“I’m crazy busy!” “Things are bonkers here!” “I’m in complete and utter overwhelm!” I hear these, and many similar cries, all the time from my executive coaching clients. Some people want to show off their prowess, others their dedication, but for many it’s a cry for help. I’ve caught myself doing it for all the above reasons.
I recently attended a leadership presentation that made me think and assess the usefulness of being crazy busy and operating in the behaviors that accompany it. The facilitator of the program directed the group to a TED talk delivered by an ER doctor, Darria Long Gillespie. Gillespie is an Ivy League educated MD and MBA. She is the leader of a hospital Emergency Room, is married, and the mother of two young children. Did I mention she has written two books and does a slew of media appearances, and is very active on social media? Oh! And she’s in great shape.
She is quite adamant that crazy busy cannot happen in her ER. This is not to say they don’t have times when there is a critical overflow of patients, numerous people who are seriously ill, or there are not emotionally and physically draining times. What she is sure of is you will never hear “crazy busy” on her watch in her ER.
Why not say what you are feeling when you are feeling crazy? Doctor Gillespie would argue that in a crazy state you are less capable. Your stress hormones are soaring, your executive function, which controls your memory, decision-making, and impulse control, is malfunctioning. Your anger and anxiety response is fully activated. Give that some thought. Is this really where you want to be at a time of serious problem solving, requiring positive energy, and having to get things done? Dr. Gillespie advocates for …
Processing the stress rather than reacting to it
and
Believing you can handle the situation if you choose
ready mode vs. crazy reactive mode
What does ready mode look like? The doctor uses her ER as an example, but it can be easily adapted to any work or home environment.
- Triage: She uses the red, yellow, green model separating life threatening, serious but not an immediate threat, and minor problems from one another when first determining the needs of incoming patients. I often asked my employees if a situation was a 911, 311, or go to voicemail. It’s amazing how many problems, at first, feel and sound like 911s and turned out to be go to voicemail issues. If you don’t ask, only assume, or thrive on 911s, you are setting yourself up for failure, maybe disaster. “Don’t assume the noisiest is the neediest,” is a quote from Darria.
This is true. All you need is a boss, coworker, or staff member with a flair for drama and you can get caught up in their whirlwind before you realize what is happening. Ready mode has a plan, an answer, a solution for whatever comes up in the workplace.
Triage everything — your email, your calendar, your To Do list, your problem solving, access to you, your priorities.
Low level distractions take you away from a primary issue. Formally triaging your priorities prevents you from giving into interruptions and drama.
- Design for Crazy: Gillespie gives the example of the ER always being stocked with O negative blood, the universal blood type. This is so anyone needing an immediate transfusion does not have to go through the blood typing, lab work, etc., to get what they desperately and immediately need. In the workplace this can be simple things like backup internet and telephone, emergency lighting, a who does what in times of trouble protocal, an emergency call list (not just peoples’ email), a “never run out” supply list or automatic reordering program.
Ask yourself, “What if the due date suddenly moves up a month? How will you handle this? What if a deal suddenly is going south? What intervention would you use? Think of what stresses you out and plan to deal with it before it happens or accelerates. Fire, police, the military all have drills and protocols, what drill do you need to run on yourself and your staff?
Why design for crazy?
- Get Out of Your Head: Not the thinking part of your brain but the self-critical, emotional, mean, anxious, or paranoid part. You are not going to be eaten by a lion today (hopefully never). Admit to yourself what is going on is hard, challenging. Maybe you are scared fearing undefined repercussions, fear of making errors or looking incompetent, but ruminating is not the answer.
Acknowledge internal chatter, drop it, focus on the issue at hand and find a solution.
One way to quiet the chatter is to concentrate on another. See the person’s perspective, pain, challenges. Your crazy busy inner voice may be trying to drown out the outside noise, but in fact, it is adding even more noise to the mix. Get out of your head and into the situation.
If getting rid of crazy busy is attractive to you, here are a few tips to help make it easier and long-lasting
- Teach your people what you have learned and are practicing.
- Own that you are busy, just not crazy busy because you are in ready mode.
- Optimize your sleep using one, a few, or all the behaviors research shows work — get daytime light, watch when and how much blue light you are receiving from your phone and laptop (particularly close to bedtime), exercise, avoid caffeine, love your bed, stop watching the alarm clock. If none of this helps with a good night’s sleep, check with your doctor. Poor sleep has many medical symptoms, causes, and can create serious health issues.
- Finally, to avoid crazy busy do not multi-task. Research tells us that trying to do several things simultaneously increases our stress. Despite what we think, we are not working two things at once but merely bouncing back and forth between them. It increases stress, doubles the number of errors made, and reduces productivity by 40%. That’s my pitch for single tasking.
All of us have hours, days, weeks, maybe years that seem overwhelming and endless. Choosing to use ready mode, rather than staying in crazy busy mode, is a step toward less stress, better decision-making, and quality collaboration.
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