I have just finished presenting a teleconference on time management for managers and executives, titled “The Closed Door Policy. ” We talked about 11 reasons behind the widespread phenomenon of being chronically busy and a couple of dozens ways, neatly organized in three categories to get one’s life back.

Here are the reasons for so many people being in this pickle:

  1. You are a funnel. Nothing happens unless you know about it or have to give a go-ahead.
  2. Your choice of decision making approach is often incorrect.
  3. You lack adequate support structure (people, tools, processes)
  4. Your priorities are not clear: you either don’t know what to do next or everything is a priority. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
  5. You believe that you need to constantly do “real work” because thinking and strategizing is not really work at all.
  6. You do things that don’t need to be done.
  7. There is a lack of trust between you and people around you: peers, subordinates and superiors.
  8. You constantly look for confirmation and consensus building where it is not required.
  9. You are holding on to your baggage of an expert (typical for an engineer who has been promoted to a manager).
  10. You cannot say “no” to anyone.
  11. You procrastinate.