What Are 10 Reasons To Be Less Busy?

Life in modern times.

I will answer this question in the first person as we may all have different reasons for it. Here are my reasons:

1. To reevaluate my use of my time on a daily basis. Why is it that I am so busy? Is it actually helping me get things done? Am I trying to impress someone, or myself, with how busy I can get? Very often, my brain just likes busyness because it is tricking itself into believing that it is helping me progress towards some goal, even when it is not.
2. To reevaluate my strategy on a weekly basis. Busyness gives me a false sense of security. When I take no time to think about what I am doing, it prevents me from realizing that I am heading down a dead end, or worse, straight into a wall. Stopping, looking around and resting a bit allows me to reset my compass.
3. To reevaluate my life on a monthly basis. It allows me to take a step back from mundane life cycles. Do I really want to remain in my area of expertise? Do I want to work to just buy crap and fill my house with it? Am I grateful for the things I have? Do I really need always more? These are the deeper questions that have a large impact on how I choose to live my life.
4. To be more present. We are human beings, not human doings. By being less busy, I am more in the present moment, the only thing I will ever experience.
5. To enjoy the little things. When I am less busy, I am calmer and enjoy the little things in life. I can sit down next to my child and do nothing but be present, I can eat something and actually enjoy it, I can read a book, I can watch a documentary, I can meditate.
6. To reevaluate my own importance. Being busy gives me a false sense of importance. I may feel like I deserve recognition when I am working so hard that I am often near the burnout point. However, being over-busy does not give you extra brownie points. No one cares. If anything, no one wants to hear from a victim mentality.
7. To prevent burnout and being constantly at the breaking point. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone needs a break sometimes. Go hang out with a friend and have a beer.
8. To work better and smarter, not longer or harder. When I attempt to solve a problem, I can either brute force it or use creativity. The former requires busyness and doesn’t always work, the latter requires calm thinking and a lot of rest for insights to present themselves to you. Essentially, more rest translates to more creativity and insights.
9. To not be a hamster stuck in my wheel of thoughts. Thoughts have a purpose and place but they do not define you. When I cannot stop thinking, I lose myself in a world of illusions. When I realize that I have been miserable for some hours or days and trace it back to my restless thoughts, it is time for some extended meditation time.
10. To narrow down my focus more on the things that I really care about in life. These may be goals, relationships, or others. When we do too many things at once, the context switches start costing a lot and as a result, we cannot go deep into any one of our pursuits.