Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Terri-Ann Richards: Welcome to the Happy Stack Podcast, where we explore the science and strategies behind creating a happier, more fulfilling life. I'm Terianne Richards and I partner with organizations to address the root causes of burnout, disengagement and stress. Equipping leaders and teams with the tools they need to thrive, both organizationally and personally. Each episode we dive into practical habits, insights and strategies to help high performers like you level up from the inside out. Let's get stacking.
[00:00:35] Terri-Ann Richards: Hey. Welcome back to the Happy Stack Podcast. If you're here, you're probably someone who wants to lead, live and thrive without losing your sanity in the process. And today, we're getting real about something we're all guilty of. Being busy as hell, but not actually productive.
Let's be honest. How many times have you ended your day feeling completely exhausted, but when you look back, you're like, what the hell did I even do today? You're running, answering emails, sitting in meetings, doing all the things, but somehow you didn't actually move the needle on the stuff that matters. Well, I've got news for you.
Busyness is not a badge of honor. And if you feel like you're drowning in tasks but not actually getting anywhere, you're not alone. Studies show that nearly 80% of people feel they don't have enough time to do everything they need to do. But the kicker? Most of what we're spending time on isn't actually driving the impact we desire. So today, we're going to break it down. Number one, the science behind why we feel so damn busy, but also so unfulfilled.
Two, how decision fatigue is secretly robbing you of your focus and your energy. And three, how to shift from feeling busy to actually being productive without working more hours. Sound good? Let's dive in.
Alright, so why do we all feel like we're running in circles but getting nowhere? It boils down to something called the mere urgency effect. A Princeton study found that we are naturally wired to prioritize urgent tasks over important ones, even when those urgent tasks are meaningless.
Meaning, we check our email first because it feels productive. We say yes to meetings that don't need us. We fill our calendars, our schedules, with reactive work instead of the deep work that actually moves the dial. And guess what? Every time you switch tasks, your brain takes a hit. Research from the University of California, Irvine, shows that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully regain focus after an interruption. So think about this. And I'm guilty of it. You get a ding on your phone, a text from your kids, a message on Slack, a message on your LinkedIn, DMs in your Instagram, and every quick check of your inbox or one of those direct messages, it cost you nearly half an hour of deep thinking. Now here's the emotional part of it. We've tied our worth to being busy. I don't know how often I've gone out. Say I'm at the grocery store, I'm at a meeting. You're just chatting with someone you haven't seen in a while. How you doing? How you been? Busy.
Somewhere along the way, we learned that if we weren't filling every moment, we somehow maybe weren't doing enough. And it all of a sudden became a badge of honor. But here's the truth.
Busyness is often a sign of us having poor priorities and not productivity. And if you feel like you're constantly on a hamster wheel, and if you can't see me right now, it's because I'm putting my hand up and flailing it around. Because I certainly have felt over time in my life and even most recently that I'm just on a hamster wheel. But it's because we're spending too much time on low value tasks and not enough time on the things that actually matter.
So what do we do about it? Well, first we need to talk about the biggest thief of your energy.
Let me ask you something. Have you ever stood in front of your closet, stared at a bunch of clothes and thought, I have nothing to wear? Or have you ever scrolled through Netflix for 20 minutes and then just rewatched the Office for the 12th time? Or in my case, P.S. i Love youe or Twilight or, or whatever it is. Well, that's decision fatigue. The average adult makes, listen to this. Over 35,000 decisions per day. And every single one of them, from what to eat and how to respond to an email, to what tasks to tackle first cost you mental energy?
By the time you get to the important decisions, your energy is already spent. That's why at the end of the day, you're more likely to reach for comfort food, get a glass of wine, skip your workout, or just collapse on the couch. Your brain is fried. And here's the kicker. The more decisions you make, the worse they get. A study on parole judges found that prisoners who had their hearings in the morning were 70% more likely to get parole than those who had them in the afternoon. Why? Because by the end of the day, the judges brains were too tired to think, so they defaulted to the easy choice, which was keeping things as they were.
Now, when you're in a leadership role in a professional space, the way in which we make decisions matters. The way in which we show up with clarity and conciseness with those decisions matters. And if we have decision fatigue by the end of the day, we're potentially making the wrong choices, the wrong decisions. Now, I'm not going to tell you to just prioritize better or work smarter, not harder. That's. Well, it's ridiculous. Instead, I'm going to give you three simple tangible shifts that you can start making today. So number one, try to cut out the micro decisions. Reduce the number of choices that you have to make to daily. Steve Jobs wore the same darn outfit every single day because it eliminated a decision.
Now I know there are some of you listening right now thinking, well, Terri-Ann, I'm not going to wear the same darn thing every day. That's fine. But is there some other decision that you're making every single day that you could eliminate to help to reduce your decision fatigue? Maybe meal prep your lunches so you don't waste time deciding what to eat. Decide on a Sunday what your breakfast will be for the week. Create a daily workflow that removes the guesswork, or do something that I get my clients to do before you go to bed at night, close out your day and make a decision of what's going to be the most important soon as you get up and start working the next day. So that way when you wake up, you don't have to figure out or decide what is the most important.
The goal here is to identify one small decision that you make every single day that you can automate or eliminate. 2. Schedule deep work like it's a meeting.
So we schedule meetings for other people, but never for our own deep work. You know, that space and places where you can just breathe into thinking and innovating and critiquing and being creative. The reality is you as a leader and I as a leader require that time to iterate and tweak our processes. And if you don't protect your most important work, it's going to get eaten up by everyone else's priorities. And I bet you if you look at your calendar, you can see the proof of that. Right now the goal here is to block one 90 minute deep work session on your calendar for the next five days. Once a week. Treat it just like you would for any other unmissable appointment.
3. This is one we've all heard, but rarely do we do it. Do the hardest thing first. I think it was Brian Tracy that said eat that frog first. Your willpower and mental energy are highest in the morning. So if you wait until later to do your most important work, guess what? It's not going to happen. Or it's not going to be your best work.
So before you open up an email or Slack or LinkedIn, spend the first 90 minutes of your workday on the one thing that moves the needle the most for you and your day. Okay, my friends, this week I want you to stop glorifying busyness. It's not a badge that you want to be walking around with. Instead, I want you to audit your time. Where are you wasting it?
Remove one micro decision from your daily life and schedule your deep work sessions like you would an important meeting. Because at the end of the day, being busy isn't the goal. Creating lasting impact is. And the only way to do that is by working smarter, not by running around and running yourself into the ground. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to take this work deeper, subscribe to the Happy Stack newsletter, where we unpack this and more every single week. Until next time, stay intentional. Stay, stay resilient, and let's make impact over business the new normal.
[00:10:16] Terri-Ann Richards: Hey, thanks for listening to the Happy Stack podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little extra happiness in their life. Let's keep stacking those wins together. See you next time.
