Is it Better to be Too Busy or Not Busy Enough?

Lately, I have thought about whether it is better to be too busy or not be busy enough because for me personally, there are pros and cons to both.

Pros:

• You get a lot accomplished

• You don’t have time to overthink what you are doing

• You get tasks done efficiently

• The joy that comes from “checking” something off your to-do list

Cons:

• You don’t have time to relax

• You don’t have time to spend mindlessly with friends

• Rushing through the motions to get the tasks completed

• You don’t live as much in the moment

Overtime, I have realized that finding your sweet spot between these two is the key to maintain balance in life. I have found that when I am not busy enough I tend to overanalyze situations, events and tasks because I have “too much time on my hands” yes I mean “too much time.” Some may be confused why I say this because, isn’t too much time on your hands a good thing? Well, funny enough, for me, it isn’t. This is mainly because I have battled anxiety my whole life and I often find that when I am not busy enough my anxiety skyrockets. I think this is due to putting the energy that I would be into completing a task into worrying about things that are out of my control that do not need my attention. For example, I will find myself worrying about the past such as an event that I wish I could have done differently or the future such as where I will be living in 10 years, neither of which I have complete control over. On the flipside, when I am too busy I find that I am racing a million miles a second and I can’t catch my breath, which can lead to me doing a task half-way or not feeling like I am overwhelmed by everything I have to complete. For me personally, if I had to choose to be either too busy or not busy enough I would have to say too busy because that is how my anxiety is able to be tamed most effectively. However, my perfect zone to live life in is somewhere in between being too busy and not busy enough because that allows me to both manage my anxiety and live in the moment all at the same time. My high school advisor gave me this advice, “Think of your life as a weight balance, if you add something new on your plate and you start to notice your weight shifting to one side and you can’t get it back to balanced than you must remove something that is causing you stress so that you can get back to that balanced state and maintain it. When your life is balanced, you are going to be the most successful in all aspects of your life.” This advice has stuck with me ever since and I truly do think of my life this way and measure certain roles or tasks that I take on based on this way of looking at maintaining a balanced life.

Ultimately, I have learned (for the most part) how to find my sweet spot to maintain a balanced life and I hope this analogy helps you to find yours too.