The Problem of Being Too Busy

From Seton Magazine:

Of all the excuses invented by man to cover a multitude of situations and to justify unavailability, none is more prolific than the response “I’m too busy.” Of course people who work are occupied with responsibilities and do not have all the leisure in the world to accommodate everyone’s requests. However, if a person is busy on Monday, he should not be equally busy on Saturday or Sunday.

If a person’s work is demanding during seasons and cycles like the sowing and the harvest of the field, the intensity of the work does not persist in all the seasons or months of the year. No one works at the same pace every day, week, month, or year. Busyness is an all-purpose excuse for all seasons.

A person has no time to read, exercise, or pray. A person has no time to call, visit, or write a letter. A person has no time to attend social occasions, host parties, enjoy outings with friends, attend cultural events, or pursue a favorite hobby. The explanation is always the same: I have no time. I am too busy.

No one can be that busy. No one works all the time day and night seven days a week or has a schedule with no free moments at his disposal. Chaucer hints that the busiest people are often the most distracted, filling their time with many trivial, frivolous, or unnecessary activities or burdening themselves with projects, distractions, and unnecessary work deliberately to avoid the more social, civilizing, and human activities that lend balance and contrast to an active life.

Excessive busyness can arise out a compulsive restlessness that breeds the incessant activity known as “workaholism,” an inability to be at peace or have a sense of leisure. Human experience requires both an active life and a contemplative life. (Read more.)