When was the last time you felt that you had the permission—from other people or from yourself—to stop focusing on just being busy?

To create the space you need to think about potential solutions to your company’s most pressing problems?

Or to block off a few hours on your calendar to do your actual work? (I’m not talking about clearing out your email inbox or sitting on yet another pointless group Zoom call. I’m talking about actual high-value, high-impact work.)

Or to ask questions that nobody else seems to be asking—the types of questions that interrupt the typical auto-pilot approach to decision-making?

Have you ever felt truly comfortable doing any of these things?

If you’re an employee, you likely work in a corporate culture that rewards LOOKING productive, busy, and engaged.

You’re incentivized to:

• Respond as quickly as possible to every Slack message and internal email thread, regardless of its importance or relevance to high-priority goals…
• (Attempt to) multi-task during Zoom meetings or while doing your actual work, even though that means you may not be doing any of it very well…
• Always have more on your plate than you can really handle—and be sure that everyone else knows how busy you are—yet still be willing to say yes when asked to take on even more…

…because these activities make it look like you’re actually doing something.

Even if you’re the boss or are self-employed, you may have never explicitly given yourself permission to slow down, think more deeply, and set appropriate boundaries with clients, partners, and employees.

All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t make a difference if you haven’t yet given yourself permission to stop trying to be “busy,” and instead focus on what matters most. Things like prioritizing your energy, creating space for new insights to emerge, and carving out time for deep thinking and problem solving.

What will you do today to start giving yourself that permission?

• Will you look at your typical day-to-day activities, and honestly assess which of those are actually having the impact you’re looking to create?
• Will you start small by blocking off 15-minutes here and there for uninterrupted, focused work?
• Will you allow yourself to start getting used to feeling the discomfort that often comes with setting reasonable boundaries and asking challenging questions?