Highs & Lows Method

I counted ten meetings per day last week. Ten meetings that I attended over 10 hours, from 9:00 to 19:00. Booked one after another, except the 30 minutes slot I had for my so-called lunch – which was pushing a sandwich into my mouth while trying to catch up with my emails. My nights were a chase to read all my emails that seemed to proliferate as I kept attending meetings.

Writing about it on a Sunday now stresses me. But what is more stressful is that I have a week, actually weeks to come that will be a collection of similar overwhelming experiences. What is the HIGH of this crazy schedule: it is forcing me to prioritize. What is the LOW: a million things. I don’t feel healthy; I don’t sleep well; I don’t feel like I have a life.

I see many people going through the same. And many parents also have kids at home due to covid cases in schools. Busy is a new pandemic that we are unaware of. We live with it every day, and there is no vaccination against it. Nothing will protect our bodies against the stress and pressure of a packed lifestyle with meetings and emails that never seem to end and, unfortunately, that seem to accomplish little.

The next time you send an email to a colleague, ask yourself, « Is this necessary ? ». The next time you ask for a meeting, ask yourself, « Is this necessary ? ». Or are you just hijacking people’s lives one email and one meeting at a time?

If you are the boss, think about what is essential vs. excessive. Let’s all focus on things that matter and reduce the noise of small to-dos. Against busyness, we need to stand together firm and stop the widespread before it drains us all.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

Thomas A. Edison