"Don't confuse Busy with Productive" (in 2025)

Thanks for reading. This is the 63rd edition.

For the longest time, I was under the impression that busy meant productive. That busy should be glorified. That busy gave you purpose.

It seems that, the busier I was, the better I felt. It felt like I had more purpose.

But some of the busy was BS. Some of that busy was self-made nonsense just because I knew it would make me feel better, the busier I was. I was confusing productive with busy-ness.

The moment I had time to breathe without a meeting scheduled, team practice to coach, report to write, presentation to prepare, email to answer, house project to work on... I had time to think and that was something I always ran away from.

Stillness, meta-cognition... it gets deep and sometimes, the deeper you go, the worse it can get.

Being busy can be a form of lazy. Being busy can take you away from the most important things in your life. It can give you a false sense of fulfillment and purpose and just makes you chase any form of activity.

Making yourself busy can be a form of self-sabotage in the sense that you are putting off something more important.

How are you spending your time and energy? Is some of it just empty activity? In the conversation of busy, are you just filling in the empty spaces with garbage small talk, just to hear yourself talk?

I think it might be worth it to look at the busy in your life and aim for a little more stillness. As professionals and parents, we aren't going to get away from busy and there's a part of me that loves it. But as the new year approaches, we should take a look at our types of "busy" and see if all of it is really needed.

Thanks for reading in 2024. It's been a fun journey to see subscribers grow and to get DM's from people I don't know to say that a message resonated with them. I appreciate the opportunity to share a little of my journey through a quick e-mail every couple of weeks.

Wishing you contentment in 2025.

Matt