The Power of Being Busy

Have you ever noticed how there is a fine line between being too busy and not busy enough?  That's my life.  If I'm too busy I feel stressed and run around like the proverbial "chicken with it's head cut off" and don't quite get everything done, which leads to more stress. 

And then there are days like today. I only had two meetings scheduled. One would think that that would be wonderful.  An entire workday with lots of open time to make phone calls, to return emails, to complete the mountain of paperwork that has been slowly moving across my desk like a massive Hawaiian lava flow.

But, no. Today I managed to sort through some of the accumulated papers and resort them into tidy stacks lined up across my desk like soldiers waiting for their marching orders.

Several months ago I read Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. who likened the busyness of people today to ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). We fill our time with television, cell phones, texting, emailing, surfing the net and continually attempt to multi-task nearly making ourselves crazy in the process. Then when we have the opportunity to slow down and take care of business in an orderly fashion, we crash and burn. 

Like me, today.  I had so much time on my hands, so few interruptions that I didn't know what to do.  I had nothing propelling me forward, nothing keeping me moving. It was like falling into a pit of mud.

So, where is the happy medium?

I propose that the happy medium is....  wait, I've got this.... somewhere in the middle!  Somewhere between completely overloaded and nothing. That spot where we are just busy enough to keep moving on our journey, but not too busy to enjoy the scenery.

So, my challenge for you and for myself is to figure out how to find that magical place, that utopia that lies there waiting for us.