Busy or Disorganized?

Busy or Disorganized?

This…might feel like an attack to some people.

But there’s a chance that if you feel scattered, stressed, and pulled in a million directions at once—never quite able to get everything done, seldom able to just take a breath and just chill, reflect, and recover—you’re not overworked, you just don’t have the proper structures in place to non-frantically handle your work responsibilities.

(There’s also a chance that you just have kids, which is something I continue to be astonished anyone can handle while still getting anything else at all done.)

Many people find that by decluttering (and coming up with habits that prevent clutter from accumulating again in the future), setting aside time for non-work things (something that can feel counterproductive, but which can force us to be more focused with our work periods, while also helping us psychologically recover and wind-down a little), removing distractions (even listening to music or a podcast in the background can derail our train of thought, disallowing any real focus throughout the day), and prioritizing (this task is most important, this one is next important, etc—and then allowing that to inform what we work on, finishing each task before moving on to the next one) they’re able to get more, better quality work done, while also freeing up time and energy for non-work things.

This piece gets into this concept from the perspective of someone who’s familiar with “hustle culture,” and the idea that being busy is a mark of pride for some people (and within some industries), but it also touches on some of those possible solutions and various means of rearranging things so we’re not just slogging for the sake of slogging: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00185-z

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