How to Master the Art of Looking Busy

Seeing busy is a bad reputation. Sometimes you have to look busy in order to really work on what really matters. Here’s how to get others to believe you have a plate full so that you have some breathing room to actually do something.

This post, originally published in 2012, is part of our Evil Week series on Lifehacker where we take a look at the dark side of goal achievement. Sometimes evil is justified, and sometimes knowing evil means knowing how to defeat it. I want more? Visit our wicked week tags page .

The point of looking busy is to remind your boss and coworker that your time is valuable, that there are only a certain number of things you can work on at the same time, and give you some breathing room to really think . In short, looking busy reminds everyone that you are busy and gives you some freedom at the same time. Whether you use that freedom to brainstorm or spend time on your favorite tech blog, we leave you the choice.

In this post, we’ll look at some way to make sure everyone you talk to – be it your boss or a distracting colleague – knows you’re busy without overwhelming them with the fact. This is partly just common sense when it comes to productivity, but some of these tips may seem counterproductive, but stay tuned as we explain why it all works. Let’s start.

Achieve Big Victories First

The first thing you need to do is differentiate between what’s important and what’s urgent .

Let me suggest this checklist that I love to go through whenever I come across something I don’t want to do:

• How important is it?
• How urgent is it? For example, how quickly – if at all – should it be done? Will the storm pass before it matters that I did it?
• How noticeable is this?
• Who cares about it? Is this person important to me?
• What is the likelihood that the important person mentioned will forget about it before it is no longer a problem?

Keep this mental checklist handy. We’re going to make two lists: our to-do list and our Of course I’m working on this list. The first consists of the elements and projects that you are actually working on. The latter are not so many.

Your to -do list is a list of things that you are already familiar with. Things that you need to do, like go to the dry cleaner, work on your favorite project, prepare for the big challenge – whatever you need and want to do. This is what excites you and the projects that you are working on are really interesting and that you want to implement.

If you have important or urgent tasks (meaning they have actual deadlines and the work needed to get them done means you have to get started), put them on your actual to-do list. If you have been assigned something visible, leave it here as well. Even if you don’t like it, visible work is the best work when it comes to looks. If it matters to someone who matters, this is also here.

A to- do list is a new idea for many of you: it’s your to-do list, full of shit assigned to you by clearly busy work: things that are neither important nor urgent. These are the little things your boss tells you to do and which we all know he or she will eventually forget, or problems that will resolve themselves if you just sit down and let it happen instead of to throw yourself into the frenzy your boss might want. It’s also a dumping ground for time-consuming projects, things with vague deadlines, or things you don’t want to do at all.

Don’t burn the list: you need it, especially in cases where you need to communicate your status to someone and you know that they are tired of hearing about the real work that you do, or when someone brings the item up, they assigned you a way back when. You will also need it in cases where you are stuck in a meeting with someone who is trying to offload their entire project or workload to you. Consider it insurance.

Always be busy and ready to upgrade

Now that your lists are in order, start working on what you’re passionate about. Spend your day working on important things, adding a little urgency and a lot of visible things to help your real-life career move forward. Unfortunately, none of us work in a vacuum, so be prepared to be interrupted by colleagues and managers. Are your lists ready? Here’s what to do:

• Start saying no . Use your lists to support you. When someone asks if you can do something that you immediately know doesn’t matter, can be done by anyone, or will inevitably lead to wasting your time, say no. Rather, say “no” tactfully and professionally . Say something like, “Well, this week I’m working on X and Y (from your real list) and I need to get to A, B and C (from whatever list you have). I don’t think I can fit into this. ” Be prepared to fight back and be flexible. If your boss often objects to you, reconsider your assumptions: it may be important, and if it is easy, then it may be important to the right people and may bring you some points. Keep moving and don’t get stuck in one position.
• Choose your battles . Remember, the goal here is to maximize your attractiveness with the least amount of effort. This means you have to run a little to play ball: collect the little things that you know are of great value, and make sure everyone knows that you are taking on the job. Don’t shove it in their face, just smile and be proud to contribute. When you nail this obvious problem to the wall, or solve a difficult situation that only you knew your boss could handle, the cakes you earn are invaluable.
• Never say “A little” when they ask you, “What happened?” or “What’s on your plate today? You should always have an answer to such a question, especially if it comes from an authority figure. One of my last bosses liked to start the day by walking up to my desk and asking what was going on with me today. I quickly realized that if I didn’t have an answer for him, it meant two things: firstly, I didn’t think about the coming day and I was not up to par, and secondly, it gave him carte blanche. to start delegation. Don’t make that mistake – when someone asks what you are working on, have an answer. The more detailed and varied the better. If necessary, take any from your list. Oh, and make sure this doesn’t sound too much like yesterday’s answer, or you’ll raise the suspicion that you’re not making any progress at all.
• Use Scotty’s principle , but don’t talk about it . If you’re unfamiliar with Scotty’s principle, it boils down to this: Increase your estimates of the time it takes to complete a task by about 25%. It works wonders in the real world too – the only place Scotty went wrong was when he told us about his reign and consistently filled orders faster than he promised. Don’t make this mistake – always build up the time it takes to get things done, but only sometimes get things done ahead of schedule. You don’t want anyone to think that you can do this all the time, otherwise your additions will be useless and people will start pushing you to do it sooner than you say. Remember, filling out is not just about giving you time to do it, but giving you time to do it whenever you want and for the time needed. Also, don’t divulge your secret. Loose lips and all that.
• Look from the side . While I am a proponent of a neat and organized desk, no one should walk by your computer at noon and see an empty desk or no papers on your desk. Don’t clutter things up for this, but keep a notebook and some scrapbook handy, and keep them close at hand along with a few pens. Get a second display and keep your email client open on one screen and your work on the other. Always keep multiple apps open in the background. (Excel is a favorite. I love MS Project for that, but that’s because I was the project manager.) Set up the “Boss Key” using AutoHotkey or Process Manager . It’s wonderful how a few extra displays and a few open windows will make you look busy for someone who either doesn’t know what you are doing or doesn’t see your screen enough to know this full-screen letter on your laptop display. while working on an external monitor does not mean anything.
• Use technology to your advantage . In one of my last jobs, my biggest responsibility was keeping an eye on my mailbox and answering important questions when needed. With a decent smartphone, I could do it anywhere, and whatever I needed to get to the computer, I could always push it back a few hours. Don’t be afraid to work remotely – use your phone or tablet to your advantage to check in, and stay busy enough to look like you’re working. More than once I “worked from a museum” or “worked from a pub” when I was supposed to “work from home” thanks to my smartphone and remote desktop. Again, don’t overuse it and proceed with caution – the moment you get caught will be the moment you ruin it, possibly for everyone.

As you practice, you will find that you have more time during the day because you have mastered the subtle art of saying no even when you have no wiggle room to say no. Your coworkers will understand that you are busy, but if you do it right (by which we mean subtlety, flexibility and a smile on your face), they will understand you and come up to you only when they really need your help (and these cases should be on the to-do list.) Bonus: You will always be busy but not always nervous , which is a huge bonus.

Be a ninja answering email

Here’s some productivity and some bad advice: empty your inbox. Seriously, we talk about Inbox Zero all the time, but there is more to it than a smug sense of accomplishment. A clean mailbox gives you the edge in what is probably one of the best ways to look busy: being hypersensitive. When you have the ability to peek into your inbox, see a new message, and instantly send a reply before the sender can even take their finger off the send button, you truly look like you’re at the top of your game. Of course, there are two points of view on this, the first is that it makes you look less busy because you have time to respond to an email, but if done well, it makes you look like you are always work , even after hours. and even if you answer, “I will get back to you on this matter as soon as I can.”

Again, choose your battles – you don’t want to sit back and go into detail in your answers if that isn’t appropriate, but let’s face it: most of the questions you are likely to get in an email are who I might find out if they looked closely, read the email or document that you already sent them, or took notice of the last time you told them. Submit a super-quick response with what they need to know and they owe you and you look like a heck of a hero. Don’t do it too much or it will backfire on you – it’s great to be known as the guy in the office who’s always on top of his email, especially when no one else you work with loves but loves everything else you need to cross the line between a badge of honor and expectation.

In the same vein, use scheduled sending, such as an indication of Microsoft Outlook to delay posting until a certain time, or services, such as the previously mentioned ToutApp , Right Inbox and our beloved service Boomerang , to plan your messages and keep track of when they are opened. So you can write ahead and send a couple of responses very late at night and earn the prestigious Overtime Award. Again, don’t make it a habit – just enough that when you do, people sit down and say, “Wow, did he answer emails on 5/1?”

Expand your boundaries to relax whenever you want

The best thing about looking busy is that it gives you the freedom to work at your own pace. This means that when you don’t want to work or you don’t need to work, you can do what you want – while you look busy. If you’ve opted for a side project, spend some time working on it, if only for inspiration. Working on something else or taking a break to do something really refreshing will energize you when it’s time to grind again, and if everyone thinks you are puzzled when you actually take those breaks, everyone wins. …

At the same time, remember that the amount of work you have to do always increases to fill the allotted time. This means if you take to work from home to “catch up with paperwork” and decide to take a three hour nap in the middle of the day because you know no one is checking in, or you can say that you were “running errands.” , be prepared to take extra time at the other end of the day. You still need to do enough to make this telecommuting day look productive, but it still gives you the freedom to do what you want, when you want.

Use your powers to be productive

A lot of these tips are secrets I’ve honed over the years to really look dumped when I’m really not myself. Throw in a little emotional reaction when someone asks you how busy you are, sell it by believing it, and people will believe that you really get results at work … and here’s the dirty secret: it’s because you are .

Remember, being busy is not the same as being productive. We’re talking productivity here: getting the big things done and what you want to do on time, and filtering out the junk that eventually gets into our inboxes – all while reflecting as much junk as possible. so that we can focus on the important things. Here and there you need a little lie, play a little on someone else’s ignorance and maintain a little appearance, but you would not be here if you were not a little evil, would you?

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