There are seasons when life is whirling by at a fast pace. We barely have time to pick our heads up to see where we are. As a short term thing, this is survivable. But when this busyness stretches into a way of life, we have to consider the hidden cost of being too busy.
What “Too Busy” Actually Looks Like
I am a recovering overachiever. I used to have so much on my plate that I never had a free evening or lunch hour. Weekends were spent frantically trying to cram cleaning tasks into a half day slot. Then I had a baby, and while things adjusted, I still tried to fit all the activities into the spots were she was asleep. I was overextended, exhausted and overwhelmed.
Too busy is easy to identify when you look at stories like that. But what does it look like in its subtler forms?
- Constant hurry. When one is constantly in a hurry, it’s a rush from task to task, meeting to meeting, chore to chore. It can feel like you are in overdrive and speeding down the highway, barely in control of the car. Constant hurry indicates that there is not enough space between activities.
- No mental margin. The mental aspect of the constant hurry is that there is no break mentally between tasks. This can mean thinking about tasks/meetings you just left even as you are moving onto the next.
- Tasks stacking up. This is a big one. If your task list is constantly growing, even though you are working diligently on them, you have too many tasks.
- Feeling reactive instead of proactive. Too busy removes the time to think. So instead of responding to situations, one grabs the first solution that will work and moves on.
How Overcommitment Affects Focus and Energy
- Harder to concentrate. David Allen talks about a mind like water. When a person is overcommitted, all of those things ping around in our heads. Even if we have a trusted system, there is an awareness of all the things that are swirling around. And with that level of mental chatter, it’s harder to concentrate on what is before you.
- More mistakes. Reacting to situations rather than taking a proactive, responsive approach means that we grab a solution, rather than the best solution. This can lead to a lot more mistakes. Even having your mind somewhere other than where your feet are can lead to mistakes. I once witnessed a nasty kitchen accident because the person was dictating to a phone instead of paying attention to the knife in his hand.
- Less patience. If one has already solved a situation, it can be hard to bring others up to speed. It’s a slowdown to have to explain when one has already moved on to something else. This can lead to less patience. For me, it is also because I know I have so many more things to do, and I don’t want to be wasting time.
- Lower energy reserves. Being too busy requires a lot of energy, physical and mental. These are not infinite stores, but depend on how well you take care of yourself. Most people have a reserve of energy that can be tapped into for extreme circumstances. But tap into regularly, and you won’t have the full reserves there. Think of it like putting a gallon of gas in a car every few days – you will never have a full tank.
Why Constant Busyness Feels Productive
The thing is, constant busyness feels productive because you are always doing things. This is one of the reasons people continue to do it. Here’s why it feels productive:
- It creates the illusion of progress. If you are busy, you must be busy doing things that need to be done, right? Not necessarily. There is a lot of stuff out there that feels productive but really isn’t. It may be a great feeling to know that you were busy all day, but what exactly did you accomplish?
- Being busy is socially rewarded. How many times have you asked someone how they are and they answer “busy”? Western society equates what we produce with worth, and then being busy must mean you are producing more and are therefore worth more and/or are more important.
- It’s easy to avoid deeper thinking. The very thing that would pull us up short with constant busyness is easiest to avoid when you are busy. Deep thinking requires time and effort, things that are in short supply in an over-busy life. At the same time, deep thinking is the thing that will let you know that maybe your activities are not necessary.
The Long-Term Cost of Overloading Your Schedule
Being overly busy has a price. We’ve already looked at how overcommitment affects focus and energy. When the drain on focus and energy goes on without end in sight, it can have some serious effects.
The longer you push yourself without allowing your energetic, mental and physical stores to be replenished, the closer you push to burnout.
It’s not fun. I’ve been there several times. You can learn more about how to recognize burnout with my article: Recognizing Burnout.
Burnout comes with some other ride-along symptoms.
Your creativity will be lowered because you are no longer giving yourself the space to be creative. Creativity thrives when you can let your mind wander. Overload prevents that.
Your enjoyment of things will probably decrease because you will always be focused on the next thing. Overloading your schedule often leads to having your thoughts in the past or future – and not enjoying the present moment.
Frustration and resentment can creep up faster when you are overloaded. The cure for both of these is gratitude. Gratitude can’t exist at warp speed. It needs time to be thought of and felt.
How to Tell When You Need to Slow Down
So how do you know if you are over-busy?
- You feel behind all the time. If you are fighting the bottomless task list so that it never seems like you are making progress, it’s time to look at what can be removed.
- Rest doesn’t feel restorative. When you try to rest, if your mind is spinning so fast that you can’t relax, you’re overwhelmed. Rest should be restorative. And if you don’t feel that, it’s time to ask why.
- Your calendar has no breathing room. If you are in back-to-back-to-back meetings or activities, snatching food and water in between, or if you have no space to process what has happened, your calendar has no breathing room. It’s time to ask how you can get some space.
How To Slow Down
Slowing down isn’t hard, but it takes practice. When you’ve been overly busy for too long, it can be hard to break those habits.
I put together my method for slowing down in my article How To Do A Productivity Reboot.
In Conclusion
In the end, being too busy is not a badge of honor; it is often a quiet sign that something needs to change. A full schedule may look impressive from the outside, but if it leaves no room for focus, joy, rest, or reflection, the cost is simply too high. Slowing down may feel uncomfortable at first, especially if busyness has become your normal, but creating margin is what makes space for clarity, creativity, and peace. You do not have to do everything to be valuable. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is step back, breathe, and choose a better pace.
