time is more valuable than theirs.