67. If you’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done? With Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change the Workday with myself Prino Chad. I love what I do. I'm a global leadership coach, a consultant, a trainer, a keynote speaker, a podcaster. I help you to develop your leaders, your teams, and I help you to optimize your organizational cultures. I'm here to help you find ways to change your workplace. Why? Because we spend more time in our waking day at work than we do with our loved ones. It has to be a good place to be. So in this podcast, you can expect a mix of interviews with amazing thought leaders and then some solo episodes from myself as well. Get ready!

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Hello and welcome to this solo episode of Ways to Change the Workplace with Myself Green O Shah. And I've got some serious questions for you today. I want to talk to you about this topic that I'm going to name. If you're also busy, why isn't anything getting done? I'm going to talk to the culture of busyness within your workplace culture. Have you ever felt like you're constantly busy at work, but not necessarily getting anything done? You're not alone. According to a recent article from McKinsey, many professionals today feel like they're constantly running from one task to the next, but not making much progress on the things that truly matter. Now how crappy does that make you feel? We're all about, you know, finding your purpose within the workplace, contributing, and all of the good stuff that we know fills us with motivation, fulfillment, and joy. But if you're working in a culture of busyness, you are not getting that aspect of your soul fed. You have many leaky buckets in the form of no time. So, why is it happening? One possible explanation is that we're all trying to do too much at once. With the rise of technology and the proliferation of devices that keep us connected 24-7, it's easier than ever to multitask and try to juggle multiple projects at once. But you know it, I know it, we all know it. Multitasking is actually less efficient than focusing on one thing at a time. When we try to do too many things at once, our brains have to constantly switch between tasks, which can lead to mental fatigue, human error, and a decrease in your productivity. Unfortunately, the workday doesn't allow for focus time for many of us. You jump from meeting to meeting in the hope that you'll have time to have lunch at your desk and scoff down your limp sandwich and then get back to it. What has happened? How things have changed for the worse in many cases? I want to ask you, are you a culprit of limp sandwich scoffing at your desk? Do you inhale your lunch or even miss out on it often due to the demands placed on you at work? Now I want to ask you, is it those demands which are placed upon you or have you enabled it? Have you created this kind of busyness culture for yourself? Another possible reason for the feeling of busyness is that you might be taking on too much work or tasks that are not aligned with your strengths or your interests, and then that can lead to a feeling of overwhelm and just a complete lack of motivation to complete those tasks, and that's really tough. So, what can we do to combat the feeling of busyness and increase our productivity? One solution is to prioritize our tasks and to focus on the most important ones first. If you haven't listened to the amazing podcast that I did with Ravindra Kondikar on why time management fails leaders, go back and listen to that episode. He gives so many practical tips on what you can do to eliminate the busyness of your culture. This also means taking a step back and evaluating what tasks are truly necessary and which ones can be delegated or eliminated in your day. It also means being more mindful of how we spend our time and making sure that we're using our time wisely. Another solution is to create a culture of focus within your organizations. This means setting clear goals and expectations for employees. Yes. And creating an environment that supports deep work and concentration. Now, if you haven't listened to my podcast episode with um Professor Steve McKenna on the issue with your performance management on goal setting principles, you have to listen to it. He really talks about the bullshit of performance and development plans and you know all of this objective and goal setting, and he gives a revenue, revolutionary new way of creating KPIs and goals that's really going to help you be engaged and motivated at work. So by creating a culture of focus, we can help our employees feel more motivated and engaged in their work, which then can lead to increased productivity and better results. Yay! That's what the bosses want. So I've supported many organizations who've created quiet spaces, focus rooms, and innovation sections in their offices. I wonder how this can be translated to those who work remotely. Can workplaces offer time off to think? Is that an idea? The knowledge worker has been bombarded with an avalanche of information constantly. Is there a need to create a non-check-in type of day where you are left to work on whatever you want to for a solid day, which is free of meetings, free of phone calls, free of having to work in your usual office location if that's where you're always designated to work? Imagine that. It is anti to anything that I'm hearing about the workplace. Unfortunately, the pandemic hasn't really made the shifts that we were expecting yet. We still have many small minded managers who think the office equals productivity, who think they need to check in constantly on their teams. Perhaps they're the problem. Perhaps we need to eliminate this type of leader altogether. So if you're feeling constantly busy but not getting anything done, take a step back and consider how you can prioritize your tasks and create a cultural focus within your organization, whether it be at that organizational level or for yourself at that individual level. And by doing so, you can increase your productivity and you'll feel far more fulfilled at work. I hope it's given you some food for thought in how you can create a culture of non-busyness, the ante to the busyness culture. Let me know what kind of things you're doing. Drop me a message, connect with me on LinkedIn, whatever you want to do. My details are in the show notes. And I want to thank you for tuning in to today's episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast. If you found it useful, pass it on to a couple of people who will benefit and share the message. If you like this episode, check out the show notes and sign up for my newsletter. That will help your workplace to be less shitty. It's full of novel ideas, good food for thought. And if you like this episode, pass it on to at least two people who will benefit. That's your good deed done for the day. Also, remember to subscribe to the Ways to Change Your Workplace Podcast via your podcast provider. And I will see you in the next episode.