📪 HH #79: Stop mistaking busyness for progress
- Justin Hubbard
- May 1
- 6 min read
TL;DR – Most people stay “busy” all day but barely move their business forward — because they’re stuck reacting instead of locking in. Answering emails, driving around, tweaking little things feels productive, but it’s usually just disguised procrastination. Real growth comes from focused, uncomfortable, high-leverage work — like fixing broken systems, closing sales, training your team, or building better routes.
Your brain’s been trained to chase distractions, not results. Studies show it takes less than a minute to lose focus — and 30 minutes to get it back. You don’t need more time; you need better focus. Cut the noise. Kill the distractions. Pick one needle-moving task a day and attack it with full attention.
Eliminate what doesn’t matter, delegate what you shouldn’t be doing, and automate everything else.
In hauling (or any business), the guy who blocks two hours for meaningful work is gonna outpace the guy running in circles. It shows at the end of year one. More in year two. By year four, he’s untouchable. Because motion isn’t progress — execution is. And focus is your superpower now.
Full article 👇
If you’re like most people, you’re half-paying attention to almost everything you do.
You’re answering a text while flipping through emails while half-listening to a podcast.
Then you wonder why you feel like you worked all day but didn’t actually move anything forward.
We’ve trained ourselves to believe that being busy means we’re being productive.
Truth is, busyness is usually just procrastination dressed up to look important.
At the end of the day, when you look at what actually moved the needle — new leads, new revenue, tighter systems, stronger crews — you’ll realize most of the “busy” work didn’t matter at all.
It just kept you distracted enough to not feel guilty.
You were active. But you weren’t productive.
The Illusion That’s Killing Your Growth
Activity feels good because it tricks the brain into thinking you’re accomplishing something.
You crossed ten things off your list. You answered every email. You organized the shop.
But if none of those things directly helped you close a deal, tighten up your operations, or improve your team — what was the point?
You can be the busiest guy in town and still lose the game.
Real progress is ugly.
→ It’s calling a pissed-off customer and saving the account.
→ It’s sitting down to write a real marketing plan instead of throwing $50 on dumbass boosted posts.
→ It’s having the hard meeting with your crew about showing up late.
None of that feels as “productive” in the moment as answering 72 emails.
But that is the work that actually builds something.
Your Mind is Set Up to Fail Right Now
And it’s not entirely your fault. Everything around you is designed to pull your attention in 1,000 directions at once.
Your phone, your email, your notifications — they’ve trained your brain to never sit still, even for a minute.
Studies show we can’t even stay focused on one thing for more than 47 seconds before something distracts us.
You read that right — less than a New York minute.
And when you get pulled off course?
It takes 20-30 minutes to truly get your focus back.
No wonder you feel like you’re working all day but not getting anywhere.
You’re not broken.
You’re just running an outdated playbook — one that rewards being “busy” instead of being locked in.
You Don’t Need More Hours — You Need More Focus
Most haulers, service pros, and small business owners don’t have a time problem.
They have a focus problem.
You don’t need 18-hour days.
You need two or three hours of no distraction, focused work on the stuff that actually matters. I learned this around year five smh.
→ Build that better route system.
→ Fix your broken quoting process.
→ Train your team to upsell jobs properly.
→ Close the deal you keep pushing off.
If it ain’t moving the needle, it’s gotta go. You either eliminate it, delegate it, or automate it. That’s how you stay focused on what actually grows the business. Everything else is noise.
If you worked on those things with full attention — no Instagram, no texts, no “quick call” interruptions — you’d accomplish in two hours what most people drag out over two weeks.
Example: Hauling Life
I see guys “busy” all day — driving between job sites, checking on the yard, answering customer calls immediately — but nothing changes in their business.
They’re stuck.
Because movement isn’t the same as progress.
→ The owner who blocks out two hours to focus on signing a big real estate account?
→ Or who finally reworks his crew routes to save 15% on fuel every month?
That guy’s winning — and it’ll show by the end of year one. Even more in year two. Way more in year three. And by year four? Forget about it, cuz.
Because he’s locked in on high-leverage activities — the stuff that actually builds a bigger, better business.
A truck can drive in circles all day and burn a tank of gas.
It’s the truck that hauls a full load from point A to point B that gets paid.
Same with you.
How to Break Out of the Busyness Trap
Here’s how to start moving different:
→ Kill distractions — Shut off the phone, close your email, tell your office manager “no calls” for 90 minutes. Protect your focus like your paycheck depends on it. (Because it does.)
→ Pick your big win every day — One thing that, if you finished it, would make today a success. Not ten little things. One big one.
→ Get uncomfortable on purpose — The work you avoid is usually the work you need to do first. Start there. Every day.
→ Measure results, not tasks — Nobody cares how many things you checked off. They care what got better because you did the work.
→ Reflect honestly — At the end of the day, ask yourself: Did I move the ball down the field today? Or just run in circles? Be brutal. Then fix it tomorrow.
Focus is a Superpower Now
The world is full of noise. Everyone’s rushing. Everyone’s reacting. Everyone’s stressed out and scattered.
If you can stay locked in... If you can sit your ass down and work on one high priority task at a time... There's no doubt you’ll smoke your competition.
The ones who win now aren’t the busiest. → They’re the clearest.
Make yourself one of them.
Trade the high of busyness for the satisfaction of actual progress. It’ll feel weird at first. Like you’re moving slower. But trust me, you’re not.
You’re moving smarter. You’re finally doing the stuff that matters. And that’s the only thing that ever built anything worth having. ✌️
Justin Hubbard
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