Stop working, start thinking

You think working hard is one of the main prerequisites to get promoted? Think again. Workhorses are needed and valued, but they rarely become champions. They just keep working and delivering (and then shot).

You are too busy to think

When you are a workhorse (or a busy bee, whatever is your preference), you spend all your time switching from task to task trying to keep up with the amount of work piling up. You are delivering all right, and your boss and colleagues love you for that. But at the end of the day you feel exhausted and have no energy left. What’s worse, you do not have any time during the day to set aside and quietly think.

Why do you need quiet time you may ask? Well, this is where you can spend time thinking about value you deliver and plan your next move. You can also think about why people dump work on your lap and how to either do it more efficiently (thus freeing up your time) or refuse it altogether. This is where you can think about potential efficiencies you can introduce into your work to cut down on the busy time.

Escape the quicksand

If you are familiar with Agile or lean manufacturing process, you may recognize the term unplanned work. This is what de-rails the process taking up valuable time for work piece processing. Your queue becomes longer and overall line productivity drops. But what can you do?

Learn to recognize and reduce or better eliminate unplanned work. All these “favors” from people you know (and don’t)? Constant emergencies? Yep, this is all unplanned work. Should you refuse doing favors? It depends, but in general, they may just become “planned” work again if you put them in your queue and actually plan time to do it. All it takes is setting proper expectations. If it is an emergency then look for its source. Is it repeating time after time? Time to fix the underlaying problem.

What if your department or a company downsized? Suddenly you have more work to do. Well, time to re-prioritize. If roles are eliminated, is this work still relevant? Who consumes the results? Can you automate, make work more efificent.

Do you have staff but forget or do not want to delegate? Red flag!

To find answers to all these questions you need time to think, so create it and start optimizing your busy process into the lean one. Actually go into your calendar and block time for thinking. Also block time for deep work and make these repeated patterns on your calendar so people get accustomed to it. If you free up more time, do not advertise it, just add it to where you need more time to think or work.

Stop working

Burnout is real. I have seen too many people crash and burn at work when they are busy all the time. Being a manager for many decades, I have also seen people not take their time off seriously. Or not take it at all! Do not be like that, when you are done working at 5pm, STOP working! Disconnect, set boundaries, go on vacation. If people learn that you will always answer your phone off hours they WILL call. If they know you don’t, they will choose the one who does. So make sure you actually have time to relax and spend it with your family.

So in summary, you should always keep in mind that busy work not always translates into promotion. People value your work output, yes, but that’s all they value if you do not provide anything else. When you actually have time to think, then you provide a different kind of value, the one where you have YOU attached. You optimize processes, reduce roadblocks, manage workloads and cut down on waste. When you stop being busy all the time, you can do more of higher value work. This is visible, this is what gets you promoted. So stop working, and start thinking.