I Don't Want to Be Busy. I Want to Be Useful.

A Phoenix Entrepreneur's Thoughts on Work, Purpose, AI, and Faith

For years, I wore being busy almost like a badge of honor.

A full calendar meant things were happening.

Phone ringing?

Good.

Meetings stacked back-to-back?

Good.

A dozen projects competing for attention?

Apparently, even better.

That's entrepreneurship, right?

I'm not so sure anymore.

The older I get, the less impressed I am by being busy.

These days, I'd rather be useful.

Busy and Productive Aren't the Same Thing

This took me longer to understand than I'd like to admit.

You can work all day and accomplish very little.

You can answer fifty emails without solving the one problem that actually matters.

You can attend six meetings when one conversation would have been enough.

You can spend hours reacting to things instead of building anything.

And at the end of the day, you're exhausted.

But did anything actually move forward?

That's the question I've started asking myself.

What Did I Actually Move Forward Today?

I like this question because it's difficult to hide from.

Maybe I helped solve a problem for the Flat Staffing team.

Maybe we improved something we're building through T47 Group.

Maybe I worked through another challenge with Xsatori.

Maybe I wrote something worth publishing.

Maybe I spent time helping someone think through their own business.

Sometimes the answer has nothing to do with business.

Maybe I was present for my family.

Maybe I encouraged someone who needed it.

Maybe I simply made time to pray and get my own priorities back in order.

Those things count too.

Actually, some of them count more.

AI Is Making Me Question Busywork

One reason I'm so fascinated by artificial intelligence is that it forces us to ask an uncomfortable question:

How much of what we've traditionally called "work" was actually just busywork?

Moving information from one system to another.

Creating repetitive reports.

Searching through documents.

Writing the same basic communication over and over.

Manually doing things a machine can now help accomplish in seconds.

I don't see that as a reason to fear AI.

I see it as an opportunity.

If technology can eliminate some of the meaningless work, maybe humans can spend more time doing meaningful work.

Thinking.

Creating.

Leading.

Building relationships.

Solving harder problems.

Serving people.

That's the future of AI that interests me.

Staffing Taught Me the Value of Useful Work

Working in staffing gives you an interesting perspective on work.

I've watched people perform jobs that may never receive much recognition but are absolutely essential.

Warehouse workers.

Drivers.

Production workers.

Event crews.

General laborers.

People who simply show up and get the job done.

They remind me that useful work doesn't have to look glamorous.

Sometimes the person creating the most value in the building is the person nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

I've developed a tremendous respect for that.

The Variable Required a Different Kind of Work

Writing my novel The Variable taught me something similar.

Nobody cared how many hours I spent staring at a page.

The reader only experiences what made it onto the page.

I could spend an entire afternoon working on something and eventually delete all of it.

Was I busy?

Absolutely.

Was the work useful?

Only if the process helped make the story better.

That distinction changed the way I think about productivity.

Hours aren't the goal.

Value is.

Faith Makes the Question Even Bigger

My faith takes this idea beyond productivity.

Because eventually the question isn't simply:

"Did I get enough done today?"

It's:

"Did I use today well?"

Those are very different questions.

Ephesians 5:15-16 tells us:

"Be very careful, then, how you live... making the most of every opportunity."

That challenges me.

My time isn't unlimited.

Neither is yours.

So I don't want to spend my life proving how busy I was.

I want to spend it doing things that mattered.

Sometimes Useful Means Doing Less

I'm also learning that usefulness doesn't always mean producing something.

Sometimes the useful thing is listening.

Sometimes it's thinking.

Sometimes it's saying no.

Sometimes it's spending time with your family.

Sometimes it's stepping away from a problem and returning tomorrow with a clearer mind.

And sometimes it's doing absolutely nothing except being still before God.

I've had to learn that rest isn't the opposite of meaningful work.

Often, it's what allows meaningful work to continue.

My Definition of a Productive Day Is Changing

I still like accomplishing things.

I still love building.

That isn't going anywhere.

There will always be another idea somewhere in my notebook.

But I'm trying to stop measuring good days by how crowded they were.

I'd rather end a day knowing three important things moved forward than knowing thirty insignificant things kept me occupied.

That's a very different way to work.

And I think it's a healthier way to live.

Final Thoughts

Maybe the goal isn't to become more productive every year.

Maybe it's to become more intentional.

To understand what matters.

To eliminate what doesn't.

To use technology where technology helps.

To use our humanity where humanity matters.

To serve people.

To honor God.

And to make sure the work we're spending our lives doing is actually worth the life we're spending on it.

I'm not interested in winning the competition for the busiest calendar.

I'd rather be useful.

Useful to my family.

Useful to my team.

Useful to my community.

Useful to the people God puts in my path.

If I can end the day knowing that happened, that's productive enough for me.

— Nino Mihilli

Stay Connected with Nino Mihilli

🌐 Personal Website: https://www.ninomihilli.com

🏢 T47 Group: https://www.t47group.com

👷 Flat Staffing: https://www.flatstaffing.com

📖 Read Nino Mihilli's novel, The Variable, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3783RG

Follow Nino Mihilli on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Medium, and Substack for more on entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, leadership, faith, business, writing, and building from Phoenix.