Are you busy? Busy is good, isn’t it? Busy means successful, doing well. Saying “Oh I’m so busy” makes us feel important, needed, purposeful.

 

Busyness CAN be a form of self sabotage.

 

“Oh, come on, Sarah. How can even being busy been viewed as self sabotage?”.

 

Hear me out on this one. This isn’t a hard and fast rule. I’m just trying to ensure that you are aware of why you are being busy and making sure you understand what’s happening so you can make a choice.

 

Step-by-step – first make a list

Ok, so let’s work this out. Here are a few questions for you:

1)    What do you spend time doing?

2)    Are you efficient?

3)    Do you work early/late, through lunch breaks, at weekends?

4)    What do you do at home?

5)    How much time do you spend alone with just your thoughts?

6)    If I said you had to spend a week, off grid with no devices what would you think

 

(Even writing this is making me think I need to do this after I finish).

 

What could the answers mean?

 

1)    You can gauge from this if what you are doing is wholly necessary. If you see the list written out is there anything you see you want to change?

2)    Busyness oftens means we are not efficient. Find productivity tips on the internet and see what might work for you. I like timing jobs, putting appointments for certain tasks in my diary and blocking similar jobs together e.g. content writing, planning and phone calls

3)    If you do, is it worth it? Work out your hourly pay based on the reality of how many extra hours you work. Are you people pleasing saying “yes” too much? Can you delegate, push back or have a conversation? Invariably bosses get you to do things until you say no or break. They need to know if the company needs more staffing or resource. If it’s your own business, can you pace yourself more? Do you have “shiny object syndrome?”

4)    If you are busy but then have to do loads at home too, who else can you ask for help from? Family, partner, children? Children enjoy being empowered to help. My son has been putting the washing on since he was 3 – he definitely loved the job more then than now he is 16.

5)    If you never spend time alone with your thoughts, then there’s a whole mess of stuff needing your attention. You need decompression and processing time for a busy life. If you are not making time for your thoughts, you will be taking time for illness at a later date. You will get run down and low immunity. Book in time to check in with yourself as a non-negotiable appointment – you deserve it.

6)    If this scares you then it’s a key sign you are too attached to the world and need to check out every so often.

 

How can you help yourself today? This is pretty full on stuff so if you have realised you are in a position where you are out of control and it isn’t sustainable (I promise it isn’t), then book a call with me now.