Personal competencies
You’re busy - but are you actually wasting your time?
Running without getting anywhere?
Does this sound like your workday? You arrive at work. You are busy all day. You answer emails, click through tasks, attend meetings and switch between contexts. But when you shut down for the day, you ask yourself: “What did I actually accomplish today?”
Perhaps you know the feeling: You are mentally exhausted, but you cannot quite put your finger on what you have actually spent your energy on. You feel useful, but not essential.
Many technically and professionally skilled people end up in this situation because they are capable of taking responsibility for a little bit of everything. But the more you let your time be dictated by meeting invitations, other people’s urgent tasks or vaguely defined assignments, the greater the risk of losing sight of what gives you direction and satisfaction in your work.
And this is where many people find themselves working a lot without actually moving forward. It is not about laziness or a lack of motivation. Quite the opposite. It is about mental waste.
What is mental waste?
Mental waste typically occurs when your attention is pulled in too many directions.
When you jump from meeting to meeting without stopping to reflect. When you complete tasks without a clear purpose. When you spend your time on other people’s priorities and forget your own. And when you lose touch with what actually motivates you.
In other words, when your tasks are:
- unclear in terms of purpose and scope
- poorly prioritised or distracting
- disconnected from what gives you professional motivation and meaning
The result? A sense of emptiness, fatigue and wasted energy.
Signs of mental waste
- You constantly jump between tasks and struggle to get into a flow
- You are mentally exhausted without having completed anything important
- You feel useful, but not essential
- You lose sight of why you are doing what you are doing
4 ways to regain meaning and focus
Regaining a sense of meaning and focus does not necessarily require radical change. It starts with something as simple, and as difficult, as asking questions.
Once you have clarified your purpose and direction, your tasks begin to make sense again. It becomes easier to prioritise, easier to say no and easier to find your flow. It is not about filling your day with more. Quite the opposite. It is about using the limited time you have on the things that genuinely matter.
And that requires both insight and courage: insight into your own patterns and motivations, and the courage to speak up when the conditions around you do not support the work you should actually be doing.
1. What is the purpose of your tasks?
A good place to start is by becoming more aware of what your tasks are actually meant to achieve: What is the goal? Who is the recipient? What defines success?
And what would happen if the task were not completed at all? The answer can tell you something about how important the task really is.
2. Take ownership of your calendar
Next, take ownership of your time. When everything is urgent and your calendar is dictated by other people’s needs, it becomes difficult to maintain an overview.
Start by setting aside small blocks of focused time and protect them as if they were meetings. Because, in reality, that is exactly what they are: meetings with yourself and your most important tasks.
3. Filter out what does not matter
Not everything requires your attention. Use the 80/20 principle to identify what creates the most value.
The 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto principle, describes how 80% of results often come from 20% of the effort. This means that a small proportion of your tasks typically creates most of the value, so it makes sense to prioritise them.
By focusing on these tasks, you can free up time and mental resources from the things that create noise without adding value.
4. Rediscover your professional “why”
Finally, it can be valuable to reconnect with your own “why”. What makes your work meaningful? What gives you professional energy? And how can you create more space for exactly that?
Put into words what gives your work professional meaning and actively seek it out. Meaning is not a luxury. It is fuel.
Find your way back to what matters
Once you have clarified your purpose and direction, your tasks begin to make sense again. It becomes easier to prioritise, easier to say no and easier to find your flow. It is not about filling your day with more. Quite the opposite. It is about using the limited time you have on the things that genuinely matter.
And that requires both insight and courage: insight into your own patterns and motivations, and the courage to speak up when the conditions around you do not support the work you should actually be doing.
Because, ultimately, there is nothing wrong with being busy. But if you do not know why you are busy, you may not be the one in control.
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