It's nearly the weekend
And you have a lot of “shoulds” on your to-do list…but you kind of know they won’t happen before you get to the weekend, and you have some guilt about that. Because there’s already the normal life stuff, like work and kids and cooking, and the “I-wish-it-would-happen” stuff, like remembering to do that weekly face mask you just bought. And you feel like you can’t quite catch up.
“I’m busy.”
Those words just pop out all the time, almost as if they’re the same amount of truth as saying, “I’m a human” or “I have two eyes.” It kind of seems like a fact, and it almost feels weak to admit that you’re not busy!
But I’ve stopped saying those two words. I have!
I no longer let the words “I’m busy” come out of my mouth.
Because we all know that the words we say over and over eventually become the truth. We believe them and they become true. I don’t want to be someone who’s “busy” and so I make a conscious choice to not say those words.
And the truth? I’m not busy. Did you see my time tracking results? I believe that I live a pretty dang full life, and I’m lucky that there’s always something I could be doing. Another partnership I could take on, an email to respond to, a blog post to optimize. I’m so far from perfect.
But I also looked at my time from the past few weeks and realized that I found 5 hours each week to workout and 1 hour each week to meditate. I watched 10 hours of tv with Nate. I got a full 8 hours of sleep every night, and I was still able to work my job (which takes a lot of time!) and spend 50+ hours with my boys.
So…if I have time to do all of those wonderful, relaxing things, and I still get to enjoy time for my job and my family…I’m not going to let my brain tell me that I’m busy.
There are a lot of other words I can tell myself instead. I can say that I’m feeling motivated, or that I’m in the process of re-balancing things, or that I’m learning to outsource or let go of certain tasks.
But I’m not busy.
I don’t want to be busy. When I get to the end of my life, I don’t want “busy” to be the main word I use to describe it. So I’m not saying those words.
Today is Thursday, and I’m using my little trick to make sure I’m carving out time to do the things I really want to do with my life.
This weekend I plan to enjoy some time with my two boys, I’ll have to do a few hours of work, and I have two workouts planned.
My life is full, but I have the ability to say no to things when I choose to do that.
PS: go read this post about time tracking! The book I recommend in it is sooo good.
