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Busy, frantically busy or unbelievably busy?

Written by: Bronwen Evans

Article Overview: Learning the art of the impossible – how to be a relaxed PR person with time for the big things that do count

Busy, frantically busy or unbelievably busy?

As a PR practitioner I am like the proverbial plumber…so busy fixing everybody else’s drains that I don’t have time to fix my own leaking tap.

I have three main PR jobs. The first is as a consultant to a bank, the second is a board member for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in Thailand, the third is the small business owner of a resort. Every week day I spend 10 to 12 hours in a manic whirl of activity at the bank. Once a month I send out a flurry of emails and calls as I organize the monthly IABC meeting. As for promoting my own business? Well that only gets done when I have time…a few minutes snatched here and there and a concentrated effort about once every three months.

Sounds familiar?

If you know anyone who works in PR (which I am sure you do) you will have noticed that there are three basic modes…busy, frantically busy, or unbelievably busy. Heaven forbid that anyone would confess to being laid-back and relaxed!

But perhaps we should critically review ourselves and how we operate.

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey pointed out that ineffective people are forever scrambling around trying to cope with the daily demands of life. Effective people, he says, make time for the things which have long term rather than immediate benefits. These may include planning, mentoring others, and learning about new trends.

Our own brains are our own worst enemies when it comes to these less urgent activities. How often has a good idea popped into our heads but we have dismissed it,“ Nah,” we tell ourselves “it probably wouldn’t have worked.” What a shame that we ignore our brilliant ideas in order to grind our way through the usual “unbelievably busy” day.

Yesterday I realized with a jolt the value of these “extra” things that we usually put off. I did a Google search on my own name and was astonished to discover that the top two entries and half of all the entries on the first page were about me. A year ago, I had to scroll through several pages before I found myself. So how did this happen? All but one of the entries were articles I had written which were “extra” things I did outside of my day-to-day work. The fifth item was about a radio documentary I had done many years ago which was previously languishing on about page 10 of Google. Now that made me think. The few articles I had written had not only given me prominence but had had a halo effect on my earlier work. What a boost that would have given to my business if I had actually written the dozens of articles that had popped into my head but I have been too “busy” to do?

Perhaps I had forgotten the lesson I learnt long ago as a radio journalist. No matter how busy you are, no matter how tight the deadline, the job will get done. Time has the marvelous ability to expand and great things can be done in very tight squeezes – if they are important enough.

For more about Bronwen and her life and work please visit www.faasai.com

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Article Tags: 7 habits of highly effective people, board member, brains, brilliant ideas, busy day, enemies, google, google search, international association of business communicators, jolt, laid back, leaking tap, new trends, own business, plumber, pr practitioner, small business owner, stephen covey, three months, whirl



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Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - Hi GT, Thanks for the reminder to motivate ourselves to get busy,busy,busy, all good stuff to help our ranking. regards, Mal.
Time spent - I log into this site at least once (sometimes twice) for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and that's at least 6 days a week. I work a full time job and also work independently, running a home based business and also assist my husband with his home based business...I also have 2 kids under the age of 14 and one 20 year old, so i'm generally very busy and don't have a ton of time to be here more than that. I believe too much time spent on the internet in general is not healthy and had to cut back on my childrens time online, as one saturday when I was especially busy, I realized they had been on for 6 hours straight! so now I only allow each of them to get 2 hours a day.
Re: What Do you Prefer More - Time or Money - I tried to answer this question, and I think it is just like what came first the egg or the hen. I want money, everybody loves money, money can buy you time, and some other things too (like food). Personally I know that if I had a bigger budget I could use it to save time and use the time I "created" for other tasks. But I want time too, there is never enough time, even if you have all the time in the world. I noticed that when I have busy busy days, I can manage my time better. Many people suffer from this problem, the more things we have to do, we can find more time to do them. So I want both, I want money to by me time to make more money for more time, and to travel around the world.
Never give an excuse - [quote="Sebastien":3d3trrkv]I had an issue once with the Tacone franchise. I called a local location about 5 times and left voicemails every time to have someone call me back because I wanted them to cater a little get together I had. Nobody ever returned my call. I went straight to the website (the franchisor site) and complained that if they were not interested in doing business with me, SubMarina or another sandwich shop would probably be glad to. About an hour later I had a call from the Tacone franchise Area Developer in San Diego, telling me he just took over this territory and he was aware of problems at this particular location. He was really apologetic and knew there was a problem. I thanked him for calling me back so quickly and told him I would probably never buy from them anyways (I am a very snobby customer. When I pay for something, I like to be taken care of). A day later, I get a phone call from the local franchisee (whom I actually knew since we had done business together), explaining how busy he was that he couldn't return my call earlier. I was so chocked! What kind of business is that? I thanked him and told him I will never buy Tacone again. Well, I ended up buying Tacone again because it's so good but I never want back to this one location.[/quote:3d3trrkv] Hi Sebastien, I see where you're coming from and I've stopped going to a particular Kelsey's franchise because of their slow service. We waited more than 50 minutes for our entrees and the manager could only tell us that they were "busy". Well to add to your point, retail expert Doug Fleener says "Profitable Retailers always put the customer first. First before the tasks associated with operating the business. First before profits...First in everything the company does...No one is really interested in how busy you are. In fact, giving an excuse can be insulting. When you say, 'I'm just so busy,' it implies that the other person isn't" ("The Profitable Retailer" 69 & 70). The Tacone franchise you originally called should've arranged for at least someone else to touch base with you if they were too busy themselves to do it or suggested a better time to discuss business.
Re: Kevin's Forum Mastermind Group - Wow David, You are a busy bee and inspiration to all.


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