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MANAGING YOUR "BUSY" LIFE
— by Christine Shields Kann

How busy is your life? I am guessing that just my asking that question has caused you to laugh out loud. I think there are perhaps a handful of people in this modern world who would not say they are "busy." Even many retirees are actually busier now than when they were working in an office eight hours a day. All of this talk of being "busy" has, frankly, gotten on my nerves. I think that "being busy" has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, especially as it relates to trying to manage our personal and professional lives. While many people think that saying they are "busy" speaks to how important they are, I personally become a little skeptical when someone tells me they are "so busy."

How many times a week do you find yourself saying to someone "I was really busy and I just didn’t have time to get back to you"? Now, be honest: How many times is that a convenient excuse — because responding to that person really wasn’t a priority for you? Who is going to challenge you by asking "Really, tell me what else you have been up to that was more important than getting back to me?" Most of the time, saying you have been "too busy" will satisfy others. Often, however, such talk has become a crutch and a convenient way to avoid following through on a commitment.

Saying we are "too busy" makes us sound like people in demand; a person with many "places to be and people to see." In truth, being "busy" doesn’t necessarily mean that all the things you are doing are of high importance or, most importantly, that those things are all helping you grow your business. I have had plenty of crazy days when I got very little real work accomplished because I was also doing things such as preparing for my daughter’s birthday party, finalizing our summer vacation plans, and making calls to get the deck painted. From a business perspective, there’s a lot of fluff in that interpretation of "busy." Sometimes you have to be tough on yourself to set your priorities and not just accept a day of being "busy" if you want to continue to advance your career.

There are times when being "busy" is enough. At difficult times in my life, when I just needed to keep my mind off of heavy issues, I was happy to be "busy" because it kept me distracted. And when I am trying to pass some time during an afternoon with my kids by running errands, being "busy" is just fine. But if business is slow, and I wonder how that can be when I am "so busy," I need to get honest with myself and ask: What part of the "busy" has been productive in moving my career forward? If you take a close look at your schedule for the week and run it through a filter, how many things would really be considered important, substantial, business-building/client-nurturing things to do? And how many things would just pass through the filter in a wave of "busy-ness"?

Client deadlines and requests always rise above any other things on my priority list and I get this work done right away. But other things can sometimes get bogged down when life gets a little crazy. I have found that when friends or family ask me why I haven’t returned a call or gotten one thing or another done, I sometimes have to truthfully say: "It is on my priority list and I am working on getting it to the top." I find that I feel much more honest about saying that, rather than hiding behind saying "I have been busy." And if someone uses the same excuse with me, I find that I now have an understanding smile, realizing that my issue was not at the top of his or her list.

Let’s clarify the fact that an important part of your "busy life" should include personal priorities. If you have ever had to go without a vacation or time off for an extended period of time, you know how unhealthy and tension producing that situation can be. Whether it is participating in a golf league, being your child’s den mother, or volunteering at the local women’s shelter, these are the types of activities that you may well have identified as priorities in your life. The best way to make sure they remain priorities is to treat them the same as other meetings and business commitments. If your Cub Scout troop meets on alternating Tuesdays at 4:00 pm, write it into your schedule and plan around it at all costs.

These events are as important in your overall "busy" life as anything else you have identified as a priority. However, the unfortunate fact is that not everyone will feel that way. If you produce great work and deliver it on time to your clients, what you do with the rest of your day really shouldn’t matter. But for some clients, it does. Some years ago, when I was employed on the "client side," I used an ad agency whose account executive worked part time. Sometimes she would call me from home on her days off, and I could hear children crying or making lots of noise in the background. That never bothered me because I am a mother myself and I was supportive of her efforts to have a career while raising her children. But there are some clients who would have interpreted that noise as competition, and they may have felt that she was not focusing solely on their needs.

The best way to ensure that your personal priorities are shielded from your professional life is to use language that communicates their importance. Don’t take a chance that your clients, or other business associates, will not appreciate the fact that you are on the golf course for your league every Tuesday. If asked to set a meeting or conference call at that time, simply reply that you "have a commitment" and offer an alternative date and time. It isn’t necessary that you divulge what that other commitment is. If you do, you are taking a chance that someone will not deem that activity as important as it is to you. So, build this "firewall" between your personal and professional life to ensure that your own priorities remain intact.

A friend of mine nearly derailed her career by being an open book about her personal life while at the office. When her boss would ask, out of courtesy, "How are you?," she would launch into a detailed description of the troubles she was having with her daycare provider, and the dietary quirks of her two-year-old. The message she was sending at work was that her personal life was disorganized and that it was a distraction for her in the office. Finally this boss confided to her that when he asked about her day, all he really wanted to hear was that everything was "fine and under control." As an employee or service provider, you are most successful when you help your boss or clients solve their problems, not when you burden them with yours. Give some thought to the language you use and what messages it may send to someone who just wants to know that you will deliver that report on time.

Managing a commitment-packed personal life and a demanding career can be an exciting and interesting ride. Identify those personal activities that are important to you and write them in pen on your schedule. Talk about them as commitments you have made — which are just as important to you as anything else in your life. Periodically re-evaluate those items on your schedule that are really just there in a clutter of "busy-ness." Don’t be satisfied with just "being busy." Rather, be productive, be focused, be inspired… be successful!

Christine Shields Kann is president of CSK Marketing, Inc. (chris@cskmarketing.com), a marketing services firm based in Racine, Wisconsin. In business since 1997, CSK Marketing, Inc. specializes in providing qualitative market research to consumer and business-to-business clients in the areas of packaged goods, food, tools, electronics, cleaning products, and health care. Chris is active in the National Association of Women Business Owners and was recently named the Small Business Administration’s 2003 Women In Business Advocate for Wisconsin.