Episode 793 Are You Worshiping at the Altar of the Busy Brag
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 793 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hi, I'm Dan Miller from 48 days.com. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find the work you love is key.
[00:00:24] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:38] That's a tough transition to make, because the truth is you have to identify, you have to do the hard work of identifying what is actually the most important. What is it that I should be doing today to make my day more efficient in the future, you have to actually put in extra time building systems and processes and [00:01:00] designing those things so that over the longterm, it gets easier.
[00:01:06] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.
[00:01:29] So
[00:01:29] Scott Maderer: [00:01:29] that impact the world.
[00:01:35] In today's episode about impacting the world by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why so-called busy bragging, or sometimes you're here at called hustle. Porn is a false goal. I talk about why I focus less on getting more done and more on getting the right things done. And I also share why this can be a really tough transition to make.
[00:01:59] As we [00:02:00] talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show.
[00:02:18] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. There's this movement out in the world and it's been around for a long time. But one of the things I've noticed is I think the internet and social media in a way has made this even more prominent and more common.
[00:02:42] And I call it busy bragging, but you'll also hear it sometimes called hustle porn. And it's this putting forward, this idea that the only way to get ahead, the only way to succeed in life is to work 24 seven. You've got to hustle all the time. You've got to constantly [00:03:00] be grinding and working all of the time.
[00:03:04] And that's the secret to success. That's the way forward. And you'll see people who put forward this idea all the time. They put forward almost a brag or a pride or a badge of honor about how little they sleep and how much they work. They'll identify as I'm one of the hardest working people out there.
[00:03:26] And I'll tell you, I used to subscribe to this mindset. I used to subscribe to this philosophy. I've worked in jobs where my average work week was 52, 58, 60 plus hours a week. And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with hard work, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with working like that for some period of time when there's a need, when there's something that has to get done.
[00:03:52] When there's a project or something else, and you're pulling in extra time and extra effort and extra people to crunch through and get it [00:04:00] done. That is normal. That happens. This is something that happens in all businesses. The difference is when that's what you do all of the time, when that's the normal, when it becomes almost a brag or a badge of honor.
[00:04:19] That you work like this all of the time, it's one thing. If you have. Normal workweeks that occasionally spike up to many hours. It's something else. If the normal is working all the time and you just occasionally have weeks where you don't work like that, where you're fitting your life in around the edges, where it's all about the work and not about other things or other priorities that you have in your life.
[00:04:49] And again, we go through phases, we go through periods. This does happen from time to time, but it shouldn't be the normal instead, [00:05:00] what I'm working with people. And now when I'm thinking about my own life and I'm setting things up in my own systems and my own processes to get things done. The question I'm constantly asking is not, how can I get more done, but how can I focus on getting the most important things done?
[00:05:20] If my son's band performances are important. And I say that out loud, then do I actually block time off on my calendar to go to those performances? Or do I just say I'll make it if I can. If spending time with my family is important. Do I put that time onto my calendar and block it off and not allow work to spill over into it?
[00:05:44] And if I do go. And spend time with my family. Am I actually there and present and focusing on them or am I distracted and checking email on my phone and doing all of these other things that pull me out of the [00:06:00] time that I said was important to spend with them. If it's about work, even within work. Am I trying to get the things done that really need to be done that move the needle forward on my business that get more done in the longterm.
[00:06:18] Am I spending extra time today so that I can build systems and processes and maybe train people? Identify things that I can eliminate, identify things that I can delegate and then build systems and processes to optimize those things that I can't delegate or can't automate, or can't eliminate. When you do that, you begin over time to spend less time.
[00:06:46] So it's about working more, not forever, but work more now and develop the things that allow you. To work less later. It's about balancing those. [00:07:00] It's about constantly asking the question. What is really the most important thing? What is the single thing that I can do today that begins to eliminate work down the road?
[00:07:12] What can I do now to build into place those things that allow me. To rest and use time for my other priorities later. But the truth is if you've been working a lot for years, if you've been constantly doing everything that you can do and filling up your time, 24 seven, and now you're up to working 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week.
[00:07:41] To think about, wait, I actually have to work more and I actually have to spend some time planning and thinking and putting time on my calendar. And prioritizing my values. I, it's going to take me more time to do that. This is sort of that mindset of I can just do it myself and it, I can [00:08:00] get it done quicker than training someone else to do it.
[00:08:02] When in fact, if you would spend the extra time today, training that person, it would save you dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of ours over the next several months, weeks, years, whatever it is. That's a tough transition to make, because the truth is you have to identify, you have to do the hard work of identifying what is actually the most important.
[00:08:28] What is it that I should be doing today to make my day more efficient in the future? You have to actually put in extra time building systems and processes and designing those things. So that. Over the long-term, it gets easier instead of harder. And then instead of hustling around work 24 seven, you can actually begin to spend your days much more the way you want to.
[00:08:57] You can do the things that actually [00:09:00] get the most important things done. You can spend the time. Well, instead of. Just being busy. You can find yourself towards productivity. You can be productive, not busy. And there is a huge difference between those two. And again, this isn't shirking hard work. This isn't about sitting down and saying, Hey, I'm not going to work my buns off to get things up and running.
[00:09:26] It's not about putting no time in it's about putting the time in those things that you really value. Thanks for listening.
[00:09:42] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this [00:10:00] episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time.
[00:10:25] Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.