Breaking the grip of extreme busyness

Breaking the grip of extreme busyness

Many moons ago when I was a college lad, I had a painting job that I did every summer for keg money. I was part of a two-man painting crew with a teacher named Larry and we worked for the school district that had the honor of educating me along the way. We painted everything, and I mean everything…monkey bars with toxic silver paint, yellow lines in the parking lot, classrooms, and the dreaded sashes of the old-style school window panes. I now know why they call them panes. One time Larry and I were assigned the window panes in the George Becht Elementary School built in the 1940’s. 

Painting window panes requires a pretty high level of skill, patience and a steady hand. It’s tedious and takes time. Being the competitive nudge that I am, I was very interested in breaking the routine boredom by seeing if could beat, or at least keep up to the number of panes Larry was painting in a given period of time. You must know that Larry was the Michael Jordan of painting. He was a 3rd grade teacher that had been doing this as a summer job for years to supplement his teacher salary. He painted almost twice as fast as anyone I’d ever seen. He did it with great precision, and just to rub it in, he did it with grace and ease as if he wasn’t even trying.

I started at one end of the classroom windows with Larry at the other end unaware that I was racing him. I was absolutely jamming, working up a sweat in the frenzy of pushing the productivity envelop to a whole new level. After 30 minutes I miraculously completed two vertical rows of panes. Wow! What about Larry? He did two and half rows? Are you kidding me? This can’t be right. He was whistling and singing the whole time to the little paint splattered radio we faithfully toted along everywhere we went. OK, I give up.

In frustration, I asked how it was possible that he could be kicking my butt so significantly. I’m thinking, hey, I’m a pretty good painter too! Smart people, like Larry, do remarkable things. Instead of just giving me a couple tips or guessing what the answer might be, Larry had the wisdom to say he wasn’t certain. He suggested I continue to paint at my accelerated pace and he’d OBSERVE if there was a difference in our techniques. After about 10 minutes Larry blurted out, “I think I know the answer!” 

Larry patiently explained to me that although I was painting with good brush skills and technique applying the paint, the only difference between us was that he dipped his brush almost twice as often to reload with fresh paint. Hmmmm, really that’s it? After I thought about it for a while, the extent of this paradox started to sink in. It’s counter intuitive. While you’re dipping your paint brush, you’re not actually “painting”. You don’t seemingly make any progress from the moment you stop to reload. It doesn’t feel like you’re working. In fact, while you’re reloading you even lose sight of the task at hand. Yet the discipline of taking time to get a fresh load of paint makes all the difference in the world. The brush full of paint goes farther and faster than trying to max out every last drop out of the brush… stretching it thinner and thinner to avoid stopping.  I was being schooled in the proverbial work smarter, not harder syndrome thanks to Larry’s keen observation.

How often are we tempted to stretch ourselves thin trying to DO IT ALL with great intentions? In reality, we are not as effective. Even the great Michael Jordan would sit on the bench in the third quarter to recharge his electric legs, so he could come out and dominate when the game was on-the-line. How likely are we to feel comfortable taking the “time” to recharge ourselves in the never ending “get er dun” world we live in? Perhaps you can relate if you’re feeling a little sketchy on balance and see it forcing you to work harder because you’re not taking the perceived risk of stopping.

Give yourself permission to reload:

• Are you taking time to reflect, pray, or meditate in your life?
• Do you look for the 2nd right answer that could be the creative breakthrough?
• Do you seek out opportunities to learn via a workshop, webinar, or TED Talk?
• Are you actively asking for coaching at work from respected peers and your boss?
• Will you take a strategic “day off” when you feel stretched too thin?
• Are you the person that will call “time-out” when the team is rushing to make a hasty decision?
• Will you recognize when others in your life are stretched too thin and offer your support?

What do you need to do differently to be at the top of your game AND be at grace and ease?  Can you give yourself permission to reload your brush and then paint with ferocity in LIVING color? Working smarter is a conscious choice to effective, and not just busy.

This article was first published on LinkedIn on November 20, 2018.