Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

November 4, 2007

TOO Busy? Find Out in Less Than a Minute

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:59 am

Got Less Than a Minute?

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Sara asked, “Are We Really That Busy?”

Are we?

We seem to have so much to do and so little time.
We don’t even have time to think about the time we don’t have.
It feels dangerous, but if we stop, we’ll never catch up. . . .

Are we TOO busy? Are we squandering the time of our lives?

It’s easy to find out for yourself. Let’s have an experience. It won’t take long, I promise. After all, it’s about being busy. This simple test will only take as long as you’re willing to invest in yourself. You can do it in less than a minute.

Take the Test

Ready? Will you try this? I’ll give you two links. For each link, follow these quick, simple steps.

  1. Read the word that is the link anchor text as you click the link.

  2. Put your dominant hand on your forehead as you look at the site you land on and say the link anchor text word 3 more times.

  3. Leave the site you land on when you feel you’ve gotten what you need from it.

Ready? Here are the links.

Link 1 anchor text: time poor

Link 2 anchor text: time rich

Decide for Yourself

Well, what do you think? Really. After all, as we think, so we are. [that concept predates our calendar The words we choose affect how we think and the way we perceive our lives.

Were you too busy to even click the links? What does that say about how you value your time?

If you did click the links, which made you feel in control of your life?

Are we really that busy?

OR do we only think we are?

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30 Comments to “TOO Busy? Find Out in Less Than a Minute”

  1. November 4th, 2007 at 9:50 am
    Anna said

    Not only do we think we’re too busy, we wear our busyness as a badge of honor. We try to outdo each other in busy.

    What are we so afraid of that we can’t slow down?

  2. November 4th, 2007 at 9:54 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Anna!
    It’s true. Some of us do wear our busy-ness as a badge of honor. “Whew! I must be important! Look at how much I have to do!” :)

    I think I’ll make a list of reasons.
    Reason 1: Fear of looking unimportant.

  3. November 4th, 2007 at 10:24 am
    Mike said

    Reason 2: Fear of having to think introspectively.

    This was great, Liz. And I spent way more time on link two.

  4. November 4th, 2007 at 10:46 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Had some time left over this afternoon ;-) so tried both links.
    The the first site my first reaction was: Oh no, not anohter ‘time-saving’ widget I have to get to grips with - I don’t have time for that ;-) so I hardly read two paragraphs of the text.

    The second site brought salt taste and sweet memories - plus the feeling: yes, there’s where I am, busy or not.

    But then I think I’m lucky, having the bestest job in the whole world nowadays ;-)

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  5. November 4th, 2007 at 10:50 am
    Karin H. said

    LOL side-note:

    Looked at the first link again and discovered the image just below the first few sentences is just a (rotating) ad. The first time I looked it showed - perhaps very appropriate - a time-saving gadget ;-) Hence my comment above.
    (Now it shows a very nice car)

    Makes you wonder about the effectiveness of having an ad in the middle of your article, specially an article about time and being busy ;-)

    (Oop, long side note)

    Karin H.

  6. November 4th, 2007 at 10:51 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mike!
    Who knows what possessed me to get here? I do know it was a group effort sparked by the last two posts on this subject.

    No surprise where you spent your time. :)

  7. November 4th, 2007 at 10:53 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I know. I think the ad assumes that we’re too busy to read the whole article. Hmmmmm.

    Quit now! Quit now! You’re too busy to read.

  8. November 4th, 2007 at 10:57 am
    Karin H. said

    ;-) LOL

    (OK, I go home now - worked long enough for a Sunday - tomorrow is another day, great!)

    Karin H

  9. November 4th, 2007 at 11:01 am
    ME Strauss said

    Good afternoon, Karin!
    Enjoy the salt taste and sweet memories. :)

  10. November 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
    Scott Allen said

    They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words (or in this case, 678). Fortunately for us super-busy folks, it only takes a fraction of the time to view one picture as it does to read 1,000 words.

    Wearing my Busy Badge, for better or for worse,

    - Scott -

  11. November 4th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scott!
    A breath of air, and another look at the picture might refuel that engine . . . huh? Whadya say?

    smiling,
    Liz

  12. November 4th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
    Mike said

    I have a hunch at what possessed you to get here; I’m glad you did. ;-)

    Oh, and I’m very excited to see where this goes. I’m tightening the chin strap on my helmet! LOL

    Mike

  13. November 4th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mike!
    Not much in my life could be the prompt, if that’s what you’re thinking. For the first time in millions of trips out of town, I seem to be ahead of time.

    How did that happen? !

  14. November 4th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
    Mike said

    “When the student is ready…”

    Sometimes you’re too close to things to see your inner journey unfolding. Others have the benefit of 50 yard line seats. ;-)

  15. November 4th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Great . . . you know how curious I am! Drive me crazy like that.

    Now I’ll be inventing new thoughts just to figure out what you’re NOT talking about. :)

  16. November 4th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
    Mike said

    I can’t say I have any spectacular insights, but between our conversations over the past few weeks and the posts this week, I sensed something important shifting…the old “or something even better is now manifesting in a totally harmonious manner…” Not sure what it is, but I feel it nigh upon us! ;-)

  17. November 4th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    You ARE some Spooky Action.

    I’m wondering where this is going now, myself. :)

  18. November 4th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
    Trip Around the Blogosphere 11-04-2007 | Pajama Professional said

    [...] did a wonderful job of answering a question I posed a couple of days ago regarding how busy we are. As usual, Liz put a lot of thought into her answer and it’s even terrifically [...]

  19. November 5th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
    Zakman said

    Maybe I didn’t quite get it, or I’m too curious!

    Anyways, I actually did everything in your instructions (yeah, including putting my right hand on my forehead). So what happened?

    I got tense immediately looking at “time-poor”. All I could think of was, man, I got so many things to do, do I have the time to read this? I couldn’t wait to leave the page.

    The “time-rich” cooled me off… like I could stare at the pic without feeling the pinch of time… I was aware that whatever passed thru my head was peaceful and that it didn’t bother me.

    So am I busy or I just imagine I’m busy?

    Oooooh… that reminds me I haven’t yet made the list of things to do…. ;)

  20. November 5th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Zakman,
    I think that’s exactly the point. When we think we’re busy, we feel overwhelmed and too busy to stand it. When we think we’re not, all of our priorities relax and we have room to do the same.

    It’s all about what is on our mind. Just changing what we were thinking and looking at changes the picture. So whether we’re busy is about whether we “think” we are. :)

  21. November 5th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
    Zakman said

    Liz,

    Thanks for your reply!

    And now that reminds of the quote: “The busiest person has time for everything–THAT’S why he is busy!”

    Taken alternatively, “If I’m not busy, I don’t have the time for anything!”

    Makes sense… duh?

  22. November 5th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Zakman,
    You are wise. I always knew that. :)

  23. November 5th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
    Martin Calle said

    Busy is and always has been a facade, a pretense offered. I have a friend named Larry. Larry’s company provides over half of everything sold at Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart. He has 250,000 employees and 7,000 warehouses in countries around the world. And even if it’s 3AM and Larry’s in Japan he’ll personally return the phone call of his firm’s newest and lowliest employee within an hour. He keeps track of his entire business on a legal pad each day he calls The Pad of Life. In sharp contrast, it takes five days for General Motors just to acknowledge receipt of a letter to their CEO. So act like Larry, TNT, today, not tomorrow. No matter who you are, I know you’re not busier than Larry - who by the way became a billionaire by doing this.

  24. November 5th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Well said Martin,
    Now I want to meet both Larry AND you. :)

  25. November 5th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
    Stephanie said

    Very nice visual. Got me to thinking.

  26. November 5th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Stephanie!
    Welcome! Yeah!
    It’s about thinking. :)

  27. November 6th, 2007 at 5:59 am
    Alina Popescu said

    You are right Liz, being busy is sometimes more of an attitude than a genuine fact. Loved your test. I had no patience to read the article, but the photo did wonders. I am using it as a desktop background right now, as it helps me relax and take it easy :) Thanks for pointing the obvious out, I was too blinded by my to do list to see it :)

  28. November 6th, 2007 at 6:03 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Alina,
    I’m not sure how obvious it is. When we’re working all that we can see is that which is in our narrow focus. . . .

    If you like the photo so, you might also like what I wrote about it. Under Your Umbrella .

    It’s not raining here.

  29. November 6th, 2007 at 10:53 am
    Mark said

    Excellent article and great exercise. We live a illusion that we must always be busy. We have forgotten how to just ‘be’. It is amazing how much time we do have in a day and how we can manipulate time to our benefit. This is a good step to generate awareness on our perception of time.

  30. December 9th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
    communicatrix said

    Fantastic exercise. I’m on the hamster wheel too much myself. I think it’s rooted in a childhood sense of always missing out on the party (I grew up around mostly adults, and was forever being shunted off to bed just when things got cooking.)

    Speaking of animals, getting a dog has been a remarkable governor for me. No matter how much I’m freaking out, if I take a few minutes to play with Arnie, I feel much, much better.

    And don’t get me started on the magical, healing power of those morning walks!

    I think I should rename him “The Perspective-Tron”.

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