Busy is a Trap: 6 Practical Ways to Free Up Time

By Joe Meyer, PE | Fire Protection Engineer / Founder of MeyerFire

Time.

Last week, I begged you to consider investing your time to free up more of it.

Find low-hanging fruit, and get started. Start small. Make checklists, update templates, create a quick spreadsheet or organize your prompts.

Find ways to help the future you by building tools that help free up your future time.
 
The truth is – if we want to get out of the hamster wheel of running and running and running and only being busier, then we need to intentionally fight being ‘busy’ with being ‘effective.’

Being effective goes beyond just working more. We don’t have more time. We can’t, and shouldn’t, compromise our health, sanity, or family life to work more. Time is our resource that we need to fight for.
 
  “That’s great, but I’m already busy. I don’t have time.”

  “I’m not in a position to delegate anything.”

  “Once we get through this rush, things will calm down.”

  “My days/projects/tasks are never the same, I can’t build tools for them.”

  “It’s faster if I just do it myself.”

  “I’ll do it when things slow down.”

  “I already work fast.”

  “I have to fight too many fires each day to do this.”
 
You’ve heard it. We’ve all said it.
 
At the core, it feels like we’re too busy surviving to invest in improving. The uncomfortable part about owning our situation is that it requires us to step out of reactive mode. We have to think about what it is we want – sanity, less stress, less chaos, better work, more timely work, better clients – and work towards that with discipline, knowing that the payoff doesn’t result immediately.
 
TRAP #1: URGENCY TRAP
Underlying belief: Production is always more important than systematic improvement.
Reality: Production work fills our capacity. Nothing changes without intentional investment.

Parkinson’s Law says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” We can’t expect change – that is, our own future six months from now to be better – if we continue doing the same things on the same path as we’ve done before.

Intentional, focused effort has to come before some production work, even if it’s in a very small time increment.
 
TRAP #2: IT’S FASTER IF I DO IT
Underlying belief: Immediate progress is more valuable than future leverage.
Reality: Doing it ourselves probably is faster. Yet, I am not the only person on the planet who is capable, nor can I do all the tasks every time.

Articulating the task, the logic, the why, and systematically describing and improving the process is a better and more effective solution, especially at scale.
 
TRAP #3: CONTROL BARRIERS
Underlying belief: I bring less value if it doesn’t come from me. I have to bring the value.
Reality: High-value contributors support others’ growth. They create systems, not bottlenecks or dependencies.

If someone must be in control, or must be the ‘hero,’ then it’s difficult to be effective and improve as a team overall. Giving up control can be a very hard thing to do.
 

If we look past our natural objections and are willing to make the change, then the question becomes – how do we actually do it?

Ok, I’m here Joe.

I don’t want to live in chaos.

I don’t want to be so stressed.

I’m over the glamour of being ‘busy.’

I want to take control of my own path.
 
I don’t have all the answers, but I’ve read many books on this and have trialed many things. We have three fundamental levers to increase output. These aren’t all necessarily being more effective, but they are ways of increasing output.
 
FIX #1: HIRE MORE STAFF
  + Increases long-term capacity
  - Slow (recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training)
  - Expensive
  - High effort/high risk
  - Inefficient systems with more people create more inefficiency
 
FIX #2: HIRE OUTSIDE HELP
This could look like subcontractors, third-party reviewers, freelancers or outside firms. This is the most underutilized path, especially by small and midsize organizations.
  + Relatively fast to implement
  + Pay only for what you need
  + Generally flexible
  + Can bring in specialty or varied expertise
  - Less control
  - Often expensive
  - Availability and schedule vary
 
FIX #3: MAKE YOUR TEAM SUPERHUMAN
This is the most-controllable option. It’s not motivating, threatening, or pushing harder, it’s making each person more capable and more effective.
  + Inexpensive to implement
  + Can start today
  + Highly effective & efficient teams tend to be stronger, faster, and leaner long-term
  - Requires quality self-reflection
  - Requires discipline
  - Requires more foresight and a long-term mindset
  - Longer ROI
 
If we skip Options 1 and 2 (commonly not in our individual control), then how do we actually increase effectiveness?

Not efficiency, which is getting more tasks done in our allotted time, but being more effective overall, which considers whether a task is worth doing in the first place.

Here are the six ways, in order of priority, to improve effectiveness at the team and individual levels. Before this sounds too bloggy – these are real things I’ve implemented for the past ~8 or 9 years, and as a team, we revisit each quarter.
 
SUPERHUMAN STEP #1: ELIMINATION
Does a task really need to be done in the first place? Truly?

If it’s never done again, what’s the impact? Is there any?

If there are outdated parts of a role that don’t actually need to exist, the best and first thing we should consider is eliminating them entirely.

We regularly think that “all tasks are important,” but that isn’t always true.
 
SUPERHUMAN STEP #2: AUTOMATION
What tasks, or processes, can be automated?

One very specific way to think about this is what regular action do you do that follows a basic logic?

Copying information from one source to another? Putting data into a spreadsheet? Delivering a certain regular report? Email?

With any repeatable process, there’s a good chance that some or all of it can be automated.

Online programs like Zapier, Make, and Microsoft Power Automate are automation tools that can take information from one source (an email, a report, a spreadsheet update) and trigger actions based on that source (run a report, create a chart, send an email).

Many businesses skip this as too code-driven or requiring outside software engineers. It’s far simpler than that.
 
SUPERHUMAN STEP #3: EQUIP
If we arm our team with better tools, better resources, better templates as a starting point, better libraries – what could that do for us?

What if every project we estimated, designed, or reviewed was 80% done before we even started?

What would that look like?

Commonly, that’s having an incredibly solid starting template. Features that are pre-loaded, just ready to pounce on the new project.

Templates and libraries are really easy to improve, and have a very quick ROI.

​But beyond that, how can we surround our production team with resources that make them far more effective in what they do?

Do they need better software that’ll allow them to run faster?

This step is all about improving and equipping our team to be far more effective.

What if your team was full of a bunch of Jose Cansecos in his prime, minus the 'roids?
Or better yet, if your team was supported with tools that were amped up, ready-to-go, where your work was 80% done before you even started?

SUPERHUMAN STEP #4: TRAINING
What knowledge could someone have that would make them more capable?

What knowledge could we have that would make us far more capable?

Sometimes expanding our skillsets is a way to broaden our understanding and creativity that helps foster better long-term outcomes. Quality training will do that.

This could be paid training, books, or YouTube. Skill growth helps us all improve in the long run.
 
SUPERHUMAN STEP #5: REFINE THE PROCESS
This is often the most powerful one to unlock, but it requires a lot of self-awareness and thinking in terms of systems.
From start to finish, how can we improve our process so that we don’t have to repeat work?

What steps must be done before moving on? Essentially, what are our “go” and “no go” situations before we proceed?

If we can reduce or eliminate rework, we’d be dramatically more effective. What workflow, or what process, gets us there?

Here, we first need to identify what our process is (most organizations don’t do this). Second, we look at what’s included – are there things that should be added or removed? Third is the order – what ideally comes before other things to reduce rework. And last, how do we systematically attack the things that take the most time?

We want to improve the flow of work so that it’s smooth, consistent, on-time, and high quality. We don’t want to work harder; we want to work smoothly and seamlessly every time.
 
SUPERHUMAN STEP #6: GET SUPPORT
Where do you go for help?

What support systems do you have in place?

Where do you research for help?

When you’re in a jam, is there someone in the office or outside who can help out?

Is there a forum that can weigh in?

Are there informal or formal interpretations you can gather?

Knowing where to go and having resources handy can keep our work moving in a forward direction.
 

If these concepts are your jam, you need to check out our courses BS103 Secrets of Effectiveness in Fire Protection and BS101, an Example Workflow.

In these two courses, I elaborate real examples of what I did in a design setting and what the results were - with data of what happened as a net result over 2 years and 58 projects.
 

THE HARD TRUTH
Here’s the hard truth – no one is coming to help free up your time.

Not your boss.

Not your clients.

Not the market.
 
If anything, we tend to gather more responsibility over time and the work just keeps piling on. There’s no glory in being busy, or stressed.

If we don’t change anything about our future course, we’ll keep getting more of the same results.

If that’s not sustainable, then we need to start small and create the change we want to see for ourselves.

Start small. Do it first. Momentum doesn’t come from one massive change, it comes from small, repeated investments in yourself and improving your processes.

Six months from now, you’ll either be slightly more overwhelmed than you feel today, or operate with more clarity, a little more control, and a little more margin.

It’s shaped by what you choose to change today.
 

​Hope you have a great rest of your week.

- Joe