Time, it's a funny thing. Are you a busy fool or a productive ninja?

I want to talk you today about time, not least because I’m someone who has very little of it, maybe you are too?  I am a collector of “stuff”, a serial user of the word yes, and a committed refuser of the word no.

Generally, these are traits that I like in myself.  I like that I see opportunity everywhere, I like my determination to step out of my comfort zone, and I like my willingness to help other people BUT it does come at a price.   There is simply never enough time, and I am almost always flying by the seat of my pants, spinning plates, juggling sticks and climbing up hills! Now that's a lot of metaphors, I know, but hopefully you get the point?

Here's where it gets interesting ….. July and August have not been like that – no flying by the seat of my pants, no spinning of plates, no hill climbing and no juggling of sticks!  My pants, my plates and my juggling sticks have stayed quietly and sedately in one place, leaving me with the time and the energy to reflect on how I do my work. How is this possible you may well ask? It's actually not that difficult, but it's a lesson I really struggle to take.

I took my family holiday in June, so I’ve worked over the summer when others have been on their leave. As a result, there have been less meetings, less phone calls, significantly less emails, and fewer requests for my time.   The result?  I have expended less energy and emotional intensity but been super productive.  I’ve written more, I’ve read more, I’ve listened more, I’ve solved more problems and I’ve connected with many more people at a far deeper level.  Quite simply, I’ve delivered more, and yet there’s been no drama, no running from meeting to meeting, no working late into the night or over the week-end. I’ve been more rested, and brought more of myself to every task and every conversation. I've had the time to be present in every moment.

The moral of this story?  It’s very easy for us (by which I mean me!) to be busy fools.  It’s very easy to pack every single moment of ever day, but are we actually being productive?  The answer is "no". This experience, and the time I've been given to actually reflect, to complete actions, to actively listen when people talk to me, it shows very clearly that I am not always as productive as I could be.  I am busy for sure, some weeks excessively so and there's no question I try my best in each and every situation I find myself in, but I realise generally speaking I am not as productive or as impactful as I have been these last two months.

Now, I’d love to tell you that I am now a changed a person because of this epiphany, but the likelihood is this lesson will sit with me for a few weeks more but once everyone returns to work and the calendar and the inbox start to fill up again I’ll inevitably fall back into my core habits of over filling, over sharing and over committing – it’s who I am, and so I’m putting this out here as a reminder to myself and to everyone else – don’t be “Alison the busy fool”, slow the pace and instead be  “Alison the productive ninja!” because who wouldn’t want to be a ninja?

Ninjas are awesome and let's be honest, time isn’t the problem – how we use it is.  Busy fools chase time, productive ninjas makes it count.   I’m going to hold on to my productive ninja persona for as long as I can, will you join me? And if you do, please let me know how you keep productive because I need all the encouragement I can get to stay on the ninja railroad. And to end, a quote from perhaps the most well known ninja of our times, the infamous Bruce Lee "“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”