Busy-ness

Taking a moment out of my busy day to write about busy-ness.

We've all been there - I'm so busy today! I've got so much going on! I feel overwhelmed today! Too much stuff on my plate.

Maybe every day isn't like this, but I'm pretty sure that most of us have some experience with being too busy.

What I'm here to argue is that we create our own busy-ness. Period. There is no one else creating our overloaded schedule for us. It is us creating it.

It is me creating it for myself.

I have caught myself arguing with myself, in the midst of my own busy schedule, "Well, I have all this stuff to do. I have to get the kids ready for school, and then I have to get to work, and then I have to get this stuff done for this thing I committed to, and I'm going to school and taking a class and I have to get my assignment done for that, and I need to have some fun in there too! So there are all these things I have to get done."

But when I look at this and break it down, every one of these things are things I choose to do. These are things I chose to take on at some point. And then I get to feeling overwhelmed and horribly put-upon, and that just tweaks my day and my perspective.

The point being, the cause of my own busy-ness is me. I hear about something cool, and I want to be involved and I commit to doing something. I hear about something else cool, and I want to be involved in that, too. Pretty soon, I'm way over-committed - to stuff I really want to do, but over-committed nonetheless.

When I feel over-committed, it makes me cranky. I also don't like being perceived as a busy person. Don't get me wrong, I like being busy - but it really pains me when someone says to me "I know you're really busy, but..."

I don't want to be the "busy" guy. I like doing stuff, but I don't like this state of "busy-ness".

So what to do? (Look, even the solution is about doing something.)

For me, the key to decreasing busy-ness lies not in getting stuff off of my plate. It's ultimately not about stopping doing things, though that might help. That's treating the symptom, not the root.

The secret for me is to stop taking on new things. Or at least to be more thoughtful around what I do take on.

There is a great newsletter called Pause by Patricia Katz that often resonates with me on this topic. Recently, a post called "What's on your plate?" really struck me. She compares your available time with a plate at a buffet. Most of us will fill our plate completely, no matter the size. So the key is: start with a smaller plate.

The post is good because it gives me a framework from which to think about my available time. My available time is not 24 hours in a day.

The problem for me is, I find that I don't even think about the size of my plate when I hear about cool new projects. I just put it on the plate, and assume I'll figure it out later.

Which then makes me cranky. And ultimately more scattered and less productive, and I don't enjoy my life.

So my self-assignment is to consciously - consciously, and this is the hard part - stop taking on stuff, or at least to stop myself a moment and evaluate whether I can really take it on. No matter how little or cool it sounds. Is this something I want to add to my plate?

And in this way, hopefully break my own pattern of busy-ness.

And now I have to get back to it, because there's a lot to do today, and I just committed to something else in the course of this writing.

Comments

[Michele]

I like this post -- definitely food for thought for me.