At ActionCOACH, we talk a lot about testing and measuring.
It’s a simple but powerful concept; you do the work, you measure the results, and then you reflect on what to change or keep doing based on what you’ve learned.
Yet, I’m constantly amazed by how many business owners and leaders seem too busy for that third step: the contemplating part.
Let me be clear: being “too busy” is not a badge of honor. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. There will never be a day when being so busy that you can’t think is a good idea.
If you’re wondering why, here are three reasons being busy actually slows you down:
1️⃣ Busy is reactive, productive is directional
Growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a CEO drives toward clear strategic objectives: 90-day targets, weekly markers, key priorities.
“Busy” leaders are usually reacting: answering endless emails, putting out fires, managing vendor issues, or handling customer noise. It all feels important, but it’s not aligned with direction.
Motion is not movement.
2️⃣ Busy crowds out the work only you can do
As a business owner, there’s work only you can do — strategic thinking, culture-building, long-term planning.
If you don’t make time for that work, it simply doesn’t get done. And when it doesn’t get done, growth stalls. The business starts running you instead of you running the business.
3️⃣ Busy is complex; productive is simple
Businesses rarely fail from lack of effort. They fail from death by detail: too many moving parts, too much tribal knowledge, too little clarity.
Being busy keeps your systems fuzzy and your processes undocumented.
Being productive does the opposite: it turns chaos into process, decisions into systems, and goals into habits. When things are simplified, results compound.
When you’re busy, you’re protecting the complex. When you simplify, you’re being productive, and productivity, not busyness, is what scales your business and your life.
So, test, measure, and most importantly, contemplate. That’s where real growth lives.