Mary Ann Hayes

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about being too busy, so I decided to go on line and read up on the most recent advice from the know-it-all’s. There was the usual blabber about how to tell if you’re too busy; like do you stand up to eat while multitasking and do you wake up more exhausted than when your head hit the pillow the night before. There was also the run of the mill advice on how to say “no” and when to say it, how much “me” time to strive for, and the importance of exercise to relieve the stress of the ever-so-busy life.

Yet, none hit my hot button quite like an article I read in The Huffington Post. The author claimed, rather boldly I think, that being too busy is code for either just not interested or simply not managing time properly because of laziness. Laziness? How dare he! He went on to say things like, people who are insecure claim to be too busy so others will see they are wanted and needed by many. It’s a way to feel cool about oneself. The author said being too busy is a vanity thing, and the word busy is used as a confidence builder. Have you ever heard such nonsense?

Then, as an answer to “so what are we supposed to do?”, the article claimed eliminating the idea of being too busy can open the door to happiness. Eliminating “busy” apparently shows a person has control over their life and has good time management skills. They are “busy enough”, but never “too busy”.

Could any of this be true? I sat down and gave this radical thinking some serious thought and realized it’s probably a little bit true. It’s possible, by taking control of my time and fine tuning a realistic schedule, I could find a way to get everything done in a day without losing my mind, and regretting all the things that didn’t get done. Am I too lazy to commit myself to a schedule? Will I try and find a way out of it because I don’t want to walk the dogs at seven a.m., and write from eight till noon. Maybe I am a bit lazy and find saying I’m “too busy” is easier than managing my time. It’s possible, (I hate to admit,) that I’m one of those people who say “life just keeps happening” when in reality, life is not something happening to us, it is only responding to us. If we allow the chaos in, it will take charge.

As you may guess, I’m currently working on a daily plan which will allow for exercise, writing, housework, family life and down time. I’m going to experiment by managing my time into a comfortable schedule allowing me to be busy enough, yet no longer, “too busy”.

We’ll see how it goes. In the mean time, I just can’t get over how lazy I’ve been!

Later,