The Business of Busyness

A ‘busy’ day doesn’t mean an ‘effective’ day, or a ‘better’ day.

After all, if we spend all day working on things that don’t move the needle, we earn the redundant badge of “productive”.

Similarly, an ‘effective’ day doesn’t mean a ‘busy’ day either. If we spend just enough time to drive things forward, without the rest, we create compounding mental margin for an even more ‘effective’ day tomorrow.

‘Hustle’ tries to draw parallels between two things that have no parallels at all. ‘Busy’ merely leads you to wasted time, whereas ‘effective’ leads you to both time and progress. More of one does not create more of the other.

‘Focus’ tries to separate the two poles of ‘busy’ and ‘effective’. It’s the opposite of ‘hustle’ and one that has become quite unpopular in recent years.

If you’ve fallen victim to ‘hustle’, you may want to revisit ‘focus’ to ditch the ‘busy’ and gift yourself and those you work alongside with real ‘effectiveness’.