Being busy isn't a strategy—it's often just a distraction from what matters.

"Let me tell you how busy I was last week. I signed new clients, had meaningful conversations, and worked long hours. I was constantly busy following up on everything and barely had time for my usual routine.

I felt rewarded, needed, and seen.

But when I finally paused last night, it got me thinking. The one metric I and many people have built an identity around in our careers is being busy and constantly delivering. Success is tasks completed, emails sent, and hours worked. It's become our default metric for self-worth. But is being busy actually helping us move forward and getting me towards what I want and need to do? We all work hard, that will not go away, but being really busy at work is not the same.

I should have figured this out at my age (yes, I am old), and I thought I did, but it's so easy to fall back into the busy trap because it feels so good - like home.

Growing up in Europe, being busy was always more celebrated than being quietly effective. Now, living in Hong Kong, you see the same pattern: 'busy' is worn as a badge of honour. The standard response to 'How are you?' is inevitably 'So busy with work!'

There's a fundamental difference between being busy and being effective. What if, instead of measuring how many emails we sent, we measured how much energy we had left at the end of the day? We end up with twice as many emails because we never pause to consider a more thoughtful response. Why am I creating more work for myself?

So, what am I going to do in the future? It's not about doing more; instead, I'll focus on doing better. It's hard when you run a business to have the courage to pause and reflect, but honestly some of my best ideas come during daily walks or exercise, away from the busy work. So, I will try, I know the tools and practice makes perfect – I hope.

Being busy isn't a strategy—it's often just a distraction from what matters. Joe Hudson is right when he says, "The question isn't 'How can I do more?' but 'How could this be 10% more enjoyable?' When we focus on effectiveness rather than just activity, everything else tends to flow downstream from there."
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