In this episode, Scott Becker reflects on the concept of being “so busy” and what it reveals about time management.
Chapter 1: What does being 'so busy' reveal about time management?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. We try each day to bring you business guests, business information, private equity information, great guests, and to make sure we're learning and you're learning and we're entertained and so forth. Today's podcast is, you are so busy. So four key points. So here's the context for this.
know someone said to me that was trying to track me down by phone and so forth and someone who i wanted to talk to have great respect for we finally got on the phone and one of the first things that that person said to me was just a wonderful person she's a philanthropy person philanthropy person from one of the great institutions that we are involved with and we're a huge fan and she said to me the first thing she said was you know thank you so much for us finally getting it together you are so busy
Chapter 2: How can I reflect on my busyness?
And when somebody says to me, I am so busy, what it forces me to do is reflect on what am I doing wrong? And here are four thoughts on this. You know, it almost goes to a different podcast we did earlier on the golf thing. It's not the driver stupid thing. The real answer should be if I'm so busy, it means that I'm doing a poor job of a few different things. I'm not setting priorities very well.
Chapter 3: What are the key mistakes leading to feeling busy?
I'm not saying no enough. I am a middle child, and the concept of middle children is always trying to please people. I'm sometimes trying too hard to please people. So those are the first three thoughts. I'm not setting priorities well. I'm not saying no enough. I'm not putting enough space in my calendar, trying to please too many people.
Chapter 4: How does prioritization affect our productivity?
I view the concept of you are so busy not as a necessarily a compliment. It's meant as one, but it really means that I'm doing a moronic job of managing my business and my life and my time if somebody says to me, you are so busy.
Chapter 5: What can we learn from Jamie Dimon about being frenetic?
Jamie Dimon, who is the brilliant CEO of JPMorgan Chase, probably maybe the best CEO of this generation, particularly if you take out the tech companies, probably the best of this generation, has this great discussion about being frenetic. And he talks about it, and it's worth watching. You can find it on YouTube. You can Google it and find Jamie Dimon talking about being frenetic.
And I just thought it was great. What he talked about was the environment's not frenetic. It might be. but you're being frenetic. And what he meant was that it's your responsibility to manage your life, to balance your life, so you're not nearly as frenetic, so you can bring to things calm and do the things you wanna do, not do the things you don't wanna do.
I find myself sometimes saying yes out of
boredom or out of wanting to please people or the dopamine fix of saying yes when I should be saying no and it's a discipline but I do take this concept of you are so busy and I think what it really means is I'm not setting priorities I'm not saying no I'm trying to please too many people and it reminds me of the Jamie Dimon talk where he says you know essentially The environment's not frenetic.
You're frenetic. When I think about this further, I've been listening recently to a fascinating book by the fascinating film producer, David Lynch. David was a film and TV producer, very, very successful. And he talks about catching the big fish, meditation, consciousness, and creativity. And I think for a lot of us, there's a huge amount to be said in making the effort to
to slow ourselves down, set better priorities, and really work towards saying no and not trying to please everything. When I am told I'm too busy or you're so busy, it really means I'm doing a horrendous job of organizing my days and my weeks and so forth. It's a reminder about channel capacity, about setting priorities, about saying no, and a lot, lot more.
So thank you for bearing with me today on the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. I love the comment from the woman I spoke to, you're so busy, but it causes me to reflect that sometimes I'm busy in the wrong way. That's the concept for today.
And it's a lesson for all of us, certainly a reminder for me to set priorities, say no, do the things I want to do, not versus not things that I'm sort of pushed to do or sort of say yes to out of weakness. If you're the first person to listen to this all the way through and you send me a text at 773-766-5322, we will send you a 100-hour Amazon gift certificate. Thank you so much for listening.
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