COMMENTARY: Stop! It’s Time to Spend Less Time on Actives and More Time on Actions

By Garfield Joseph, MBA

Most people are busy.  Very busy.

Our days are filled with meetings, messages, errands, phone calls, social media updates, and constant activity. By evening we are tired, by week’s end exhausted, and by month’s end we wonder why so little has actually changed.

The uncomfortable truth is this: busyness is often mistaken for progress, and activity has become a substitute for achievement.

Many people work hard every day, yet remain no closer to their goals—financially, professionally, or personally—than they were a year ago. This is not a question of effort. It is a question of direction.

Progress does not come from doing more things. It comes from doing the right things consistently.

There is an important distinction between actions that keep us occupied and actions that move us forward. Answering every message, attending every meeting, responding to every demand on our time may make us feel productive, but feeling productive is not the same as producing results.

I have had to learn this lesson personally.

Like many people in leadership and service roles, I face constant demands on my time—at work, at church, from family and friends, from people in the wider community seeking help, advice, or support. Students often reach out for career guidance, and there are always worthwhile causes that could use attention. My instinct has almost always been to say yes. I am willing to help, and I value service.

But over time, I learned something the hard way: saying yes to everything meant saying no to progress on the goals I had deliberately set for my life and work. Without boundaries, my days became filled with activity but increasingly disconnected from purpose.

Learning when—and how—to say no was not about being unkind or unavailable. It was about stewardship of time. I came to understand that if I did not protect time for the actions required to move me forward, I would spend most of my energy responding to other people’s priorities and very little advancing my own responsibilities and long-term objectives.

That lesson applies far beyond any one individual.

Advancement—whether in our careers, our businesses, or our personal development—comes from a smaller set of activities that are intentionally chosen because they align with clearly defined goals. These actions usually require focus, discipline, and sometimes discomfort. That is why they are often postponed in favour of easier, more familiar tasks.

For example, an entrepreneur may spend countless hours refining a logo, attending workshops, or networking casually, yet avoid the hard work of validating a business model or securing actual customers. A professional may stay late every day, drowning in emails, but never invest time in developing the skills or relationships that lead to advancement. A student may remain busy studying, but without a plan aligned to clear academic or career objectives.

In each case, activity masks stagnation.

This matters not only at the individual level, but at the national level as well.

A country’s productivity is ultimately the sum of how its people use their time and talent. When large numbers of citizens spend more energy reacting than progressing, the cost shows up in lower productivity, fewer competitive businesses, slower innovation, and missed opportunities—particularly for young people trying to build a future.

Time is the most democratic resource we have. Everyone gets the same twenty-four hours. The difference in outcomes comes from how intentionally those hours are used.

One useful question can serve as a daily filter for decision-making: “Is this action moving me closer to my goal?”  If the answer is no, the activity may still be necessary—but it should not dominate our time or attention.

This is not an argument against rest, community, or healthy balance. Nor is it a call to constant grinding. Instead, it is a call for conscious prioritization. When everything is treated as urgent, the truly important things are crowded out.

Productivity research has long shown that a relatively small number of well-chosen actions account for most meaningful results. Yet many people structure their days around urgency rather than impact, responding to what is loudest instead of what matters most.

Reclaiming control of our time requires clarity. Goals must be specific, realistic, and written down. Without clear goals, every activity feels equally important. With clear goals, distractions are easier to identify, and discipline becomes purposeful rather than burdensome.

At a personal level, this may mean setting aside uninterrupted time each week for learning, planning, or execution. At an organizational level, it may require fewer meetings and clearer measures of success. At a national level, it demands a cultural shift away from celebrating busyness and towards rewarding results.

If Antigua and Barbuda is serious about economic resilience, entrepreneurship, and upward mobility—especially for young people—we must have an honest conversation about how time is being used. Hard work alone is not enough. Direction matters.

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