The Article Club – Week 10
June 11, 2010 by Marci
This weeks Article club post caught my attention right away. It is The End Of Busy from Zen Habits. With a title like that, I just had to read it!! Since it is the Article Club, visit Zen Habits and read the post. Come back here when you are done and we’ll discuss it. I’ll wait!
—————————–
Here are some quotes that stuck out to me in The End Of Busy
“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” ~Lao Tzu
I love that quote at the beginning of the post. That’s exactly what I feel like when I am too busy. Like I am getting nothing accomplished. Busy is not the same as productive. We seem to have that mixed up in our society.
“Busy is simply noise, action without meaning, lots of little unimportant things rather than a few important ones.”
What would happen if we just concentrated on the important stuff in life instead of all the little stuff that doesn’t really matter? Would our mood change? Would our outlook on life change? Would our families change?
“But how can you stop being busy? It’s a simple change of mindset: you say, I’m not going to be busy anymore.”
Is it really that easy? Do I just need to make up my mind? Are there other steps I need to follow? Won’t there be some fall-out?
What are your thoughts about The End Of Busy? What spoke to you in this post? I look forward to hearing what you think!
—————-
Follow me on twitter @OvercomingBusy
Comments (4)
I am suffering an excess of busy in my life at the moment… but I’m not sure that I can switch it off just like that… I find that I am far more productive when I skip the busywork, and just get on with the task at hand, but sometimes the dishes/washing/folding/dinner sings far loudly than being in the moment.
I’ve always disliked the word busy..In my world there is always time to do what’s important at that time. I have to wholeheartedly agree with the article and thought it was a great read!
I love the idea of a full life but, a busy life has a frantic ring to it that I just don’t jive with. Busy makes me think of out of control and I don’t like using the word or telling myself the busy story. Full…a full life will do for me! This was a great article to think about and find words for. Thanks.
I really liked this read. I just met a mom yesterday who is “busy.” REALLY Busy. I felt sorry for her, and I looked at what I thought was a packed calendar, almost one appointment a day, and then thought about her double playdate-art lesson-piano lesson-ballet-birthday party packed weekend. She has two school age children. Over packed schedules aren’t what our family aims for.
I think before it was because of lack of energy and ill health. Now I believe we keep our schedule mostly clear so we can simply be together. And that was a decision to cut out the noise just like this article said. I ignore the laundry, dishes, and cluttered corners to bring the kids to the park because they need to be outside. In fact they sleep better and it helps me sleep better.
A couple years ago you couldn’t pry my to-do list from my cold hands. I took a couple of big changes to get my body in better shape, and now the feelings of anxiety, stress, frenetic productivity are all gone. I don’t know if I could have let go to become “not-busy” without these physiological changes. I don’t know if some of the overwhelming urge to be busy is physical, not simply psychological.
Great read Marci!