The “crazy busy” syndrome.
I wish I could (fill in the blank) but I just don’t have enough time.
I bet we can all fill in the blank.
I wish I could:
- Lose weight
- Look for a new job
- Get organized
- Start a new side gig or business
- Keep in touch better with friends
And the list goes on!
You have more time than you believe!
This is where I have to use a little tough love on you. We all have time. Yes, even you.
Believe me, I am 100% guilty of using this excuse as a crutch. When people ask how things are going my automatic response is usually something in reference to “it’s good but we are just crazy busy.” We are busy. I work full-time, my fiance works full-time and between us we have 4 children. Three of those children are 13 years old and they all play travel sports. In fact at any given time we are balancing sports schedules for 6-7 teams between three kids. If you have any experience living in that world you get it. Dinners are at 4pm or 9pm and mostly in the car, homework is completed through tears of exhaustion and your work laptop is firing up again at 10pm once everyone is in bed. Only to get up and repeat it the next day. Weekends are courtside or at the fields, from sun up to sun down and laundry is that thing you do in between firing up your laptop at 10pm and shutting it down at 1am. Are we crazy busy? Yes, but we aren’t special because almost every parent I know is living some version of the same schedule.
There’s work, there’s family, there’s all the activities, and there’s laundry…endless laundry…but there is also still time. No matter what your schedule, I guarantee you there are minutes in your day that can be devoted to whatever it is that you want to achieve. Yep, I went there – I GUARANTEE you have the time. Go ahead, give it a good skeptical laugh or launch an explicative my way if that’s your thing – no judgment by the way.
I still have to remind myself of this one on a regular basis – I have the time. The hard truth is that we all have some extra minutes throughout our day that could be repurposed…a few minutes scrolling through social media, an extra hitting or two of the snooze button, sitting in the car waiting for our kids to finish whatever practice or lesson they’re still in, etc. A few minutes here and there add up to a few hours. A few hours here and there add up to a few days. A few days here and there…well, you get it. Working on the smallest of steps with just a few minutes a day, adds up to a big impact over time. And no, using those few minutes a day to think about what you want to achieve doesn’t count as working towards it, it counts as daydreaming.
How to determine what is realistic for you.
Perhaps 10 minutes a day is all that is realistic at this moment. And that is ok! To put it in perspective, if your goal was to live a healthier lifestyle, you could use those 10 minutes on one day to craft a better thought-out grocery list for the week and the next day you could use the time to walk your dog an extra 10 minutes. Both of those things are realistic action steps that support you achieving your overall goal. If your goal is to learn a new language, listening to an audio book for 10 minutes a day while you are taking a shower or waiting in the car for your son to finish baseball practice may also be more realistic than trying to budget or carve out specific time every day. Struggling to keep in touch with friends? Perhaps it’s a bit too overwhelming to try and schedule a monthly night out with the girls but if you swap out the 10 minutes you mindlessly scroll through social media with a check in text to a different friend each day that may feel like a better use of time towards something that is important to you.
Think about your daily routine. Where can you realistically capitalize on some of those minutes to make progress towards what you want?