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Busyness is the enemy of business.

By on 10/08/2012

The road from follow-your-passion to thriving business can be a bumpy one. Once you realize “if you build it, they will come” isn’t a business strategy, it’s tempting to spend every waking hour tweaking, writing, emailing, networking, and trying to push through.

“…while you’re doing it, doing it, doing it, there’s something much more important that isn’t getting done.”
– Michael E Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited

Busyness isn’t business.

Don’t confuse the two. You can work until you’re blue in the face and still not succeed. That’s not to say that hard work doesn’t or won’t pay off. But is what you’re spending your day doing really getting you one (or better, a few) steps ahead? Are your daily actions tuned to the goal you’ve set in front of you?

Check yourself.

Your goal can’t be to work yourself to the bone. The sense of accomplishment you’ve been missing won’t come from just checking tasks off a list.

What you’re missing is progress, the sense that what you’re doing matters in the larger scheme of things.

Being busy doesn’t level the learning curve. Being busy doesn’t create ease. Being busy doesn’t create satisfaction.

Know where you want to go and create a plan to get there. Remove any and all unnecessary tasks and busy work. Take time off, explore, enjoy.

Have faith that your plan will take time and that doesn’t mean that you have to fill it with work that is meaningless.

The New Economy is open source. You are the developer.

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Posted in | Tagged , | 48 Responses

48 responses to “Busyness is the enemy of business.”

  1. Mitzi Curi
    Mitzi Curi 10/08/2012 at 8:28 am | | Reply

    What a timely post! I realized the other day that I spend way too much time tidying up and taking care of trivial things and not getting important tasks done. It’s like I save the creative and exciting projects for last, after everything else is finished. So I took everything off my work table, put it all in boxes, and worked on new jewelry this weekend. It was great to do something creative first! I won’t have a jewelry line unless I create new things….

  2. Shantini
    Shantini 10/09/2012 at 6:56 am | | Reply

    This is fantastic advice Tara. I sometimes tend to fill up my time with work just because I feel that if I’m not “doing, doing, doing” then I’m sliding backward. Your post has helped set me straight. Love it – thanks so much!

  3. Kristen Prochaska
    Kristen Prochaska 10/11/2012 at 6:12 pm | | Reply

    Oh Yes! This is so true, Tara! It’s so much more about who we are BEING than being busy….

  4. Link Hype 10-12-12
    Link Hype 10-12-12 10/12/2012 at 10:01 am |

    [...] We’re all busy…but are we the right busy?  Tara Gentile tackles this question with her brutally honest post on why Busyness is the Enemy of Business. [...]

  5. sadaqah jariyah
    sadaqah jariyah 11/01/2012 at 9:08 am | | Reply

    Good saying i agree with you.If is remain busy consistently
    Then our goal is refused.

  6. Kenneth Vogt
    Kenneth Vogt 11/12/2012 at 1:03 pm | | Reply

    Being busy is how we let ourselves off the hook for failing to do business. Here another (complementary) take on how busyness hurts you: http://www.veraclaritas.com/busy-equals-blame/