Busywork

I was reading a post on one of my Franklin Covey Facebook sites, and in passing, I read that someone was trying to minimize how much time they were wasting on “busywork”. I passed it by, thinking it made sense. I mean, we’ve all been there - in my case, many times were spent on projects I made up to avoid something else I was supposed to be working on.

The term “busywork” is different for each one of us, but is generally defined as tasks that keep you busy but don’t produce significant results or move you forward in your goals. This might be “wasting” time organizing something , writing in your planner (or, more specifically, multiple planners), creating a project for yourself that interests you, but seems redundant, or a waste of time when you could be working on more important things.

Now I bring into the equation the book by David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. The author maintains that everything we do in life is work…it doesn’t matter what it is. It could be the dishes and laundry, the emails, the blog post, running errands, grocery shopping, everything you do at your actual job, paying the bills, attending your child’s school play or parent-teacher interviews, etc. Here, the list is endless. Allen is suggesting that whatever you are doing in that moment is work, and he doesn’t define how important one task is over the other. In the end, the prioritization of said tasks are really up to the individual. However, if the task needs to get done today, tomorrow, next week or someday, it’s still you who are going to be completing it and putting in the work. (Unless of course it can be delegated, but someone still has to do it).

Since we’re not judging one task over the other, who’s to say that busywork isn’t just as important as anything else in your life? Sure, it may not bring you direct income, but maybe it has some other purpose that will indirectly affect your money-making ability. Here is an example I can pull from my own life.

One day, I decided that my entire desk needed to be organized. (It truly was a messy situation, and if you have seen my desk, you will know it’s big, I have a lot of stationery supplies and it literally took a few days to complete). One of these areas is where I keep my pens and markers in these pen cubes. At the time, I not only had to go through and test each pen to see if it still worked, but I wanted to re-organize them as well. I started one way and left it for a few days. I just wasn't happy with the result. I thought about it, and then decided to organize them in rainbow colors. Did this do anything to reduce my use of the pens? Nope - cause they were all right there, ready to be used. I’ll tell you the two things that it did. First, it did make it easier for me to choose pens - in my work, I usually plan and create by colored themes, so now I just go to the color block I need and pick out the type of marker from there. The second thing that it did was inspire me. I love to look at this area now because to me, it’s very aesthetically pleasing. It gives me inspiration for creativity and also motivates me to maintain organization of this area so that I maintain the rainbow.

Honestly, at the time, my husband might have thought I was wasting my time, but I can also guarantee that his next thought was, “well, if it makes her happy, who I am to say anything”?

I think this is the question we must all ask ourselves when it comes to “busywork”. Are we doing this task because it needs to get done for a reason (our own peace of mind, to boost that creative spark, to help us relax and rid ourselves of anxiety), or, are we doing it to procrastinate something that we really need to do?

If the answer is procrastination, it still doesn't mean this “busywork” task is any less important. It just means that maybe we need to learn prioritization skills! We can always come back to the less important task later.

Whatever you do, don’t let other people demean the “busywork” tasks you want to spend time on. The only person who is going to know whether it should be done is you. If it means the task is going to help you in some way later on, then by all means do it. Consider it work that’s just as important (albeit, maybe not as urgent) as any other task you assign for yourself. Don’t feel guilty about it either. The only one who can create happiness for you is you. So do the thing and be happy about it!!

Cheers,

Sandra