Stop. Look. Listen.

In the modern world, we all wear multiple hats. Unlike 30 years ago, the line between work and life is completely blurred, and for most people, separating the two feels almost impossible.

This is exaggerated even further when you own your own business or hold a position of responsibility. I know I’ve taken phone calls at 9pm after starting work at 7am. Fourteen-hour days like that aren’t healthy or productive for most people.

Some thrive on it and genuinely love it, and because we see those people online, wrapped in words like “hustle”, we start to believe we should all be doing the same.

So we work ridiculous hours… but what are we actually achieving?

There are moments in business, inflexion points, where long hours are necessary and worthwhile. But most of the time, we fill our days with nothing but tasks. Tasks that take time, feel productive, but ultimately achieve very little.

A perfect example? Meetings about meetings.

Anyone who knows me knows I loathe them. They’re a vanity exercise. A group of people talking about important things to feel important, making no decisions, no progress, and then celebrating how “productive” the day was because it was full of meetings.

I’ve spent weeks of my life in those rooms.

And that’s just one of hundreds of examples.

Which is exactly why we need to stop, look, and listen to ourselves and to those around us.

I’ve been guilty of this many times, and I’ll probably be guilty again. The difference now is that I’ve put processes in place to reduce how often I waste time on nothing tasks.

Stop

It starts by stopping what you’re doing.

That might be for five minutes, five hours, or even five days; that part is up to you. Then do a brain dump. Paper, voice note, video, whatever works. Get everything out of your head and into the real world.

For me, that includes personal stuff, work frustrations, ideas, irritations, everything. Don’t worry about structure or presentation. Once it’s done, you’ll probably never look at it again.

I once heard an analogy that stuck with me:

The brain is like a messy office. It’s great at getting work done, but terrible at organising and finding things.

This process clears the desk. It creates space and clarity before the next step.

Look

Now look at what you’ve been doing recently, and what’s in your diary.

• How much of it delivers real business benefit?

• How much is just “busy work”?

• And how much is pure vanity?

You’ll quickly find an hour or two every day being eaten up by things that were labelled “important” at the time, usually because they felt good, looked good, or seemed like the right thing to do.

The beauty of free will is this: you can change your mind. You can stop doing things.

Listen

As a consultant, most of my work involves helping people talk their way to answers they already know.

We rarely lack answers; we don’t listen.

Listen to your body. What is it telling you?

• More rest?

• More exercise?

• More sleep?

• More stimulation?

Whatever it’s saying, you can now act on it, because you’ve already freed up the time. Use that time deliberately, and the return on it will be incredible.

Then listen to those close to you and those who advise you.

• What are you wasting time on?

• What are you actually doing well?

I don’t subscribe to endlessly working on weaknesses. In most cases, it makes far more sense to double down on strengths and outsource the rest. That alone pays dividends long term.

Repeat

Then do the whole process again in three, six, or twelve months, or whenever you start to feel overwhelmed.

• Stop what you’re doing.

• Look at what you’re doing.

Listen to your body and the people around you.

The answers are usually already there.