I saw a dear friend a few days ago. I stopped by to ask her how she was doing, how her family was. She looked up, voice lowered, and just whimpered: “I’m so busy… I am so busy… have so much going on.” The tone was exacerbated, tired, even overwhelmed.

“I am so Busy”, does this sound familiar. From a chat with old friend, colleagues, sometimes even family members. Hence, I thought why not expose this expression in writing.

“I am so Busy” educes sympathy from others.

Saying “I am Busy” is like a direct line to sympathy. People automatically identify with the overload that comes from being overworked. But in actual terms, we might not be busy for real things in life.

And let’s face it—we all like it when people understand our plight. Something about it just feels good, and when something feels good, we do it again.

Unfortunately, sympathy doesn’t help us get past being busy. Sympathy from others reinforces that mental state and allows to feel okay with being that way. This leads to no self-improvement or self-realisation

“I am so Busy” is a very good defence.

Busy is a pretty effective excuse. When we say we are busy, others often don’t ask a follow-up question. They take our “busy” at face value, which allows us to avoid any further, potentially unpleasant conversations. People will forgive you for not doing something. Feeling distracted or irritated? Blame it on being ‘very busy.’ Moreover, when you can’t find time for yourself, use the same excuse: “I am crazy busy.” That’s how we end up lying to everyone (ourselves included).

You probably think you need for a formula to do more. Or wishing you could multiply yourself and accomplish everything you want.

“I am so Busy” is a fitting justification.

We all have a to-do list, and for many of us, it feels never ending. We look at our too-long to-do list and tell ourselves that more things aren’t crossed off the list because it’s simply too long!

We intend to push our limits wanting to do more and more, without even thinking sometimes. But, in the end, we feel guilty for not accomplishing everything we wanted. No matter how hard we try, we are just stretching ourselves too thin.

That circular argument is ridiculous, but appealing. As a result, we continue building our list of things to do while simultaneously building our ongoing justification for not getting those things done.

Take a pause in life and assess, “Are you suffering from disease of busyness?”.

Try being brutally honest with yourself (at least give it a fair shot).

I am not offering a solution or ways to help you here.  People are different… Situations are different…

So , there is no one-size fits all. The only thing I can suggest is take a step back and probably “Prioritize”.

No one in this world has unlimited energy, time and resources. One needs to plan to “Optimize”.

Nihit Mohan