The Busyness Excuse

People love to say they are too busy and do not have time. In some cases, this may be true, but busyness is often an excuse to put something off.

How busy are you really? Do you say you are busy as an excuse? Do you suffer from busyness syndrome? Here is a look at how you can overcome the popular busyness excuse.

What Is Busyness?

Source: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, Busyness

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines busyness as “the state of having or being involved in many activities.” You may think that working on multiple things at once means that you are being productive. You may discover that you get less work done by focusing on many projects rather than just one project at a time.

Busyness As An Excuse

Busyness is often used as an excuse. A person says they are too busy to do something, even if it may be small. Someone may make excuses for themselves or when it comes to others. In some cases, someone could legitimately be busy.

In actuality, they may just be looking for a justification to continue to put off doing something they know they should do. It may be the one task that they do not want to do. Rather than getting it done, they use being busy to excuse themselves from working on that task.

Often, busyness is just used as an excuse for why they did not do something.

What tasks do you need to do, but you use busyness as an excuse not to do them?

Time Management

Time management is an essential skill anyone can learn and continue to hone. Instead, you can limit or eliminate entertainment. This will allow you to proficiently use those extra hours to better yourself rather than wasting them on a distraction.

Some ways to get more time in your day are to wake up an hour or two earlier and go to bed an hour or two later. If you are more of a night person like me, you can adjust the time around your schedule.

My Strategy

My time management strategy is to break things down into boring, large, and creative tasks.

I get the tedious work done during the morning. It could be reading and responding to emails. It could mean updating or posting an article on the website. It could

I then work on larger tasks throughout the day that can contribute to a greater goal. It could be researching keywords. It could be working on articles. I can later create into a book or workbook.

In the evening, I usually work on writing blog posts or writing another few hundred words for another book.

Limit Or Eliminate Entertainment

Statista estimates Americans spend roughly two hours a day watching television and three hours a day consuming digital video. For someone awake for eighteen hours, that is one-sixth of the day. Over one year, that is just over one thousand hours.

You can then multiply that number over someone’s lifetime to estimate the amount of time Americans spend watching television or digital media. Americans now live approximately to age 76. The total hours spent over the average American’s lifetime watching television is roughly 83,220.

Instead of spending three hours a day on entertainment, you could start working productively on your project. That project could be a side hustle that could turn into a business. You could spend that time finding ways to build passive income streams.

You can read the article below for a quick quiz to determine if you may be addicted to entertainment.

Related - You May Have An Entertainment Addiction

Limit Or Eliminate Time On Social Media

Social media is designed to be addictive. Combine that with the dopamine hit you get when someone likes your post, picture, or video. You want to get more of it. Then you realize that your entire day is now gone.

According to Broadband Search, the average time spent on the various social media platforms is:

• Facebook (30 minutes a day)

• Youtube (20 minutes a day)

• Instagram (30 minutes a day)

• Whatsapp (30 minutes)

• Twitter (30 minutes)

• Snapchat (30 minutes)

• LinkedIn (1 minute)

• Pinterest (15 minutes)

• TikTok (30 minutes)

You can work to limit your use of social media. There is a difference between using social media for personal and business use. Social media is not a great use of your time unless you have something to promote or sell.

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Social media is a shiny object. People want more likes. People enjoy the fake attention they receive on social media.

Social media is a time waster unless you have a reason to use it for marketing. That could be promoting your personal brand or your own business.

You could improve your skills instead of focusing on your number of likes. You could even work on creating a product to sell to people if you have a business.

Secure Single’s Algorithm recommends:

• Two Roads: 2 Critical Life Choices That Affect Your Future

• The Power Of Creation: Why You Should Be A Producer, Not A Consumer

• 3 Reasons For Digital Nomads To Have A Plan B (Part 4)

• 12 Strategies To Save Money At The Grocery Store During Inflation

• Unveiling The 3 Critical Traits Modern Society Has Drained From You

Summary

Busyness is a common excuse. You can wisely use your time instead of wasting it on social media, television, or digital video. You can the work to reach your goals. Invest in yourself rather than being distracted by bread and circuses.

How do you use busyness as an excuse?

Become A Secure Single.

James Bollen is the author of Thriving Solo: How to Flourish and Live Your Perfect Life (Without A Soulmate). Now available in paperback on Amazon.