A Toast to Not Being “Busy” — Day 7 — As Life Happens by Vindya Vithana
I was busy the last few days.
So much so that I didn’t even have time to tell people that I am busy. What a bummer!
After a few hectic days, yesterday I had the time to sit back and reflect, and all I could think was how damaging “being busy” can be.
I’ve missed out on all my routines, my good habits, my water intake, my peace of mind and even my meals some days.
Strangely enough, I got praised for it rather than being pointed out how extremely unhealthy it was. I’ve had people telling me how amazing it was that I am busy. In reality, it wasn’t.
So today, I am writing about being busy.
When I was young (well, let’s say young-er) I was someone who thrived in doing excessive work.
I took my first full-time job while I was doing a full-time degree, and after a while, even that wasn’t enough so I took a part-time job for the evenings and started doing a second degree on weekends.
I was a skinny girl without much appetite, and I thought it was a blessing because then I don’t have to spend much time eating and exercising. I was obsessed with work to an extremely unhealthy level. I was addicted.
Fast forward a few years, I am now in a more stable position in my career and I am a lot less busy.
I am better at managing my time, I don’t hesitate to delegate my work and most of all, I truly enjoy my downtime.
What I have observed is that I tend to get “busy” only when I do not plan ahead. I get busy when I do not manage my time when I get spells that I don’t feel like delegating the work and keep all to me just because I don’t trust someone else to do it. (We will talk more about it later on!)
In fact, it is when I am “busy” that I am the least productive.
Being “busy” makes you decrease the quality of your work. You focus more on doing more things rather than doing things well. It makes you not be present to those around you. It makes you make excuses to yourself and others.
Being “busy” makes you lose clarity. It blurs your vision.
Most importantly, being “busy” makes you forget to take care of yourself. You bury yourself under a pile of work and push the levers of the machine to the highest level, without properly oiling it up. Being “busy” makes you weaker.
I broke my habit of “being busy” over a period of time, however, I still fall back in times. I am still addicted to the high of having too many things to do and too little time to do them. I am still working on.
Life is a beautiful mix of so many things. When you are “busy”, you tend to miss out on the most important parts of it.
Here’s to NOT being “busy”, but being productive and happy.
Cheers!
