The Spirit of Busy
It descends on us all around this time of year. We start seeing less hours of sleep and recreation, and more hours of "get here!" and "pick up there!"
As the last wisps of summer fade and as the last vacation spot fades away in the rearview mirror, we each head into the season of August that causes a little churning in our stomachs. It's the season when school starts once more, and it's usually in this season that we see something that is in almost all of our lives; it's just more prevalent during this time.
I'm talking about the spirit of busy.
Do you know what I'm talking about? It's what makes us long for weekends and dreads Mondays. It's when we shut the laptop off and start scrolling our phones and tablets. It's saying no to life-giving relationships and yes to just one more hour of work (so we can get ahead tomorrow...but we never do.)
Have you ever been there? We often celebrate the spirit of busy like it's a badge of honor.
Have you ever been around that person? The kind where they almost flaunt busy like it's the new fad? Even listening to them tell you about their day-in, day-out routine starts to stress you out--and it's not even your schedule!
When the spirit of busy hits, it's not a question of how can we build margin in our lives where it feels like we're not frantic all the time, but it's a question of what is next on our plate to accomplish.
The spirit of busy is not good for our physicality or our souls. Adopting the spirit of busy can actually spill over into time when you should be doing something important each and every day: sleeping. It's actually pretty crazy what side effects are out there when you're getting less sleep.
The spirit of busy keeps us in the mindset that we always must be doing something productive. Though there are many avenues that we could travel down, there are two that stick out the most to me.
1.) There are no priorities. We often feel too busy and too stressed because there are no priorities set in our lives. Because there are no priorities, everything feels like it's thrown into a magician's hat and you have no idea what's going to come out when you reach in to pull something out.
Priorities help us set things in proper order. When we prioritize, we are essentially saying "This is most important to me." We are then able to schedule time and effort around each item we prioritize. This might not solve everything right away, but it gets us on the right track. Even Solomon, the wisest person to ever live (besides Jesus, duh), knew that there was a time and place to do everything.
You have as much time to do something as you give yourself! Here are two resources that can help you be more effective at placing priorities in your life: Planning Your Weekly Schedule and Quadrants of Time Management. (Though this is designed for college students, you can easily adjust to your stage of life.)
2.) Technology--I love technology. I really do. As a missionary, it's great to stay connected with family, friends, and teammates when I'm hours and hours away from them. However, technology can be a leading cause as to why we are so busy. This article shows how much time an average American spends on electronic media. Warning: it's disturbing to look at. The author cites that the usage is actually okay because "we were given the ability to multi-task. Otherwise, we wouldn't get a whole lot done these days." Sure it is...<insert snarky sarcasm here>.
The only thing I'll say about technology is that we could all do with less in our lives. I could say more about this, but my former boss from UVA shared a wonderful message about technology that you should really consider listening to when you have the time (prioritize!)
There you have it! Those are two big elements that cause us to adopt the spirit of busy more than we should. When we prioritize, get sleep, and don't stay glued to our electronics, the spirit of busy will alleviate and we will have more time than we ever realized.
