I always remember an uncle of mine, who my family only ever saw at weddings and funerals. Every time we met, he’d shake hands with my dad and ask, “keeping busy”?
To the 9 year-old me it seemed like a proper grown-up question, as I knew I had never done anything just to keep myself busy.
Life for me then was full of adventure, fun and laughter.
I had a flashback to those childhood days recently when I read a post by my friend Stuart Carter, who wrote:
“People continue to ask me if I’m busy, as if “yes” is the right answer.
It’s my full-time job to not be busy. It allows me to be balanced, calm and on top form for the work I do with my clients.”
There is so much at our fingertips that will stop us being busy, and help us to be relaxed, productive and useful:
- Online calendars, scheduling tools and planners
- Automation for emails, sales funnels and contact management
- Access to freelancers who can do what we don’t need to
- Coaches and mentors to show us exactly how to be LESS busy
Of course, the biggest unbusyness tool of all is simply this:
You deciding to only do what only you can do, always.
If I were somehow reunited with my (now late) uncle, and he asked me if I’d been keeping busy, I’d have to say, no, of course not. Why would I be?
Jonny