How To Be Less Busy

In our modern world, our lives are filled with endless commitments and responsibilities. From kids clubs and family meet-ups to play dates, shopping, cleaning, birthday parties, and holiday planning, the list seems never-ending. As a result, we often find ourselves overwhelmed and stressed, constantly rushing from one task to another. But amidst the chaos, it’s important to take a step back and ask ourselves: How can we manage all these things and feel less busy?

It’s time to slow down and reassess our priorities. When was the last time you woke up feeling truly refreshed, with a sense of calm and clarity? Especially as women, we find ourselves juggling multiple roles and struggling to manage everything on our plates. But we must remember that this is our life, and we have the power to make it more balanced and fulfilling.

This post explores strategies to reduce busyness, prioritise rest and self-care, and manage time effectively. Implementing these can help reclaim our lives, reduce stress, and balance responsibilities with well-being.

So, let’s dive in and discover how to be less busy and create a more fulfilling and balanced life.

Why Are We Always So Busy?

Have you ever stopped and wondered why our lives seem to be filled with constant busyness? What is it that keeps us perpetually occupied and rushing from one task to another? It’s a question worth exploring.

• Societal expectations? We often find ourselves busy because we feel compelled to meet societal expectations. We frequently engage in activities we believe we “should” do, rather than those that genuinely bring us joy and fulfillment. These societal pressures can generate an unending list of tasks and responsibilities, leading to feelings of overwhelm and perpetual busyness.
• Busy or productive? Being busy doesn’t always equate to being productive or fulfilled. Many tasks we fill our time with might not be beneficial. While there are many things we need to do daily, we often focus on minor tasks that we can complete quickly, neglecting larger tasks that could have the most positive impact on our lives.
• Material possessions? Do we spend too many hours working to earn money for items that will lose their value in just a few months? In the pursuit of happiness, we might fall into the trap of desiring everything we see in advertisements, or what our friends possess. I invite you to reconsider your view of material possessions. How many hours will you need to work to afford it? Is it still worth the cost per hour? How much benefit will you truly derive from it, considering the cost per use? The fewer things we need in life, the happier we are likely to be.
• Lack of boundaries? Do you sometimes feel like you just can’t say no when new tasks or opportunities come your way? It’s easy to be so open to new challenges that we forget to set our own limits. This can load up our schedules and make our days busier than ever, which might leave us feeling a bit overwhelmed.
• Searching for happiness? Sometimes, in our quest for happiness, we can find ourselves stuck in a bit of a loop—chasing after things we think will make us happy, then feeling a little let down when they don’t. It’s a cycle that can feel a bit like a hamster wheel, and trust me, I’ve been there too. We’re always thinking that the next thing will be the one to fill us with joy, but when it doesn’t, it can be a bit disheartening. However, it’s important to remember that this cycle can prevent us from finding the sense of contentment that already exists within us.

Our sense of constant busyness can be attributed to societal pressures, a misunderstanding of productivity, an overemphasis on material possessions, a lack of boundaries, and a relentless search for happiness. By recognising these factors, we can begin to re-evaluate and transform our hectic schedules into more balanced and fulfilling lives.

The Positive Aspects of Being Busy

Being busy can have its advantages. It can provide a sense of purpose and accomplishment, as we feel productive and engaged in various activities. The issue we are talking about in this post is more so that we are too busy! We want to find a balance that makes us feel accomplished but not overwhelmed, and where our busyness doesn’t lead to burnout or neglect of our well-being.

What are the Negatives of Being Too Busy?

Being busy all the time can sometimes have negative effects on our well-being. Let’s take a look at some of these drawbacks:

• Mental Exhaustion and Lack of Clarity: When our lives are filled with endless tasks and commitments, our minds become overwhelmed and exhausted. We may experience “brain frazzle” where it becomes challenging to think clearly.
• Inability to Enjoy Life: Being too busy often means constantly thinking about the next thing to do or worrying about unfinished tasks. This can prevent us from fully being present and enjoying the present moment.
• Neglecting Rest and Self-Care: In the pursuit of completing all our tasks, rest and self-care often take a backseat. However, rest is essential for our overall well-being.
• Lack of Focus on Priorities: Being busy can make it challenging to prioritise what truly matters to us. We may find ourselves caught up in a never-ending cycle of tasks and commitments that are not aligned with our values and goals.
• Missing Out on Life’s Important Moments: When we are constantly busy, we may overlook or miss out on significant moments in our lives.
• Increased Stress and Decreased Well-being: The constant busyness and pressure to accomplish more can lead to increased stress levels.

While being busy may seem like a societal expectation, it’s crucial to recognise the drawbacks it brings. By understanding the disadvantages of being too busy, we can take steps to make ourselves less busy and create a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Strategies to Reduce Busyness in Our Lives

1. What Are Your Priorities

To make our lives less hectic, let’s take a moment to reassess our priorities and focus on what truly brings us joy and fulfillment. Ask yourself what you are aiming to achieve with your daily activities. Is it related to your health, wealth, or enjoyment? Is it moving you closer to the life you desire? Many of the things that keep us busy are just distractions. Identify what you genuinely want to pursue in life and let go of all other distractions. We can’t do everything, so it’s important to choose what matters most to us while maintaining a balanced life. Our time on this Earth is limited, so let’s choose wisely how we spend it. By determining our priorities, we can allocate more time to the people and activities that are most important to us and craft our lives according to our own desires. It might seem like busy individuals achieve a lot, but what’s the point if they are focusing on the wrong things? The things that don’t truly matter. Concentrate on what is most important to you in this moment.

2. Un Schedule

Please review your calendar and remove any non-essential or non-priority items. One reason for our busy schedules is that we tend to pursue numerous exciting opportunities without setting limits. It’s so easy to get caught up in it all. However, being overscheduled can negatively impact our well-being at the end of each day and week. Let’s simplify things by reducing the number of scheduled activities. Here are a few suggestions:

• Limit extracurricular activities: Consider reducing the number of extracurricular activities your child participates in. Instead, let’s focus on one or two activities that they are truly passionate about.
• Remove non-essential commitments: It’s important to develop the ability to decline non-essential commitments that consume our time and contribute unnecessary stress.
• Optimise your family’s schedule: Take a look at your family’s schedule and identify any time-consuming activities or commitments that can be eliminated or replaced with more meaningful ones.

Remember, being a less busy parent allows you to prioritise quality time with your children and create a more balanced and fulfilling family life.

3. Learn to Say No

Learning to say no is a wonderful skill that can assist in reducing busyness in your life. Before agreeing to any task or activity, take a moment to reflect on how it will affect your life. Will it bring positivity or unnecessary stress? It’s important to think about whether it aligns with your top priorities. If not, it’s perfectly fine to say no. This can be difficult to start with but does get easier with practice. Prioritise only what truly matters.

4. Automate

Automating tasks can be a great way to save time and energy. Two areas that can be easily automated are calendar events and finances. By automating these areas, we reduce mental clutter as we no longer need to constantly think about them. This not only saves a substantial amount of time that was previously spent on performing these recurring tasks manually, but also ensures nothing gets forgotten. As a result, we can have more time to enjoy life.

Calendars: We use digital calendars to automate shift patterns, which means we don’t have to manually track who is working when. We also set up alerts for birthdays, so we never forget to send cards and birthday messages.

Finance: Since most of us have a regular income and consistent expenses, in our home we have automated bill payments and savings investments. This way, we can make sure that our budgets are followed and our finances are well taken care of.

By automating these tasks, you can free up precious time and mental energy to focus on quality time and reduce overall busyness.

5. Create Routines and Systems

Creating routines and systems in your life can help make your day go as planned and reduce busyness. Prioritise establishing routines and systems to help you reach your desired goals. By adhering to these routines and systems, certain aspects of your life will become habitual, reducing your mental load and the number of decisions you need to make.

In addition to morning and evening routines, there are numerous methods to set yourself up for success. For example:

• Complete all chores while the kids are around. This way, when they’re napping or at school, you have valuable time for yourself.
• Prepare double batches of meals and freeze a portion. This allows you to have an easy meal from the freezer once a week.
• Streamline meal preparation: Plan and prepare meals in advance to minimise daily cooking time. Consider meal prepping or using slow cookers and instant pots for quick and easy meals.
• If you’re not living alone, share household chores. Assign age-appropriate tasks to your children and share the responsibilities of maintaining a clean and organised home. This not only teaches them valuable life skills, but also lightens your workload.

These are just a few examples of routines and systems that you can implement to lessen your busyness. Examine other areas in your life where things could be more streamlined and consider setting up routines to optimise these systems.

6. Declutter Physical Items

Decluttering is a strategy I’ve found to save a lot of time and energy, allowing me to focus on the things that matter to me. For years, I believed that a larger house would accommodate our belongings, or that the next organising product would solve the issue of overflowing cupboards. However, the problem was that we simply had too much stuff, stuff that we didn’t use, stuff that we had forgotten about. By decluttering our possessions, I no longer spend excessive time cleaning, maintaining, or searching things.

To maintain your uncluttered space, It’s important to also be aware of what enters your home, especially when you have children. Items such as mail, school arts and crafts, or gifts from friends and family are inevitable. Establish a system for managing these incoming items. For instance, any mail that arrives is dealt with immediately. It is either acted upon, filed, recycled, or binned, preventing paper clutter. Any artwork brought home goes into a display book. If it becomes full, some less popular pieces are removed. If new toys are gifted, they can stay as long as there’s space in our toy cupboard. Otherwise, another lesser-used item must be removed.

7. Write It Down

Writing everything down is an effective way to manage overwhelming thoughts. Often, we find ourselves stuck in a loop of thoughts that keep circling in our heads. By putting them on paper, we create a trustworthy record that can be addressed at the appropriate time.

Find a notebook and organise your thoughts in one place. Research suggests that physical writing can significantly improve cognitive processing and memory recall. The act of writing down information physically can help us remember details more effectively compared to typing them out.

8. Beware Unintentional Screen Time/Scrolling

Have you ever noticed how time flies when you’re watching a TV show, and suddenly you’ve watched five episodes without even realising it? Yes, me too! It’s so easy to keep clicking on the next episode, and before you know it, the afternoon you had planned to spend doing X, Y, and Z is gone! We limit my daughter to one hour of screen time per day, but I’ve also imposed similar restrictions on myself. I try to allow myself only one episode of whatever I’m watching daily after putting my daughter to bed, then I switch off the TV.

Have you ever picked up your phone to check an email or message, only to realise an hour later that you can’t remember why you picked up your phone in the first place? Yes, me too! It’s not just the waste of time that’s the problem. While mindlessly scrolling, a bit of fear of missing out (FOMO) can build. What are we scrolling for anyway? What do we expect to see that’s so important?

Be aware, there is so much more you can do with your time.

9. Prioritise Rest and Relaxation

In our busy world, finding time to relax is increasingly difficult. When we do manage to find some time, it’s hard to unwind because another task always seems to be looming. Rest often gets pushed to the bottom of our priority list, and sometimes we skip it altogether.

However, we should not underestimate the importance of rest and relaxation. Without adequate rest, we can’t perform at our best or fully enjoy our daily activities. When our minds are overwhelmed due to insufficient rest, our decision-making abilities decline.

Rest should not be considered a luxury but a necessity for our overall well-being. I suggest setting aside time for rest as if it were an appointment. This way, it’s less likely to be overlooked or postponed. Personally, I schedule downtime every Sunday, but choose what works best for you.

Balancing rest with our duties, like taking our kids to their activities, can be challenging. But to be the best version of ourselves—for our own sake, and for our family—we need to ensure we get enough rest.

10. Have Fun

As well as prioritising rest, it is also important to schedule personal days for spending time with family or having fun with friends. This enables you to disconnect from the daily hustle and reconnect with what truly matters – relationships and experiences. Personal or family days not only help you recharge but also strengthen bonds with your loved ones. Engage in activities that everyone enjoys, whether it’s a picnic in the park, a movie night at home, or a visit to a local museum. The goal is to create lasting memories and share joyful moments. By actively setting aside time for leisure, you’re not just reducing your busyness but also enriching your life with meaningful experiences.

11. Single Task/Be Present

Stop multitasking and start focusing on one task at a time. Multitasking often leads to tasks not being completed to the best of our abilities and may lessen the enjoyment of the experience.

By concentrating on one task at a time, you can enhance your work quality and fully engage with your task. This level of focus can make tasks more enjoyable, as you’re not constantly worried about the next item on your to-do list. It can also help curb feelings of overwhelm, as you’re not juggling multiple tasks simultaneously.

12. Enjoy the Mundane

Romanticise your life, find joy in the ordinary, and take the time to appreciate the simple moments. Sometimes, it might seem like everyone else is moving ahead, and we feel the pressure to catch up. But remember, life is not a race. What’s the point of rushing through, grabbing everything you can and ending up leading a whole life full of stress? In our constant rush from one place to another, striving to keep up with others, we often miss the beauty of life’s simple moments.

I often talk about how our homes can become cluttered with items that no longer serve us. This clutter is not just physical; it can also be mental. We sometimes feel our lives should be as exciting as the Joneses’, but while we should all pursue what we enjoy, finding contentment in our current lives and appreciating the simplicity of everyday life can be an amazing gift. It’s not always easy to remind ourselves of how privileged we are, but it’s definitely worth practicing.

In our kitchen, there’s a chalkboard next to the sink. I use it to display quotes that remind me of the life I aspire to lead and the person I want to be. Currently, it reads “I get to.” This phrase serves as a reminder that when I say to myself, “I have to cook dinner,” the reality is I get to cook dinner. I get to prepare a nutritious meal for my family. When I tell myself I have to mow the lawn, I remember that I get to tend to our beautiful garden where we grow vegetables, enjoy the sun, and where my daughter can play. Not everyone has the privilege of these two basic things. So, I try to appreciate as much of the small things and remind myself how fortunate we are.

12. Slow the Pace

Slow down, you’re living your unique life. Focus on YOUR priorities and try not to be distracted by anything else. Life is not a race. We all want to be successful but success is subjective, varying from person to person. Though society often equates success with wealth, many “successful” individuals view money as a by-product of their passion. So, what is your passion?

Getting caught up in hustle culture, where life is constantly on the move, can be detrimental. It’s not healthy to be always “on the go.” Finding a balance in all areas of life is essential. Like many, I can get swept up when trying a new venture. When I first started my blog, the volume of things to learn and do led to a whirlwind of constant activity, which eventually caused burnout. It’s great to continuously grow and learn, but not at the expense of your well-being. Creating a life that achieves a balance of what you want is challenging and something we will all consistently work on, but the challenge is certainly worth it.

Consider moving at a slower pace. I tend to walk quickly, which can annoy my husband (his natural pace is slower). Despite my natural inclination for speed, I’ve discovered true advantages in embracing a slower pace. It instils a sense of relaxation, gentleness, and calmness in me.

I understand that this may not be the answer you wanted for how to be less busy but it is simply about reducing your commitments and to make sure that those you do commit to are truly important to you. We want to be proactive in re-evaluating our priorities, setting clear boundaries, and being present in our everyday tasks. It’s about switching our mindset from being ‘always on the go’ to being productive and satisfied. Trying to make your life less busy is no easy task. With so much happening, so much opportunity, everything available to us all of the time, it can be hard to set up boundaries. However, by simplifying our lives, automating tasks, cherishing downtime, and decluttering our lives, we can strike a healthier balance. This not only boosts our wellbeing while ticking off our to-do list but also helps us grow and learn. But remember to be realistic about what you can enjoyably manage. Take small steps and focus on progress, not perfection, reminding yourself that good enough is truly good enough. Life isn’t a sprint, it’s a journey to be enjoyed. Let’s hop off the hamster wheel of non-stop busyness and welcome a life that’s not just full, but truly rewarding.

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know in the comments below some of the things you do to make your life less busy 🤍