Slow Down - you move too fast

It's the 17th of January and I am already officially at my limit of tolerance for "how fast" everything is moving.  Everyone I know talks about how fast things are moving - their lives, their work, their commitments.  Yep, I know everyone is busy and we are expected to be very busy.  In fact I think we often look askance at people who don't appear to be busy.

But amidst all of this busyness, I don't notice that much gets done.  In fact with all of the busyness, much gets left out.  Agreements take far to long to close, partnerships don't get defined as they should, customers are not contacted.  Everything flies by until something or someone hits a wall, then the fact that we've been busy gets compounded by the fact that we were so busy we did not close the loop or complete the assignments when we should have.

There are at least three issues that seem to create this aura of busyness, which too often leads to a trainwreck somewhere down the line.

First, there's an issue of prioritization.  Yes, we have a lot of activities, deliverables, meetings and demands on our time.  Are we doing the best job we can to prioritize them and make decisions about where we should best spend our time?

Next, there's planning.  It seems that no one plans anything anymore.  The prevailing attitude is to simply jump in and start working, and the details and actions will take care of themselves.  Far too often in the last few months I've worked with individuals who can't enunciate the reasonable next steps for their task, and can't demonstrate a workable plan.

Next, there's communication.  To know what's important and where you should spend your time, you'll need that communicated to you in some form or fashion on a clear and consistent basis.  When communication is lacking, it's hard to know which tasks are important or where you are expected to spend your time.  So, the natural implication is to get busy doing something.

Since planning and communication require careful, considered thought and time to execute well, they are not seen as adding value.  So, they are either neglected entirely or given short shrift, so many people are running around very busily doing stuff that is not prioritized, then reworking it later when it is discovered to have been wrong.  Also, since strategies and prioritization are rarely provided, even knowing which project or task to work on is a challenge, so to cover the bases people work on all of their possible projects, starting many and finishing none.

We've got to slow down for our own sakes.  As the work piles up, ask a few simple questions:

- Where does this fit in the stack?  Why are we doing it?
- What are the goals of the activity?  Where can I find the workplan?
- What is it that you expect of me?  How can I do this right the first time?

That's not to say that you won't find your time completely absorbed, but at least you can work on tasks that matter and do them well, which in many cases will be a great leap forward.

Comments

[Matthew Cornell]

Great post, Jeffrey. I particularly like your insight re: planning. I wonder if we intentionally avoid the hard work of planning due to the pace of modern work and life...

Also, your initial statement:

"I am already officially at my limit of tolerance for 'how fast' everything is moving"

Reminds me of something I wrote earlier: "When inputs exceed your workflow system's capacity" http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/01/when-inputs-exceed-your-workflow.html

Cheers!

[Josh Nankivel]

I agree 100%. This is very much in line with a post I did on my blog a few weeks ago titled "Multi-tasking, Covey, and TOC" (click on my name below for the link to that post). I would add that when I made changes to my personal time management, at first I got the impression people didn't think I was "busy enough" because I didn't seem stressed out or hurried, and I wasn't jumping from task to task. It's just like any other proactive approach though, it may take awhile to see results, but after it's in place those results come consistently. I don't get the impression anyone thinks I'm not busy, because I've increased the amount and quality of my results tremendously.

[Seth]

Agreed 100%. Currently, I am working on slowing down my mind and my thought process. When I hear something, I analyze it so quick. I am such an impatient and impulsive person, but with time and dedication, it will slow. One important thing is that our society has become increasingly busier, making things more eaisly accessible, quicker to attain, etc. We are a speed hungry society, and it does need to slow down, but this in iteself will take time. The quickness that we live with has inertia, as does any moving object, and will no doubt take time to slow. Great post.