Ashley Alderson separates busy from effective. Effectiveness means moving the needle on what matters: your priorities, your family, yourself. She walks through a calendar audit and a to-done list to find where your time actually goes.
Hey, guys, welcome back to 5 Minute Friday. I've got a hard hitting question for you. Are you busy or are you effective? Huge difference, right? How many of us have a friend? I know we all have one. And every time you have a conversation with that friend, you're like, hey, Susie, how's it going? She's like, I'm good. I'm busy, right? Everybody wants to be busy. Everyone wears busy like a badge of honor. I think it's just a bunch of BS, right? Everybody's busy. Before I had kids, I thought I was busy, and now I want to slap my old self because I was like, whoa, this is totally different. Now I got three kids and they're all in sports and I'm driving them 35 different places at once. This is a different kind of busy. Everybody is busy in their own state of being busy. So as a business owner, I want to challenge you to step out of being busy. I don't want you to be busy. Busy is bs. I want you to be effective. I want you to be effective. So first you've got to define what does it mean to be effective? What does that look like in your life? For me, being effective is not a dollar amount. It's not a sales goal, it's not really a number. Being effective for me is, is did I get to work today and move the needle on the most important, biggest rocks in the company? Did I move the needle on the biggest projects that I'm working on? Whether it was something I needed to support the team with, or maybe it was something I really needed to sit down and think out and make a solid plan about? Maybe it was a bunch of batch content I needed to create. Did I really move the needle with something that was a big rock or an income generating activity that was important to the business that's being effective. But did I clean out my email inbox and answer a thousand customer service questions? That's being busy, right? So was I effective at work today? It's a big question for me. Did I really move the needle? And one way I look at that is at the end of the day, I make myself a to done list, not a to do, not a to do tomorrow, but what did I actually accomplish today? And if I journal that for like a week or two at a time, and every day I make a to done list, it's pretty evident whether that day was busy or effective. So I want to be effective in that way. I want to do big things that move the needle where I don't look back and go, what did I actually do yesterday? Or what did I actually do a week ago? Now, the other definition for effective for me is did I show up as the wife and the mother that I needed to be today? Did I tuck my kids in tonight and snuggle them and tell them I love them even if they're in high school? Or did I say, I'm so freaking tired, I'm gonna sit on this couch and have a glass of wine, so see you later? Because I've done both and I don't like myself when I do both. I want to be the one who actually shows them that they're so important to me that I have to be in their room and in their space, right? So to me, that's my definition. Did I show up as the wife and spouse I needed to be? Did I show up at work? And now, I gotta be honest, since this whole knee surgery stuff I've gone through, did I take care of myself today? That often is the first thing I'll cut out. Did I do my PT exercises? Is question number one. But then how did I fill myself up with water today? How did I strength train today? Did I get my steps in today? I've learned that, boy, it's awfully easy to take your health and your body and your mobility for granted until it's not there. And I tell you, once you get to that point, you will do anything to get it back. Please don't be me. Please don't learn that lesson the hard way. You have time for yourself, but you have to make it a priority so you can be busy doing all kinds of things that really are, do they matter? Or you could be effective and take care of yourself so that you are healthy enough long term to continue to take care of the business and people that you love. But if you're not healthy and your cup is empty, you can't fill anybody else's. So take a hard look at your calendar. Show me your calendar and you'll show me your priorities. You can be busy or you can be effective. And it's a choice in how you're going to show up every single day. So I'm here for you. I've got all kinds of tools in the planner and inside the Hub that hopefully can help you. But I think just bringing it top to mind and asking yourself that question is probably going to change how you show up on a daily basis. So good luck to you. Let me know. Report back how it goes over on AJ Alderson or at the boutique Hub on Instagram. Let's hear those stories if you are busy or effective and how you're shifting the tide. All right, that's it for this week's 5 Minute Friday. Thanks, guys, for being here, and I will see you back here next week.
