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Writer's pictureYvonne Root

Too Busy is Too Busy

Updated: Jun 23, 2020

Busy, it’s a way of life

Yet, I’m telling you, stop wearing busyness like it’s a badge of honor – because it’s not!

There are plenty of places to display your construction contracting prowess. And, being too busy shouldn’t be among them.

I’ve heard them, I’ve participated in them, and I believe you’ve done the same. There are conversations in which the participants, (me included) try to one-up one another with tales of how stinking busy we are.

“I was so busy last week I forgot to _____________.” You fill in the blank. Being too busy means you forget the small things as well as the big things that are important in your business as well as in your life.

“I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t had any time to ____________.” You know, fill in the blank. Whether it is spending time with your spouse and your offspring or time to rest and relax there are things and people who are more important than your busyness.

“Tell me about it, I’m so busy I had to ______________.” Fill. In. The. Blank.

Our society, our day-in-time, our egos all try to fool us into thinking busy is the same as productive. They’re liars wrong.

Stop the busy Merry-Go-Round

Your construction contracting business, your family, and your life are all hoping you learn how to ditch busyness. A while back, I mentioned these actions to take when trying to avoid overwhelm.

Delegate – to those already in your employ

Designate – to new hires or outsource service providers

Automate – through SaaS and apps

Eliminate – the tasks, duties, or systems that no longer work

They’re also part of a good action plan when it comes to ditching busyness.

Busy without gain

There are times when your actions, usually taken without thought, devolve into busyness. And while they may seem necessary on the surface, are simply a waste of your valuable time.

First example

If you’re running all around town trying to collect time sheets from the folks on the jobsite in order to meet payroll you’re wasting time. Your valuable time.

Say you tried to automate that particular function and your people aren’t following through. You have some options which don’t involve your time. Push harder. Let them know that whatever hours they don’t hand in on time won’t get paid until next week.

(If you don’t have a human resource department to be sure what your obligations are, we suggest finding an outsource HR department. One we highly recommend, because we’ve seen how she has been able to solve problems for our clients, is Lynda McKay of HRextension.)

Another option is to delegate by sending someone else to take care of the task. Send someone with a lesser paygrade than you.

Second example

Another example is when you find yourself with a shovel down in the soggy ditch because one or more of your crew (the ones who are supposed to be in the trenches) didn’t bother to show up. I know, this is one of the hardest issues to deal with right now – good people are hard to find. Yet, there are ways to deal with this also.

Consider maintaining a relationship with temp providers and give them a call right away when you see your manpower is low. (Remember, you’re not necessarily looking for a long-time hire – you simply need someone in the ditch right now.) Or you may wish to reach out to colleagues in other trades who might be able to provide a laborer for a day or week whose skill level will work for the simple tasks involved.

Final example

And, the last example I’ll provide (because hey – we at Schulte and Schulte are a prime source for accounting needs) don’t mess around trying to figure out how to do your own bookkeeping or back office tasks. Designate to an outsource provider and get that stuff off your plate.

One of our goals is to help our clients scale their construction contracting businesses. Another of our goals is to see to it that our clients are able to get home in time for dinner. Yeah, we’re that cheesy. Yet, we’re happy to hear that our clients are able to do just that – most of the time.

Busy in a good way, with tasks which aid you in growing your business is great. We want you to be busy. What we don’t want is for you to be Too Busy to enjoy your life.

In this article from Lifehack you can find four more examples of ways to stop wasting your time. Good stuff there.

We’ve established a waiting list for those who would like to get in on the services we provide. You can get in touch here, and we’ll be sure you get your rightful place in line.

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