Toastmaster Project # 5 : Your body Speaks

Why Am I always busy?

IT revolution world over and specifically in India, bought so many things with it apart from 5million jobs.

Like Junk food, work pressure and lot of stress.

One more thing it bought is what I call the " Me busy feeling !!! "

How many of us think that we are busy most of the times ?

We wish we had some more time in our life ?

How many of us get this feeling of being busy almost 24X7X365?

Please raise your hands.

I could see almost unanimous agreement.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen and a very good afternoon to all of you.

This is a common feeling that we all share, "Me busy feeling".

But what if I say, no one is busy , at least as busy as they think ?

What if I try to convince you that we all can very well manage our time and not feel busy and still do all the things that you always wanted to do.

This is what I'd like to talk to you about, today.

I'll share something I've personally discovered for myself and learned in due course of time about this " Me busy feeling ".

I've learned that we are not busy but we think so.

Does that sound contradictory?

You all might be thinking, that this guy is crazy and has no idea of how much work do I have.

Well what do you think Synopsys pays me for attending Toastmaster sessions ?

I also work and work on almost similar scenarios as yours. We might work on different technologies , different domains but we need to acknowledge the fact that all those who work , with very few exception work almost same number of hours and have almost equal amount of work load.

If you think because you are manager you have more work, or because you are an engineer you do more work, you are fundamentally assuming something that is not true.

So first thing I'd like you to acknowledge is that we all work and we all feel busy.

So you agree that we are all busy ? Yes ?

Once you agree to the fact we are all equally busy, I'd like to tell you that the truth is "we are not busy"!!!! But we think so.

There is a big difference between your thinking you are busy and being really busy.

And if you think you are busy, you become busy.

Confused ? So am I !!!!!

Ok so let me put it another way,

A psychological research proved that if you think you are sick you might actually become sick.

The research says that if you start believing in something, it can take the shape of a true event and can easily affect your mental and even physical state.

For e.g. Imagine you wake up in day and your wife says, hey what happened you look so weak , seems you are not well.

But you know that you are feeling good so you say to your wife, No nothing like that, I am doing fine.

Then you have breakfast and your child says, Papa what happened you look like very tired. Now you start thinking may be I am really not doing well.

But somehow you reach work and at work you meet a colleague and he says hey "Ajit" what happened, you look so tired, are you sick?

By this time you will start believing that you are not well and quite possibly you might start feeling tired and sick and take the day off, come home and relax and may be take some medicine.

What you think or believe is very important.

And if we all think that we are busy and this makes us feel busy, far more busy than you actually might be.

Let me explain what actually keeps you busy.

Suppose you've a meeting from 10-12 , then a training from 2-4 and need to reply to few mails before 5 O clock.

When you come to work at 9, you are already partially into meeting, you keep thinking about it. Then you finally attend the meeting from 10-12 go to luch but still some points from the meeting keeping coming into your mind and you keep discussing same with others.

By 1 O clock, you start thinking about training that is scheduled 2-4.and you also keep thinking that you need to reply to some imp emails.

By 4 you start worrying about the mails to reply.

By the time you reach home at 6, if somebody asks you how was your day , you'll say " damn busy, meetings and training whole day.

But the actual time for meetings and training was just 4 hours while you get a sensation that it was whole day and hence you call yourself busy when you actually may not be.

Few months back I was also under the same impression, I used to think that I am the most busy person on the planet. I did not only think, but believed it to the core.

And if I see someone sitting leisurely reading a new paper or sipping a cup of tea, I'll say god knows how these people get so much of time. I am sure these people do not work as hard as I do.

And I had reason to think so. We all have reasons to be busy.

I was involved in so many things. I actively participate in Toastmasters, I am a part of community relation at Synopsys, I was learning Japanese since april 2 hours daily, I had my guitar classes twice a week, I had to undergo few technical trainings, I organize and participate in cultural events , I have a girl friend who talks at least 2 hours a day and so on.

And all this apart from my demanding job which hardly allows me some time.

Upon some investigation I realized that I was not as busy I used to think.

The problem was I'd continuously think about all that I do in my day and that kept me busy rather than the actual stuff.

Earlier, when I am at work I'll keep thinking about other stuffs like TM, guitar exams, Japenese home work etc and that's why at the end of the I felt that I am completely occupied. I don't have even a single minute to spare.

Then I changed my attitude, I said to myself, I am not going to think about my GF or my job when I am in TM.

I am not going to think about Japanese work when I am practicing guitar.

And believe me ladies and gentlemen it worked. It gave me so much extra time that I wasted in unproductive thinking.

So the key message here is " Do not think too much, or avoid unproductive thinking ".

Let that event come, do not just keep thinking about it and once done with it, forget it and do not unnecessarily contemplate on it.

Because if we give some rest to our mind to relax, we won't get stressed and will not feel unnecessarily busy or occupied.

And why is so much fuzz about "Me busy feeling" ? Because if you think you are busy, you give up on time management and in turn miss out various important things in life.

You become stressful, you don't attend your best friends wedding, you don't spent time with your family, you don't take up new challenging assignments, more or less we start forgetting to live.

Now the billion dollar question is , is it possible for us to come out of this " Me busy feeling ? " . The answer is an absolute YES.

All you've to do is look into your personal and professional life and see if you are really busy or just think too much.

If you understand that you are thinking too much, you'll automatically come out of it.

Because this is a problem whose solution lies in recognizing what is the problem.

There are two key messages here " One what we think can easily affect the actuality " and second we can avoid being busy by not thinking too much.

If you can try this, you'll have more time for yourself, your family, your job.

More time means, more money, more happiness and of course more opportunities to be busy.

Mr. Toastmasters.