The Trap of Busyness

A book I recently read convicted me about the busyness of my schedule. In fact, my full calendar had become an area of pride and a marker of professional significance. Obviously, this is less than healthy as it leads me to avoiding rest and looking for ways to inflate my self-worth through a full slate of activities and meetings. As a result, I’ve been meditating on ways to change my perspective and alleviate some of my self-imposed stress.

My personality and work ethic won’t allow me to simply “pull back” and ease up on the accelerator (at least not for extended periods of time.) I’m discovering I need to take a two-pronged approach to altering my pursuit of busyness. First, I must take more intentional time to rest. This starts with a regular weekly observance of Sabbath and also ways of resting my mind and body throughout the week. This will hopefully refresh me on a more regular basis and allow me to keep up a more regular pace.

The second focus is on being busy in the right way. I don’t believe all busyness is negative, but instead of allowing "all things" to dominate my schedule I need to be strategic with what I do. I need to be clear on my personal and professional purpose and do the things that lead me further along that path. This is the principle of missional velocity—moving intently in a direction with the purpose of fulfilling my calling.

I’m not going to fix this overnight, but I also haven’t become a “busyaholic” that quickly either. I’m striving to become more intentional about the balance of rest and purpose and feel certain I’ll be in recovery for the rest of my life.