What If "Too Busy" Is Wrongfully Becoming Normal?
Tags: productivity, mentalhealth
Published: 2022-04-26 04:09:00

## Table of Contents
1. [Signs You are Too Busy](#signs-you-are-too-busy)
2. [Why You're Addicted to Being Busy](#why-you-are-addicted-to-being-busy)
3. [Ways Being Constantly Busy is Affecting Your Well-Being](#ways-being-constantly-busy-is-affecting-your-well-being)
4. [Ways to Stop Being Too Busy](#ways-to-stop-being-too-busy)

### Signs You Are Too Busy
1. You hardly see your family
2. Everything feels important
3. You constantly try to meet others' expectations
4. You aren't present
5. The non-essentials take over
6. You feel like you're failing in multiple areas of your life
7. You never take vacations
8. You have a hard time focusing for more than 15 minutes
9. You're unhappy and don't know why
10. You're hesitant when it comes to making decisions
11. You don't ask for help when you need it
12. Your workspace is messy
13. You're constantly trying to multitask
14. You have to schedule things weeks in advance
15. You dread getting up in the morning
16. You have a hard time simply enjoying the moment
17. You feel out of balance
18. You feel guilty a lot of the time
19. You're filling your calendar with things you don't even want to do
20. Your thoughts are in constant disarray
21. You're on auto-pilot
22. You aren't maintaining your relationships
23. You're getting more forgetful than normal
24. You wake up tired and/or are getting insomnia 
25. You can't remember what it feels like to not be busy

### Why You Are Addicted to Being Busy
There's a paradox when it comes to busyness. It goes like this:

Anyone with professional ambition strives to do great work and be recognized for their talent. This person is then in "high demand". BUT the more in demand you are, the harder it is to provide quality work due to the quantity of work you have. This is why it's easy to mistake simple busyness for validation that you're doing a good job.

[An analysis of holiday letters](https://hbr.org/2016/12/research-why-americans-are-so-impressed-by-busyness) indicates that references to "crazy schedules" have dramatically increased since the 1960s. Busyness and the lack of leisure or vacation is constantly being more and more "celebrated" all over the media. Advertising used to feature wealthy people relaxing by the pool or on a yacht but not they feature busy business women or men working long hours with very limited leisure time.

Generally, the busy person is perceived as "high status". In turn the more we believe that one's opportunity for success is solely based on hard work and one's dedication and efforts alone, the more we tend to lean towards the idea that people who skip leisure and work 24/7 instead have a higher chance of being successful. 

### Ways Being Constantly Busy is Affecting Your Well Being
#### Emotional health:

- anxious
- stressed
- overwhelmed
- inadequate
- sad
- frustrated
- angry
- lonely
- hopeless
- incompetent
- guilty

#### Physical health:

- muscle tension and/or pain
- restlessness
- insomnia
- headaches
- inflammation
- compromised immune function
- fatigue
- change in sex drive
- digestion issues
- cardiovascular disease

### Ways to Stop Being Too Busy
1. Practice mindfulness as a way to connect with yourself, observe your thoughts without judgment, and ground yourself.
2. Make it a priority to spend time with your loved ones. 
3. Remember that change starts with you. You have to take action in your own hands.
4. Set boundaries with others and remind yourself that it's okay to say "no". Sacrificing your well-being to overextend yourself can have severe consequences in the long term.
5. Remind yourself that your self-worth does not come from being productive or busy.
6. Define your priorities.
7. Set a reminder that reminds you to breathe and take time for yourself
8. Declutter your schedule.
9. Start small and introduce moments of calm into your days.
10. Set appropriate expectations for yourself when it comes to how much you can comfortably take on and know that this may change over time.
11. Schedule your work time and your free time in chunks.
12. Focus on what is essential.
13. Prioritize quality over quantity
14. Emphasize achieving, not doing
15. Set parameters around your workday