How Time Poverty Affects Organizational Performance
It all started with cat food.
I’ll never forget the night I came home from work utterly exhausted and hungry after a long day at work. It was yet another day of not making meaningful progress with my organizational priorities, wondering where the day went, why I didn’t get done, and what was strategically important. A condition I now call time poverty. I was so ravenous that I grabbed the only snack I could find—a handful of stale pistachio nuts.
As I plopped on the couch, I felt a familiar tug in my leg. It was Dazzle, my cat, scratching for attention and dinner. In my haze, I threw some kitty kibbles into his dish and dozed off to sleep on the couch.
Suddenly, I awakened to a horrific gagging noise. Oh no! I thought. Dazzle is throwing up!
While tending to the damage, I realized my mouth was dry. Suddenly, it hit me. I looked down at my hand and saw that the remnants weren’t nuts—they were Dazzle’s cat food. I had been in such an auto-pilot mode I ate his food for dinner without noticing and gave Dazzle my nuts! I love my fur baby, and this could have been serious. He could have choked to death, and I wouldn’t have even known!
This experience was a wake-up call, highlighting how my “eat, sleep, work, repeat” lifestyle was robbing me of my productivity, performance, and well-being. Right then, I decided to break free from the “I’m so busy” cycle and reclaim my life.
My research shows that I am not alone. Due to overwhelming business, 78% of the population does not have time for what is most important to them.
Chances are you feel this way, too.
The Hidden Costs of Time Poverty
It’s time for some “real talk”: your busy behavior is robbing you of your full potential, especially at work. The more you pack in your day, the more your productivity, health, and happiness fall to the wayside, and the same goes for your team. Regardless of the dopamine rush, you may be getting from your busyness; there are numerous ways it is keeping you from being your best.
Organizational Performance
Ironically, the productivity we chase through busyness often suffers in the pursuit. We end up in a state of time poverty and drown ourselves in the unimportant. Overworking can lead to mental fatigue, reducing our ability to focus and think creatively. When we are always in a rush, we may make more mistakes and find it hard to develop innovative solutions. Eventually, decreased productivity and quality output will harm your personal and professional success.
Mental Health
One of the most immediate and noticeable impacts of busyness is our mental health. The constant pressure to stay productive and meet endless demands can lead to chronic stress and anxiety, and the relentless hustle leaves little room for relaxation or mental recuperation.
Physical Health
The pursuit of productivity can sometimes come at the cost of our physical health. Fatigue becomes your best friend as your body is pushed beyond its limits. We are on autopilot, which leaves us to do things like eat cat food for dinner. Lack of rest and self-care can lead to a host of poor health outcomes, including brain fog, weakened immune systems, chronic disease, and disrupted sleep.
Why We Equate Success with Time Poverty
Many of us wear our hectic schedules like a badge of honor, bragging about our color-coded calendars and endless to-do lists. But why has busyness become the ultimate measure of achievement?
Societal Conditioning: The glorification of hustle culture is prevalent in movies, TV shows, and books that feature attractive protagonists with big, fancy jobs, training us to believe the harder we work, the more luxurious the reward.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): The pressure to constantly be engaged, personally and professionally, pushes down on us with every scroll of LinkedIn, Instagram, or email newsletter you get in your inbox.
Self-Worth: We often measure our value by how busy we are. People often equate our standing in society with how busy we are at work, at home, and in the community. Busy is better.
Quantity over Quality: As employees, we tend to compare our work to that of our peers. Since the workplace is a “what have you done for me lately” environment, those who seem to be completing projects and working rapidly are glorified, while those who do not are often ostracized.
Strategies to Overcome Busyness
Conquering the thief called busyness requires intentional action, commitment, and accountability. The Solution to Busyness is knowing HOW to turn mayhem into meaning. Here are some effective data-driven strategies to help you break free from the cycle of time poverty:
It’s not impossible to break free from the cycle of busyness. I know because I have been where you are right now: addicted to busy. That’s why I created and tested a 3-step Busy-Busting Framework that offers a clear, actionable path to reclaiming your productivity, health, and happiness.
Step 1: Subtraction
Eliminating low-value activities from your daily routine lets you focus on what truly matters. Busy traps are everywhere, and they chew up our resources. For example, going down the email rabbit hole for most of your day, attending low-value meetings, or stopping-starting focused tasks that cause you to spend more time but also result in diminished quality.
The crazy thing is that busy traps are habitual, and like all habits, they are something we can control and change; however, we don’t always realize we are doing them. That is why I created the busy barometer: a quick 4-minute online survey that identifies the most common busy traps and provides solutions for eliminating them. Link to the busy barometer.
Step 2: Mojo-Making
When we are busy, we put happiness on the back burner. We tend to think of happiness as a destination, a thing I will be happy when I:
Finish the project
Receive a promotion
Get married
Too often, the variables contributing to happiness as a destination are out of our control. Happiness is really about the micro-moments we control, the ones we create for ourselves, things that can be easily attained and bring you joy. I call them happiness rituals; they work for us individually and organizationally.
When we schedule a few 5-minute rituals throughout our day, we get an endorphin hit that stimulates our mood, energy, ability to focus, fight chronic disease, and even improve our lifespan.
Creating intentional acts of joy, focusing on the idea that happiness isn’t a destination but a series of purposeful, joyful moments woven into our daily lives, puts you back in the driver’s seat. For example, I eat three pieces of dark chocolate daily at 11:00 AM. It’s my slice of heaven. I unwrap each piece slowly, close my eyes, and savor every moment. It’s like pushing a reset button.
Step 3: Value-Vibing:
Knowing what’s important in your values gives you a compass for your decisions and actions. It will ensure you have a filter for doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason; it’s about learning what to say yes or no to.
My research shows four value clusters are crucial to quality of life: human connection, growth, energy management, and authenticity. When we align our time with our values, we never end the day feeling time-poor.
For example, too often, I work, work, work, and don’t connect [backlink] with human beings; it makes me feel isolated, sad, and unable to get another perspective that is often useful. But when I take the time to connect, I get a different perspective, feel refreshed and warm, and know my basic human needs are being met.
Are You Ready to Banish Time Poverty from Your Organization?
Sign up to be the first to know when Beyond Busyness: How to Achieve More by Doing Less hits the shelves. Learn how to move beyond the busy treadmill so you can live a life of productivity, happiness, and self-care – without sacrificing one for the other. You’ll also learn about the Busy Busting Process, my signature three-step process to taking control of your life, career, and schedule.