How often do you hear people telling you that they are too busy? Nowadays, it seems that society expects people to be constantly busy. If we are not busy, we are doing something wrong. We are busy with work, busy with making money, busy with side hustles, busy with our phones, busy with answering emails, busy making food, busy making ends meet, busy becoming financially independent, busy, busy, busy! Even if we are not busy, we start to create a false reality that we are busy.
Because we want to fit in, we want to be like everyone else.
So we fake it until we make it. We pretend that we are constantly busy.
And when there is something that comes up, we can never commit. We always reply with a “maybe,” because, well you know, we are busy. We are never commital. Maybe is our escape route.
Perhaps we are all looking at this incorrectly. Perhaps we should look at things from a different angle.
It’s not about having time, it’s about making time
If it matters, we will make time.
Make time for your loved ones. One day they won’t be there. We will regret not making the time for the rest of our lives.
Make time to take care of ourselves. We only have one life, one physical body.
How do we make time?
- Make a schedule and stick to it. Create an hour each day dedicated to ourselves. Go to the gym, do yoga, meditate, read a book, etc. Create time slots to spend quality time with your loved ones.
- Be mindful and prioritize. Determine what is more important in life. What is more important? Spend 10 minutes on your phone? Or spend 10 minutes with your ageing parent?
- Take action. Stop sitting around. Stop complaining. Stop making excuses. Things aren’t going to magically happen if you don’t take any actions. Start saying yes rather than constantly saying maybe.
I am no way of close to being perfect when it comes to making time. It is an on-going practice.
Now put your device down and start making time to do things that matter. Life is about making the choices that will make you a happier person.
I am bad for saying let’s see what things look like closer to the date. I need to say yes to doing more when people ask me to and commit as you say. My problem is that I enjoy doing a lot by myself too though. As for the busy I find I am making myself busy with things that aren’t providing me with the best return on my time.
Thanks for this post.
The short version of this post could be: “What Do You Want To Do In Life Before You Die?” Do we waste time watching TV or scrolling through Facebook, or do we accomplish what we want? We have time, we can make time by eliminating unnecessary and useless things. But then what? We need to WAKE UP!
Yes I guess that’s one way to rephrase the post. 🙂
Time to make time and do things that matter.
Couldn’t agree more (and nothing wrong with a short post!). I believe that if “I’m too busy” is a reason for not doing something, it’s clearly not a priority. It’s helped me to put things into perspective. Going forward I’m definitely trying to make time to relax, because my health should be a priority – I’m certain that by putting it as a fixed item in my schedule it’ll happen!
Always make your health the top priority. Having all the money in the world wouldn’t matter if you don’t have health.
I have a question. Do you read 10k (annual reports) when choosing stocks?
Yup, I go through companies’ annual reports and quarterly reports.
When the kids were younger and playing 2 sports each, I would have to leave my job, take one to a game and stay there (child was quite young), drive child from game to DH ( who was also at other child’s game) and then go back to work. Get home, make dinner (DH refused to cook), give baths and relax. It could be 10 pm by then…. I also had my own side job selling furniture and would go on a day (whenever possible) to sales shows. Add in all of the MD appts (Me & kids have chronic issues requiring md visits 4+ times a year per person), school visits, hours spent teaching homework I did this for many YEARS……Not until a woman told me that I was the busiest person she ever knew, did I realize that I really WAS extremely busy. I just thought it was normal. And I guess it was as I had no choice.
Fast forward to today. The kids are older and not into sports. One works full-time now and the other is still in school. I have way more free time now. In a way, I like it and sometimes I feel like I need to be busier. But with what? LOL.
I do regret not seeing my parents before they passed. Flying 1500 miles to see them was an expense and honestly, I should’ve made time to go. I spoke to them by phone daily, but I didn’t go back home as much anymore. And they wouldn’t fly out to see us either. Still, I wish I would’ve seen them. Life’s very short.
Hi Lisa,
Wow I can’t believe you were that busy with your life. How did you find time for yourself? Did you ever make time so you can take care of yourself?
Nice post. We generally rsvp really fast and try our best to make events. My wifes side of the family is really big so sometimes we have to say no to events but then try to go the others next time it happens.
I remember our wedding we gave like 3 months notice and some people didnt rsvp. We had to call them are you coming or not? Lol!
I took this whole winter off and could tell neighbours were like wtf.. why aren’t u busy? Why are you walking the dog at 2pm u should be working…
Its weird how we view people not “constantly being busy” Its the dream.
Cheers
Yup it’s really weird & funny (and sad at the same time) that it’s assumed that people are just constantly being busy.
We generally try to say yes to events as well. We only say no if we really really can’t make it. 🙂
Good post as usual! Speaking of being too busy, there is a good book I just finished by Vancouver author Michael Harris that talks about our modern need to be busy (and why it’s bad for us). Check it out if interested — I found it very enlightening.
https://amzn.to/2GBhsoI
Very cool, I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for mentioning.
I lived in the country but was still only 8 minutes from work. Having no commute is the best way to free up family time I found. Easy to do if you work in small town America. That plus not working long hours to impress. I think the fact I left at 5 but still got more work done is what impressed my bosses and got me promoted.
Wow an 8 minute commute time is totally awesome. I would loved that (mine’s about 25 minutes). That’s great you are able to do more things each day with that little commute time.
Hello Bob,
Unless we are physically in the hospital while On Call- we are very flexible. We have NEVER used being busy as a way out of doing stuff. We would simply be honest with people and tell them no directly rather than pull the “busy” line.
It is all a mindset really. Usually it is the perception of being busy which makes them feel busier even when they are not. Very difficult to change someone else’s mindset.
That’s awesome that you are being honest rather than pulling the busy line. Glad to hear that you guys have the right mindset and being flexible. You are absolutely correct, it is extremely hard to change someone else’s mindset.