Busy is Not Proof

There is a particular flavour of November where everyone appears to be sprinting. The inbox is louder. Meetings multiply. Every conversation seems to include the word busy as if it were a badge that proves effort and therefore value. It is understandable. The year is leaning toward the finish and people want to land projects that have drifted. Yet busy is not proof. Proof is a result that still holds up in January when the noise has faded and the team is running at a normal pace.

You can feel the difference when you step into a piece of work that is busy for the sake of being seen. There are handoffs that exist to soothe nerves rather than to improve quality. There are approvals that no one can explain beyond habit. There are two tools doing the job that one could do with a short conversation about rules. The signal that you are in this pattern is simple. People spend more time describing the process than they do describing the outcome. When that happens the work inflates while value remains thin.

Start by making outcomes visible in a way that is hard to argue with. Choose one project that matters and define the durable result in a sentence. For example, the aim is not ten new pieces of content. The aim is two new clients from that content within a set period of time. The aim is not twenty meetings. The aim is a decision that unlocks a hire, a budget, or a clear stop. When you name the result in these terms, the plan begins to change on its own. You remove steps that do not move the number. You simplify the path because complexity no longer impresses anyone.

Then look for points where work slows down without a clear reason. Handoffs are the first place to check. Every handoff should answer three questions. What has changed. Who owns it next. When will the next checkpoint occur. If you cannot answer those questions in a sentence, the handoff is a risk rather than a control. Either remove it or tighten it so that the next person can act without circling back to ask what is expected.

Approvals deserve the same scrutiny. Many teams add new approvals during a crisis and never take them away. The result is a slow creep that drains momentum while giving the illusion of safety. Ask what the approval is catching that a clearer standard would not catch. If the answer is nothing specific, replace the approval with a simple checklist that states what good looks like. You can always reinstate the approval for a period if a real issue appears.

Simplify the toolset where possible. Two calendars, three chat threads, and a private notebook will make anyone look busy. They will also create duplication that keeps people in motion without moving the work. Choose one place where new requests must arrive. Choose one home for current documents. State the rule simply and hold it for a fortnight. You will get some grumbles in the first few days, then you will get a cleaner flow and fewer rescue missions.

Busy is also a culture issue. Some workplaces reward visible effort over quiet effectiveness. You cannot change that overnight. You can, however, change what you model. Reply with a single clear note rather than five performative messages. Keep meetings short and specific. When you decline work because the time frame would damage quality, explain the trade in plain language so people understand you are protecting a promise rather than avoiding effort. Calm is competent. When people feel the results of calm, they begin to copy it.

A short field test can prove the point. For the next two weeks run one project with fewer steps and clearer ownership. Name the outcome, reduce handoffs to those that add actual value, and remove any approval that cannot explain its purpose. Keep a simple log of time spent and of issues avoided. At the end of the fortnight compare the result with similar work from earlier in the month. The difference will be obvious. You will have fewer surprises, fewer messages that say just checking in, and more time doing the work that gets the outcome you named at the start.

Finally, be kind to yourself and to your team. The performance of busyness is a habit many of us learned in places that measured face time and volume. It takes practice to choose a different path. The reward is a week where your energy goes into work that stands up later, where clients feel supported because they see consistent outcomes, and where your own sense of competence grows because you are no longer acting for the audience in your head.

Busy is not proof. Durable results are proof. When you design for results and remove the theatre, November becomes a month that ends well rather than a month that frays your nerves. That is good for business. It is also good for humans.

If you want fewer moving parts and results that hold up in January, book a 1 to 1 and we will redesign one live project together.