Wherever you are is where you should be. If you try to be many places at once, you are truly present nowhere. Too many people are boasting that they are ‘so busy.’ If you are consummately busy, you are either poor at time management, seriously undervaluing your time, or both. Some say how ‘busy’ they are to imply that they are important because they are so in demand. Thus, we should feel blessed by their mere presence. Sometimes being ‘busy’ is the excuse for something being a low priority and you just didn’t get to it. Regardless, being ‘super busy’ just means you are unproductive and a bad at time management. People who are excellent at time management are optimally productive and add value to their ventures. Strive to be accessible NOT busy! * Being ‘busy’ * Productivity versus just spending time * Do you really need to tell everyone how busy you are to make yourself seem important? * Bad time management: People who are ‘crazy busy’ are either terrible time managers, seriously undervaluing their time…or both. Most likely they are or just really insecure about how valuable they actually are that they need to say over and over again how busy they are. * Time management as an excuse: Being busy is often the excuse for laziness, or really it is an excuse for not having responded to someone because it was a really low priority for them and they just didn’t get to it or even think of it. * Time Management * Valuing your time…if you are consummately busy you are undervaluing your time * Lots of time management tools, but you need to figure out what works best for you * Case study: Parents and homework * parents complain about their kids * most of these parents are just spending too much time doing their kids homework for them and that’s why they complain so much. * homework needs to be productive and not just busy work * homework and ‘busy work’ have some valuable properties * teaches time management and the need for efficiency…what to spend extra time on and what can just be knocked off the list. * teaches upward management….kids have an opportunity to communicate with their teachers and learn to manage expectations. * Work Life balance – Can only be achieved with excellent time management * The 24/7 fallacy creates poor time management * Clients and customers need efficiency, reliability, and consistency. * Consistency and perceived certainty within a smaller percent of hours where you can give 100% of your time are better than having a small percent of your time available 100% of the time. * Boundaries are a good thing, and a key to effective time management Strive to be accessible, not busy! An excellent time manager will be 100% present wherever they are, because wherever you are is where you are supposed to be.