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Busyness is the ultimate enemy of progress. 

I know this sounds paradoxical but bear with me.

Modern culture is so obsessed with the idea of productivity that busyness has become a kind of badge of honor. It’s what justifies and validates our existence. It’s how we judge ourselves and others. If you aren’t busy, then what are you?

We may sometimes complain about being busy but secretly we love it. Why though 

Busyness—a crafty enemy if there ever was one—has a twisted way of making us feel good in the moment. There’s a kind of joy and excitement that comes from having a lot to do. It can make you feel needed and even give you a sense of purpose. And who doesn’t love that feeling of crossing something off the to-do list, right? 

But, trust me, this is one prize in life you don’t actually want. 

Busyness is antithetical to things like awareness, creativity, joy, reflection, compassion, patience, and kindness—essentially everything we actually want in life—and blinds us to true meaning and purpose. It also blinds us to the moment and makes us forget important things. When we are too busy, we lose the ability to perceive, let alone appreciate, the gift-like nature of everyday life. It also precludes proactivity and the possibility of getting better at daily living.

I used to think that the way to deal with busyness was to just work really hard. When confronted with the stress of a busy season, I would grit my teeth, dig in, and just get to work. As much as I love grinding and hustle culture, its Sisyphean nature can dull your spirit and threaten your personal growth in a fundamental way. 

Ultimately, busyness is bad because it implies that you are spending too much time and energy in reaction mode. Instead of being proactively and mindfully engaged in some purposeful endeavor you are responding to emails and calls, or putting out fires, or whatever. In other words, when you are busy, what you aren’t doing is living well.

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Thankfully, I discovered a better way. Here are 3 strategies you can use to crush your to-do list and eliminate busyness from your life:

1. Do one thing at a time

Ultimately a spiritual idea, “doing one thing at a time” is just plain good advice. When you clear your mind of all distractions and just focus on one thing, you cannot help but feel good, for there’s simply no room for anxiety, self-doubt, or any other mood-killing emotions and thoughts. Even the most difficult or mundane work can become satisfying in this state. 

While modern technology has enabled and encouraged a kind of ethos around the utility and desirability of multitasking, let’s be honest: multitasking sucks. It’s not entirely true that you cannot do two things at once—after all you can indeed drive and listen to music or do the dishes and listen to a podcast—but the list of activities where you can is rather small. And if you want to do something really well, there’s no question that you should focus solely that task. 

Busyness is also really bad for healthy social life. Have you ever been around someone who’s extremely distracted by their phones? Yeah, no one likes that.

Most importantly though, extreme focus (doing one thing) is the one and only entryway into the state of flow and flow is a must for living the good life. 

Whenever you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, start by brainstorming a list of everything you think you need to do. Write everything down. Nothing is too big or too small. Just get it all out of your head. Then, start prioritizing the list—not some half-ass college try, but a real intelligent, strategic effort. Most people mess up here but this is the key step in the process. Get real about things. Don’t be delusional. Don’t lie to yourself. Use the full power of your reasoning mind to come up with a prioritized list that actually makes sense in the context of the challenges of your life. 

Then comes the easy part. Once you have your prioritized list all you have to do is methodically handle each item in succession. Do this for a day and you’ll feel energized, for a week and you’ll feel optimistic, for a month and you’ll feel like you can conquer the world!  

2. Mind the details

It may sound strange to say but “minding the details” can set you free.

How’s that? 

Well, when you avoid the details, all you’re doing is unnecessarily clogging your mind with uncertainty. This is disastrous because uncertainty tends to take up more space in your mind than the truth. Way more. 

This phenomenon is captured brilliantly by the “Anxiety” character in Inside Out 2—a must-watch film for kids and adults alike. There’s a scene where Anxiety has full control of Riley’s mind and recruits her imagination to fill her head with vivid imagery of every possible thing that could go wrong the next day. Meanwhile, Riley cannot sleep and is tossing, turning, and catastrophizing. Can anyone relate? 

Anyway, as the story shows, a big part of growing up is learning how to control the anxiety reaction function in your mind. And it just so turns out that paying super close attention to the details is one of the easiest ways to do so. Close attention somehow frees your mind from the burden of unhealthy imagination. Don’t believe me, ask any elite athlete or performer.

Things feel overwhelming until you look at them in the face. It’s just like when dealing with fear. The reality of the situation is always way less scary than the imagined version.

Once you have your prioritized to-do list and are committed to doing just one thing at a time (see above), the next step is to pay really close attention to all the little details of what you are doing. Allow yourself to be curious and try to notice things you’ve never noticed before. Take notes if necessary or make spreadsheets. Whatever the task calls for. If things are really complex, break them down into little steps. Before long, you’ll have a complete handle on everything and will be basking in the glory of a free, unburdened mind.

3. Think ahead

A good way to know whether you are winning in the battle against busyness is if you actually have time to think ahead. A big part of to-do list management is about foresight. The more you can see and understand the full scope of what’s coming at you, the better you can plan for it. Sometimes the right move now—e.g. realizing you can never handle all your work without making a key hire or personnel change—can dramatically improve your situation later. 

If you aren’t thinking ahead, you really have no chance of breaking free from the tyranny of busyness. The more strategic you can be here the better. Don’t just think ahead one day, although that can be a good place to start; think ahead weeks and months if possible. Do some scenario planning. Consider 2^nd and 3^rd order effects and possibilities. In short, do enough thinking to enable the intelligent evaluation of several alternatives. If you can do this, you’ll be well on your way to mental freedom.  

You’re probably wondering by now “How do you know when busy is too busy?” 

That’s a tough question. You all know me well enough by now to know that I’m not advocating for a life leisure here in these pages. No, I believe in work and even the Strenuous Life. I just want you to work smart and with purpose. 

Here’s where I personally draw the line: I know I’m too busy if I cannot intelligently, specifically answer questions like:

 What am I doing and why?

 How does it support a goal or serve the greater good?

Is this the best way of doing the task in the moment?

What is my strategy here and how does this activity support it?

I find that regular, quick check-ins with questions like these help me stay honest with myself and more likely to operate in a state of mental freedom—engaged, proactive, and focused and enjoying work for its own sake.

Profit+ Inspiration 

Title: Water: my ode to the Ocean

Photographer/Filmmaker: Morgan Maassen 

I love to just have this playing on my browser with no sound when I’m writing. There’s something so soothing and creatively fertile to moving water and Maassen has a genius for capturing its beauty on camera.  

Ps. More on community from an inspiring Profit+ reader who has become a friend!

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