10 SHORT VIDEOS OF TONY CRABBE DISCUSSING ‘BUSY’
The Best Of 2015 – Success Magazine
‘After reading Tony Crabbe’s delightful takedown of Busy as an excuse, explanation and form of self-aggrandizement, you’ll be inclined to delete the word from your lexicon while incorporating Crabbe’s techniques and tactics to regain control of your life’.
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“A life- changing book which reassess what you are doing, why you are doing it and in what way.” – Carole Anne Rice, Daily Express
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“Business psychologist Crabbe draws an amicably accessible blueprint for escaping a state of extreme activity…for anyone juggling an ever-expanding schedule in or outside the corporate world, this book might be worth fitting in.”—Publishers Weekly
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“Crabbe presents an array of techniques and tactics to help readers relinquish their busyness and gain control of their lives. You’ll want to ban ‘busy’ from your vocabulary after reading this delightful takedown of busyness as an excuse…. BUSY is a very smart, fun and enlightening read.”—Success Magazine
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“Practical, concise and accessible, BUSY is a book well worth making time for.”—Shelf Awareness
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“Sound advice, well worth consideration and action.”—Booklist
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“A very impactful book, written in an entertaining format, and loaded with specific and practical examples for dealing with the busyness of today’s world. This book has enabled me to achieve immediate improvements in my daily routine, and will have longer term benefits throughout my career.”- Chris Keeling, CPA, Director, The Walt Disney Company”
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“Over the past 20 years, all of us who are connected to the Internet have been overwhelmed by the disease of busy-ness. We seem to have less control over professional and social lives and ever more and more consumed by a world of “too much”. This book is the medicine we have been looking for to become healthier, happier and successful human beings. It is packed with great ideas built on cutting-edge research and best practices. Interesting stories and wonderful practical strategies help the reader to be able to truly thrive in today’s busy world. This is the best book I have read in the past 10 years!” – Professor Michael Marquardt, George Washington University, President of the World Institute of Action Learning“
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“I must tell you that your book has had a massive effect on me already. I haven’t used the ‘b’ word for weeks, and I am actively seeking out ways of making my personal palette much more vibrant by adding less colours. It’sgetting so good that I’m starting to make my co-workers more intrigued and slightly jealous – I think you’re really going to hit a nerve (in a good way) with this Tony, it’s such a good story.”-Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer, Microsoft UK, and author of Business Reimagined
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“Amazing book with clear, very pleasant, and readable theoretical analysis, and usable tools that for me immediately produced the desired results!” Fabian Paagman, Paagman, Den Haag
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“Busy is going to be huge. It’s such an übercool book!” Grietje Braaksma, Grand Theatre Boekhandel, Breda
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It is difficult to ask anyone ‘How are you doing?’ without hearing the word ‘busy’ at some point in the answer. All around the world I meet people who are over-whelmed; who are exhausted; who feel helpless in the face of the machine. These people aren’t serial moaners; they’re the life blood of any business: the committed employees, the leaders, the high potentials. These people are you and me. We’re striving and striving to keep up, using all the efficiency we can squeeze out of our technology, and we’re falling behind; but that is only half the story.
The other half of the story is the nagging sense of failure that we try and ignore: failing to live the life we dreamed of; to be the parent, partner or friend we want to be; to be as happy as we might be. Stretched tighter than a wire, something has to give. Unfortunately, often the things that give are what we value most.
It’s unsustainable commercially; draining professionally; depressing personally. It’s not much fun.
It doesn’t have to be that way; but we do need to radically change how we respond to our world of too much. For example, we should:
Stop managing your time!
We are now at a point where it is no longer possible to do it all, or to get on top: there is just too much to do. Time management makes us splinter time into ever smaller fragments; it makes us cram and squeeze activity into every second of our wakefulness; it makes us busier. In doing so, it stops us thinking and breathing. As a result, time management is part of the problem, not the solution!
Stop being so productive!
It used to be that the biggest management challenge was how to get people to work hard. Now that problem is solved; everyone works hard. Yet, for some reason we persist in playing the ‘more game’: assuming that if we produce more than others, if we respond more quickly, we will succeed. We won’t. In fact, rampant productivity is a weak substitute for genuine impact and differentiation; the things that matter in the information economy.
Stop justifying busy
Busy is self-defeating. We tell ourselves that we are busy so we can succeed, either for our loved ones or for our happiness. But as we get caught up in endless busyness, we disconnect from the relationships and the activities that matter most to us. As we disconnect, more and more, we damage the very relationships and happiness we were trying to improve.
Stop having so many friends!
Social media is wonderful and helps us maintain distant relationships that would otherwise wither; but there is also a downside: it is yet another demand to manage. In simple terms, the greatest psychological benefit from relationships doesn’t come from the many but the few. In actual fact, aiming to be popular is bad for you, from a health and happiness perspective!
A practical Tool Kit!
‘Busy’ takes great new psychological research and applies it, practically to the challenges we face in the modern world, to provide a new set of tools, a new set of skills for responding to too much; practical strategies that will help you thrive no matter how full your inbox is!
