Summary: Busy Is The New “I’m Fine”, & Back To School...Simplified!<br> Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources<br> So what's your default response when someone asks you "How's it going?"<br> <br> <br> I've been noticing that the most common response is…"Busy!" I've even found myself guilty of it from time to time.<br> I'm not sure if people really are that busy, just think they're supposed to be that busy, or just perceive themselves as that busy.<br> I'm also not sure what my reaction is supposed to be.<br> <br> <br> <br> But I have to admit, when I hear people use the automatic response to “How’s it going” is “Busy”, I’m skeptical. So, when I hear it I wonder, is it: Read more...<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Really a mini head-trip?<br> Are they saying “I’m so important...people rely on me!”?<br> Is it a defense mechanism for “Don’t give me anything else to do”?<br> Are they justifying their poor prioritization?<br> Is it an excuse for not taking action on things that really matter?<br> <br> <br> So, I began to wonder if I was the only one this bothered and did a little searching. I found a great article on Lifehacker by Janet Choi called How to Escape the Cult of "Busy". It starts out:<br> People who often say they're "too busy" or "crazy busy" sound like buzzing busy signals. And when you start sounding like an appliance, it makes it hard to connect with you.<br> I couldn’t agree more.<br> So if you’re like me and find yourself falling into the habit of replying “Busy” when someone asks “How’s it going?”, take some time to evaluate whether you’re just making excuses for something else. If you truly have let yourself become too busy, then find out why. Because being too busy is a problem and will stand in the way of simplifying your life.<br> You may want to use one of my favorite tools for getting to the root of the problem. It's called "The Five Whys".<br> <br> <br> Using "The Five Whys" is easy, you simply ask "why" after each reason and continue to ask that for each answer.<br> For example:<br> <br> <br> <br> Why am I so busy?<br> <br> Because I go from meeting to meeting during the day and don't have time to "do my job."<br> <br> <br> Why do you go from meeting to meeting?<br> <br> Because for some of them, I'm just expected to be there.<br> <br> <br> Why are you expected to be there?<br> <br> I'm not too sure…it doesn't have much to do with my job.<br> <br> <br> If it doesn't deal with your job, why haven't you discussed with your boss that you may have a better use of your time?<br> <br> Because the guy I replaced was used to go, too.<br> <br> <br> Why did he go to the meetings?<br> <br> Because he had a personal interest in the program.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> When I’ve used the 5 Whys to get to the root cause of why I’m not getting work done, more often than not it comes down to one root cause...FACEBOOK!<br> <br> <br> Actually, Facebook is just the tool, really it comes down to what Steven Pressfield calls “The Resistance” in his books The War of Art and Do The Work.<br> <br> It’s that internal force that allows you to be distracted from what’s important.<br> It’s following the rabbit down the rabbit hole.<br> It’s the little guy on your shoulder that...when you’re working on something really important, like solving world hunger, that little guys says...”You know, you should check Facebook!”<br> Fellow WDSer Adam Baker from Man vs Debt has a great interview with Steven Pressfield that focuses on The Resistance if you want to learn more about it. I’ll link to that in the shownotes as well.<br> <br> <br> <br> OK, so back to the Five Whys. Now, despite the name "Five Whys", you're not limited to 5 nor do you do you have to go 5 whys deep in order to find your root cause.
