The NW London Athena Blog: Running on the Hampster Wheel

These days we are measured by the results we deliver, and not the time we’ve spent delivering them. But there’s a distinction here; you need to be productive, not just busy.

Yet is it just a question of working harder and harder; or can we become more productive without burn-out?

Andrew, a Senior Manager in a manufacturing business, was feeling very harrassed and overwhelmed by the volume of work he was facing every day. I agreed that it can be really stressful as your quantity of e-mails, phone calls, paperwork and meetings grows larger and larger.

“I’m beginning to meet myself coming back” he told me. “I just can’t see how I can keep up with it all.”

“What does it feel like?” I asked him. “I feel like a hamster running on a wheel,” he replied. “It’s like I am busy getting nowhere.”

I asked Andrew to think of one thing he could give up that would make an immediate difference. This was a huge challenge for him, but in fact Fate took a hand as we found out at his next coaching session.

“There’s been a computer crash today, and all my emails have disappeared from my inbox”. Clearly he was very worried what would happen next. I encouraged him to reflect.

“So what is the learning here?” Although his IT department was able to restore his inbox quite quickly, Andrew was actually pleasantly surprised to find that he could exist for a whole morning without being busy with emails. Things got sorted without him; and if something was important, people contacted him by other means.

We were able to reframe this accident into a very useful learning experience. I asked him to consider when he was most reflective, most productive and most communicative.

“How do you actually feel when you first sit down at your desk in the morning?” I asked him. Andrew said he felt harrassed, unclear and driven. Clearly leaping into action was not the best thing for Andrew to be doing first thing in the morning.

As a Senior Manager, Andrew needs to keep up to date with new trends, standards etc. He agreed that he would be better focusing on reading reports in the morning, when he was at his most reflective.

My Coach’s Challenge was for Andrew to create a “Stop Doing” list, as Jim Collins
suggests in Good to Great (Harper Collins 2001).

Andrew decided to stop answering unnecessary emails, immediately reducing the volume of emails in his Inbox. He also stopped having an open door until 10.00 am, helping him protect his reflective time without interruptions.

Andrew’s new approach to his work routine, and his Stop Doing list worked really well for him, and he is now feeling less driven and more relaxed, and is indeed more productive. “Working smarter rather than harder” is now his motto!

As a coach, I have found that “I am too busy” can hide a multitude of subconscious.

Here are some of the hidden messages behind being “too busy”:

• Not facing up to something; avoidance
• Believing you are indispensable
• Inability to delegate
• Trying to prove something
• Confusing action with results
• A belief in Struggle
• Putting your own needs last
• Having no definite aim or purpose

What is one thing that you could put on your Stop Doing list today?

Writer’s Note: as a business coach, I am committed to professional ethics and standards regarding client confidentiality. The above characters and conversations are entirely fictional, although the issues and coach approach are taken from real life.

You may distribute or reprint this article in an e-zine or website, as long as you do so as-is without any changes. It must contain the information about the author and any links must remain intact. Copyright entire contents 2007 by Lisa Rossetti. All rights reserved.

You can contact Lisa on info@positivelives.co.uk or via her website:
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