The Coaching Corner with Michael Riegel: Crazy is Now a Word
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I know, crazy has always been a word. However, crazy has gone from just being an adjective to being an adverb. Maybe it’s the language nerd in me or having been raised by an English teacher but the inclusion of “crazy” as an adverb was interesting. And worth a little examination. Let’s think of the context for the new usage. How often do you ask a colleague or friend how they are only to get a response: I’m crazy busy. There you have it. An adverb. I suppose part of the inclusion is a loosening of language or a more casual approach to the words we use.
I won’t fight the linguists and I think the attachment of crazy to busy is interesting. For as long as I can remember, busy was equated with action, progress, movement. If you could not proudly claim to be busy some might consider that slacking off. Busy is unquantifiable. Busy is part attitude and part time management challenge. A podcast guest recently said “busy is what happens when you are the mercy of someone else’s schedule.” We work in a schedule driven industry but that does not mean that we should relinquish our personal time or shy away from establishing boundaries to maintain productivity and maybe even a little balance.
Boundaries are Your Friends
Everyone has a period of the day when they feel most productive. I know that I am most likely to power through tasks early in the morning before I get interrupted by phone calls, meetings, and client requests. Knowing that, I block off my mornings and guard that time fiercely. There must be a good reason to encroach on my most efficient work period. Those boundaries can also include setting an out of office message on your email and phone to reduce distractions, offering alternate meeting times, and removing your cell phone from view. Research shows that the closer your phone is to you physically, the more of a distraction it becomes.
Resetting Our Idea of Productivity
Productivity is generally reported out as a function of time. This is how we often estimate our costs. How many hours will it take to place 100 yards of concrete? What is my hourly labor cost? I believe we would benefit by including another way of considering productivity. Not only time. Let’s think of productivity in terms of space. Space to think. Space to coordinate. Space to consider different approaches. Space to strategize. This is not an endorsement of one or the other, this is an “and” approach.
The path to being and feeling more productive, not just busy, is in recapturing control of your calendar and creating space to be innovative, inventive, ponderous, and strategic. You will be amazed at the impact of even 15 or 20 minutes of quiet solitude with your thoughts. I can’t wait to hear all about your next big idea or burst of productivity.
Michael Riegel
