Too busy to get things done - intro to Productive! Magazine No.30

More and more often, people go on about how busy they are as a reply to a simple “How are you” question. It becomes uncomfortable for me to listen to this. I don’t like it. We’re all busy, right?

This is the Editor’s Note that I wrote for 30th issue of Productive! Magazine. Learn, what has helped me focus on the essential stuff and get more things done that matter.

Bragging about how busy someone is can make others think of several things the person wants to say:

1. I am better – I’m busier, more in-demand and more successful than you.

2. Here is my excuse for not doing the stuff that I promised to do.

3. My time is more valuable than yours.

I guess that if someone is feeling overwhelmed with commitments, constantly explaining away things with a busy status, it’s surely time to slow down and become more strategic.

How we spend our time is a choice. We all have the same 24 hours to fill. The thing is to know well which tasks are real priorities and should make it into our 24 hours.

Essentialism helped me get back on track

What helped me find it out? Well… I’ve read “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown one more time. I’ve also sat down to acknowledge my feelings, assumptions and plans, as well as gain some insight.

I finally understood that in the last couple of years I was acting as if there were no trade-offs.

I lost sight of the difference between what I really should be doing as opposed to everything I could do. I had to set up a good strategy to get back on track and focus on the stuff that really matters. To me. To my family. To my team.

The result? I feel better, I feel more focused and I feel more in control of my life.

Essentialist decisions concerning the Productive! Magazine

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things we should stop doing is pretending there are no trade-offs. There are. When you say “yes” to something, you say “no” to something else. Whether you like it or not.

Preparing this magazine for you every month is a big effort for me and my team. We love what this magazine stands for. We love doing it. And today we’re giving you issue 30. Wow.

After 30 issues, I think we have enough data to analyze the impact this magazine has. And I must admit it’s not as big as we had hoped for. That’s why we’re turning Productive! Magazine to a quarterly magazine.

This is an August issue. Next issue (31) will be ready for you to read in November. Issue 32 will come in February of next year… and so on.

Don’t get me wrong. I love doing the interviews (and I get to interview Derek Sivers in this issue! How cool is that?). I love being in touch with our amazing authors - they are the best productivity experts on this planet!

I want to keep doing this. But there are trade-offs, and I need my team focused on growing Nozbe because in the end we really impact more people with our tool. We get people organized. We help hundreds of thousands of people get things done. And we’re launching Nozbe in China, Korea, France, the Netherlands and Russia this fall.

These are the hard decisions, but important ones. Please read (and watch) my interview with Derek Sivers.

Question: With which of my actions I impact people the most?