We all use time as an excuse at some time in our lives. The number of courses, books and webinars on time management is overwhelming and like most things the real impact is improving your time isn’t the issue. It’s the choices you make around time.

I love working with clients and seeing how we can “create” time back to them through a simple diary management activity and then a super-fast time study. The reality is we lie to ourselves about time and how we really use it.

'I'm spinning so many plates at the moment

Urban dictionary definition

We have all said it at some point in time.

Why do we say it?
What does it mean?
What does it say about you and me?
How does it affect others and yourself?

Commonly the next phrase is,

"I am just trying to keep them all up in the air" when you write it down, and it reads even worse.

Human nature and conversationalist rules, state that if we hear these phrases in a conversation, we probably pay very little attention to the real meaning or impact they have.

Yet is it a simple, phrase that is all about self-promoting, or as I said to a client last week, you could even call it sycophantic busyness. Self-promoting how busy you are or boosting your self-importance. Is this a little harsh? I am not sure it is.

As a coach, you continuously consider what people are saying to you - Why What, How and What if/about?

So what does the phrase " I'm spinning too many plates" imply? If you are spinning plates, does it perhaps suggest you lack clarity?

Ask yourself, do you know the answers to the following:

Why is this the choice of language?
Why are you short of time?
Why is this important?
What decisions and choices are you making?
What’s important to you right now?
Is this a personal choice or do you “feel” you have to say it?
Do you believe it’s true?

From a business perspective, as a leader or owner consider these questions if you are saying regularly I am too busy

What are your 3, strategic goals for this business year?
How many meetings do you attend? Why?
How do you communicate?
What are the milestones required in delivering them?
What requires your full focus right now?
How many things can you do really well?
How much time does each one take/require?
What are you delegating and not? Why?
If you are a solopreneur what’s your network of support? Do you ask for help?
Why did you start your business and are you doing that?

If you are answering no or dont know to any of these, then your spinning plates is useless. You are only demonstrating ineffectiveness and the inability to say No. Or it could be worse, your spinning plates and glorification of busyness could be your ego taking over. Self-importance, desire to be liked, needed, want could all be impacting your time.

Take this quick Ego Test.

Review your scores …..Are you using spinning plates as an excuse or is your ego talking?

Busyness is not good.

It doesn’t make us more important (fact here we are all equal!)
It doesn’t make us look better
It doesn’t justify or validate
Busyness means we aren’t choosing
It means we are prioritising the wrong things
It means we can do better

““....we are creating a self-fulfilling non-fulfilling cycle...”

— Debbie Halls-Evans RLC Global COO

The glorification of busy has gone to extremes now. If we truly gave a shit, really cared or wanted to help. We would -the free holiday example we would suddenly make time.

We CAN make time. Yet we know that we don’t actually do this. We say we do.

We tell and convince ourselves and others that we are so busy we just couldn’t take the time to call someone back? Or to visits? Or to follow up? Or to reply? Or to ..... the list goes on.

Yet did you check your emails? Your phone? Watch that tv show? Attend a meeting just in case?

If we want we will find the time. We don’t.

We choose to not do and fill time with non-important stuff.

So stop convincing yourself and others and truly look at what you do with your time. It’s about choices and sometimes choosing a priority that means compromise too.

“Sometimes exhaustion is not a result of too much time spent on something, but of knowing that in its place, no time is spent on something else.”
― Joyce Rachelle

What does “being” and not using or glorifying busy look and feel like? Well, I was a serial I’m so busy person and this is what I did:

I choose to spend time with my family (kids and grandkids ) overseeing friends
I choose to live away because I choose to have a better lifestyle with my husband
I choose to work when I want, where and how so I can manage my workload and also walk, read, cook and exercise
I choose to make time to connect through social media as I like reading the comments and seeing what other people do I have to compromise that I don’t write as many blogs posts as I use my time writing smaller posts
I choose to not watch TV instead I read
I choose not to call someone back sometimes so I can talk about life and work with my husband.
I choose to not book meetings in the morning before 9 am so I can workout and walk

Create a mantra

“I choose to never be too busy. I am not. I have enough time *always* because I make that time work. I am intentionally active”

We all know we can do better, we can improve, we can and will continue working on making time a bonus and not a negative. See your real priorities and make them count. Choose no one else. What do you choose? Carry on being busy and glorify it or actually make your time count?

Effectiveness and productivity

It's a proven scientific fact that we can't multi-task, we are not effective or precise. We do less and do it worse. So spinning plates is another demonstration of our lack of rather than the personal boost of how "we've got it together" and the self-importance, we think we are portraying. Stay away from multi-tasking potentially a metric for “being better than others”. Single task completion is more effective, better quality and removes duplication

Your language matters when it comes to time

Let’s consider our language in time use and application too.

The impact of glorying busy, working till we drop, working into the “wee hours”, burning the candles both ends, against the clock, time flies, in the nick of time how about

I’m so busy?
I couldn’t do that I’m too busy?
I am so into gratitude, kindness, self-care, mindfulness, - yet in reality, you don’t because you are too busy? (Or you say it because you think you should?)
Do you say I’m just constantly on?
Are you busy making excuses?
I always do that

If I offered you a free all-expenses trip to an exotic island and you would meet your favourite celebrity/author/ inspiring person - yet you had to do it in the next 24 hours? How busy would you be?

How quickly could you turn it around to not being so busy? what happened to be so busy?

This isn’t a post about self-care, wellbeing or anything other than simply please stop telling yourself and others you are too busy.

Permission

Consider this Would you give your house keys or car keys over instantly if someone just asks for them? Would you question why they want them? No, we wouldn’t. So why do you with your time?
When you give time to others you give them continuous permission to take that time - each and every time they want. Permission is a huge opportunty to reflect on. If you say yes to doing then you give permission to yourself and others that you will and are able to. You offer that your time is given for that task, action.

Time is your choice, you own it.

Time is ours to do what we want with and if you want to waste it go you, this isn’t a preach that you can’t do what you want. This is STOP saying you are busy when you are not. STOP making excuses and say NO I am choosing to do this instead.

The question is being selfless isn’t selfish. Being focused and choosing HOW you will spend your time isn’t unkind or rude.

Ask yourself what are you saying?

if we simplify we get more effective and productive. In business, we can learn a lot from this, by removing phrases that have no positive impact and saying what you really mean. Having a better conversation and saying what you are doing or are focused on. We are all busy to one degree or another. Yet we are all guilty of generalising in our communications rather than connecting and listening fully to see precisely where the other person is at.

It’s easier to say yes, it can make us feel better, liked, more important yet it has a detrimental effect on us. Learn to say No when needed. The ability to say No brings controls and choice back to you. Giving permission to others to take your time

Re-focus today and see what happens to your plates, maybe you have never been spinning plates after all and focus on doing one great thing well rather than many badly, ineffectively or unproductively. Satisfaction comes from doing and completing this is done when we manage and choose how to use our time.

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Caveat and Warning

This isn’t a post on not feeling, well-being or mental health as these are critical and essential topics in the workplace. that require dedicated attention. Consider this more psychological safety in its first inception. We all have days when we don’t just do anything we should or could as we haven’t got the energy, the focus, the desire or the need. that’s ok that is being human. it’s about truly what are you doing with your time? We read so many things about how people have found out they have illnesses or life-changing things and they change how they connect, do, act, say and spend their time- let’s not wait till that moment surprises us.

Super Time Hacks - instant time back!

Be realistic and candid with yourself, do the ego test and work out what is it like, desire, want, need, ego, or not saying no that creates your need to be busy?
Use your phone and computer to track your usage (normal on all phones now - screentime, google has wellbeing analytics ) this self-check is critical to an honest and real assessment of where time is being
Use an app to stop your wasting time- Offtime, Moment, Appdetox,
Turn airplane mode on or privacy mode and get into a focussed flow when working on a specific project
Turn off ALL NOTIFICATIONS on all devices.
Set an alarm each day (different times each day) to check, follow up, reply.
Do a task once- duplication is the consumer of time and also creates more work for everyone.
Allocate specific time blocks in your diary- you time, activity reading, time, learning, stop, review, reflect, do, action, etc. this is essential
Put pre and post buffers on EVERY Meeting, action or diary invite (Calendly lets you do this automatically s a setting). Creates time to prepare and complete each meeting, task and creates time as you are not adding time at the end of the day or chasing. Very powerful.
Create better email headers- code them FYI, ACTION, URGENT. REVIEW etc and use it for every email. Educate others or make a rule in your team. This will allow you to be more productive and act when needed.
Be more reflective and intentional. If you make to-do lists consider using the Eisenhower matrix (urgent, Important, Not Urgent, not Important)
SLOW DOWN- seems counterintuitive yet it works.
Play music - an upbeat song for energy and more classical for focus detailed work. Music has a positive impact on us
Use a Password manager - the amount of time that can be lost
Unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists - brilliant app for this is unrollme (not in EU currently), or simply use your email provider to unsubscribe (see email and you can instantly do it on most standard email providers- Gmail for example or apple have instant actions. It makes a big difference not scrolling to get to the emails that matter

Why You Should Forget About Improving Your Time