I’m Retiring From Being Busy (at The Great Age of 24)

At the great age of 24, I’m retiring from being busy.  

That’s it - I said it.

I’ve had enough of filling up my calendar trying to be always a little more productive, having a never ending to-do list, always thinking about what I’m going to do next weekend or tonight or what my next project is. 

I’ve had enough of it all.

I’ve had enough of telling people I didn’t get back to them because I’ve been busy.

I’ve had enough of saying to someone when they ask me how I’m going, that I’ve been super busy lately.

I don’t want to be the person who is always busy, and I definitely don’t want to wear it like a badge of honour anymore. 

I don’t want to be the person that friends don’t ask for help from, because they know I’m always “too busy”.

So at the great age of 24, I’ve had enough.

So what’s the opposite of being busy? 

It’s not about doing nothing. It’s about living an intentional life.

It’s going to take time to slow down and work out just what that life might look like.

We glorify being busy. We celebrate hustling. We gush over massive to-do lists and jampacked calendars. 

But in doing this, we forget to leave time for those small moments. Those moments where you can just open up a good book and read for hours, have long conversations with a friend, or wander directionless through the forest.

Instead, let’s leave time for spontaneous activities that don’t require us to find a mutually suitable date in two months’ time. Let’s leave time for adventures, magic and conversation. Time to listen, observe and learn. Time to love and celebrate those around us. Time to process, reflect and heal. Time for us.

For the past decade, I thought that busy was a good thing.

That busy meant you were doing well. That you were successful. That you were moving forward with your life. That you were creating value and doing something useful in the world.

But that’s not the case any more.

Busy turned into a cop out for not being intentional with my life, my time and my priorities.

Because at the end of the day, we can dictate our calendars.

When we tell ourselves and other people that we’re busy, we’re telling them that we haven’t really worked out what our priorities are, so we are spending our time on anything and everything, rather than narrowing down our focus.

I want to live my life with intention. I’m going to do better. I’m going to abolish the word busy from my vocabulary and replace it with a life I’ve built with purpose.

So at the great age of 24, I’m retiring from being busy.