I always remember an uncle of mine, who my family only saw at Christmas. Every time we arrived, 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 earlier 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 to 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
- Clients who’ll work to our schedule, if only we ask them
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 uncle this Christmas, and he asked me if I’d been keeping busy, I’d have to say, no, of course not. Why would I be?