Four specific reasons have spurred me to a follow on yesterday’s post (which I didn’t intend to do:
- I was speaking at a conference in Dallas this last week and several of my hallway conversations revolved around pace, busyness and stress.
- I’m up to my eyeballs in prep for the National Youth Workers Convention that is going to be in San Diego next week. I’m working on 4 new seminars and 3 of them have to do with managing one’s inner life.
- I appreciated the comments and how I could see their heart thru their words.
- I just read Adam McLane’s post titled “I’m Fried.”
Adam wrote: “My brain is on empty. My soul is weary. And I’m the kind of tired a good nights sleep won’t fix. We need to get away… and read, rest, play… do nothing.”
[To read the rest of his post go here.]When asked for specifics of “what to do” by a conference attendee this week, I quickly rattled off these 6 potential actions that could help combat busyness:
1. Declare war on busyness: it’s not something you just slip out of. It requires an intentional plan and your best effort.
2. Go public: tell a few people that you’re struggling and you need some help. You’re not alone. Tell another busy person and ask for genuine accountability.
3. Clean the piles: when my life is too busy, piles form. These can be in my office, my car, my garage, my closet…it doesn’t matter. Often, these “spaces” are an external reflection of what’s happening on the inside of my life.
4. Go to bed earlier: life will continue. You don’t have to finish everything you want to do before you go to bed. You’ll wake up in the morning and Jesus will still be God and you’ll be okay. Get some good, quality, long sleep.
5. Journal to find the “yes”: there’s a story waiting to be uncovered. One of the primary reasons that I’m busy is because I say “yes” too much. Each “yes” has a story. Did I say “yes” because I wanted to be liked? Approval? Fear? Impure motive? When you discover the real reason, take it to the people you contacted in #2 (above) and share what’s broken in you that’s causing you to continue to say “yes”.
6. Quit lying to yourself: it’s amazing what you’ll convince yourself to believe. One of my default phrases around busyness is “it’s only for a season.” That’s a lie! Seasons have end-dates. If it’s legitimately a seasons—great. If it’s one season that rolls into other seasons…that’s a sickness, not a season. You’ll always battle busyness if you continue to lie to yourself.
There’s more actions that need to take place, but here’s a starter list.
Question: What do you do when you’re too busy for too long? What would you add?
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