BUSY BUSY vs. On My Calendar

Some years ago, Bill Gates—the founder of Microsoft and an influential social entrepreneur—wrote a book entitled  "Business @ the Speed of Thought”.  I remember he wrote that the pace of business would escalate more in the next five years than it had in the previous fifty.  Boy was that right!

 As the pace of everything speeds up, I try very hard to stay present, but the demands can be excruciating.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t want to bother you; I know you’re busy”?  

I certainly have.

But I try to respond, “Well, I’m not really busy, but I do have a calendar.”

What does that mean?

It means that in each little 24-hour day that I get, there are a few things I have to do and a few things I get to do.

I have to eat, sleep, and, yes, go to the bathroom (sorry if that’s too much information—ha ha).

But I also get to do things that move my priorities forward in the world.

I think it’s an important distinction: what I get to do versus what I have to do.

Recently, I was working with someone I don’t know very well. We’re part of a team launching what one of our members called “a big, hairy beast of a project.”    I love those.

I tried to get a team member to actually schedule a meeting he needed to have with another member about a piece of the project. But he wasn’t too keen on that, I guess, because it required thinking ahead—imagining what his life would look like in two, three, or five days. Sometimes, we just don’t know.

But the benefit of putting a meeting on the calendar is that it’s really respectful of both your time and the other person’s. It’s a clear signal that this time is devoted to that thing. There’s a difference between being busy and simply having things on the calendar.

Bill Gates offers up some very spiffy quotes. One of my favorites is: “We overestimate what we can get done in one year, but we underestimate what we can get done in five years.”

I find this helpful. While I need to know what to do in the next few hours, I also want to feel that, after five years, I will have accomplished something I care about.

Learning to be devoted to my calendar helps me. Maybe it’ll help you, too.

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To keep you centered and aware of your current motivations, consider checking out my “Be Your Own Coach” program! I always welcome your thoughts…..