I’m worried about my friend.

This person is a high performer and is doing really great work, except I’m afraid the pace at which they are running isn’t altogether healthy. This person is working incredibly long hours and is constantly buried under an avalanche of e-mail, voice mail, text messages, and increasingly unrealistic expectations.

I worry that their days center on the urgent instead of the important. I worry that they spin their wheels, wasting time and energy because they lack the focus and order they need to be more effective. I worry that the stress and strain of their intense professional endeavors will cause them to crash and burn out.

This person is convinced they are simply too busy to spend the time it will take to get their life and work under control. The paradox is that feeling “too busy” to get their life in order is a telltale sign they need to.

I wonder…are you pretty sure I’m writing this about you?

If so, I promise you aren’t alone.

Take a few minutes to make a list of 3-5 things you need/want to be different than they currently are and decide what single action needs to be taken next for each of those items.

How did that make you feel? How might purposefully disconnecting for an hour so you could account for more of your responsibilities improve your ability to work more effectively? What if you disconnected for a day or even a weekend to account for all your responsibilities?

(PS: Those responsibilities exist even if you don’t account for them…)

This post was originally shared on geoffwelch.com as part of my Sixty Second Sundays e-mail series