How to Choose Joy When You're Busy
Last week we talked about how doing a daily gratitude practice changed my life and made me a more positive person - this week’s topic goes right along with that. Today we’re chatting about how you can choose joy when you are BUSY.
Before I dig into the how though, I want to take some time to unpack the word “busy” and what it means for us to be busy.
To be quite honest with y’all, I have a love/hate relationship with the word busy. I think it’s primarily because I recently came out of a very LONG season where I wore busy as a badge of honor.
If you listened to my story in episode 1 of the podcast, you know that I come from a very intense job history - this time last year, I was working 3 jobs and I was in grad school for speech-language pathology which required me to attend classes as well as practicums (aka internships).
BUSY was my response to the “Hey girl, how are you?” question without fail. It got to the point where I had a sense of pride because of how much I had going on - like almost to the point of bragging about it. I look back and shudder a bit because NOW when I prioritize my husband, friends, family, and mental health over my work I’m so much happier and more fulfilled.
But back to what busy means. The actual definition of the word “busy” on dictionary.com is having a great deal to do.
We ALL have a great deal to do. Like literally everyone, lol. We are just busy with different types of tasks and for some reason have decided that it is productive to compare levels of busy amongst one another.
Let’s chat about that for a second: comparing our busys. What is the point of doing this? Okay so you’re in 5 college courses and working full time but that doesn’t negate the importance of someone else choosing to work as a stay at home mom (yeah I said work because I’ve seen first hand that ish is hard work, lol).
The reality is you get to choose what is on your schedule. Everything that’s on there - you’ve allowed it to be there one way or another.
Okay so now I’ll hop down off of my busy soap box and we’ll talk more about the HOW to choose joy when you’re busy - aka how to choose joy whenever because we are typically all always busy because we typically all have a great deal to do most of the time, right?
I came up with 3 tangible things that you can do to help you choose joy - you ready for them?
1. Take inventory of your time, purge your task list, and leave margin.
You’re welcome because this is actually a 3 in 1 tip. I know y’all have heard me talk about the Hustle Sanely Kickstart Program 50 times on Instagram but this is LITERALLY why I created the program. I walk women through how to properly track their time, assess it, purge tasks that take up too much time/energy but aren’t moving the needle, and create a schedule that allows them to have margin in their lives.
Let’s break it down a little bit here though:
TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR TIME
When I have my clients do this, almost every time they are blown away by the results. If you take the time to do this, I bet you’ll either be surprised at 1. How much you pack into a single week - like no wonder nothing is getting done well...everything is getting a fraction of your energy because there is too much on your plate! Or 2. You’ll be ashamed at how much time you waste scrolling on social media or watching Netflix (which shame ain’t welcome here and that’s part of what I teach in weeks 1 and 6 of the program).
I have my clients track every minute of every day for 7 days. It sounds extremely tedious (and it is) BUT it only has to be done one time and then that data can be used for years to come to help you create a schedule that works for you (rather than you being a slave to it).
Taking inventory of your time empowers you because you know exactly where you time and energy are being spent and you can make necessary changes. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to your time, babe.
PURGING YOUR TASK LIST
Okay here’s the deal. I bet a lot of the things on your mile long to-do list are good things. Great things even. But are they GOAL things? As in, are they getting you closer to where you want to be or are they just taking up time?
In order to purge, you’ve got to get real with yourself when it comes to what your goals are. I like to break my goals up into 3 categories: personal, professional, and relational. As I’m looking over the tasks that my time is going toward based on my time inventory that I took, I hold each one up against my goals - if the task doesn’t move the needle in one of my 3 goal categories then it’s gotta go.
One thing that I let go recently was first thing in the morning social media scrolling.
I used to check Instagram and my email first thing when I woke up for like 30 minutes. But not in a healthy way - every time I check socials first thing in the morning I find myself comparing what I’m doing to others and getting panicky. I think I’m just more emotionally vulnerable early in the morning so I had to learn that checking socials first thing was a task that I needed to purge.
If you multiply that 30 minutes every morning by 5, that’s 2 and a half hours every work week that I could be putting to better use - like creating new products or recording podcast episodes you know?
So take some time to purge your task list, friend. If it’s not getting you closer to a goal (and PLEASE don’t forget about personal and relational goals because they matter just as much as professional ones) then it’s gotta go.
LEAVING MARGIN
What does that mean? Leaving space in your schedule for life to happen. Sister, it is not wise to fill every nook and cranny of your schedule. Doing that will lead to burn out and it could also put a wedge between you and the important people in your life.
If you have every minute of every day packed to the brim, it’s gonna be really tough to say yes to impromptu picnics with your husband. Or to a surprise mani/pedi date with your BFF. Or to a family dinner that wasn’t on the books.
Obviously you’re not going to be able to say yes to every single thing that pops up, but wouldn’t it be nice to know that you can say yes to the stuff that matters since you’ve built margin into your schedule?
2. Batch your remaining tasks.
I LIVE for batching work. What does it mean? It’s basically taking tasks that are similar in nature and doing them at the same time. This saves your energy which ends up saving you time.
When you have a to-do list of 35 different types of tasks on your daily to-do list, you’re exerting a lot of energy. And it also takes energy to switch between tasks because you’ve got to get in the right headspace to do each task. The beauty of batching is you group similar things and do them together so you don’t have to be constantly getting in the right head space.
Example: instead of me trying to sit down 5 times per week to write an Instagram caption, I would rather sit down for an hour or so and knock out writing 5 captions at once. Or another way to do it is I could do all of my creative tasks in the morning and all of my admin tasks in the afternoon.
Another common example of this is meal prepping. Instead of cooking every single night, which requires you to look up recipes, pull out dishes, prepare the meals, clean up, etc. you can cook dinner 3 times a week and just cook larger portions - then instead of doing all that pulling dishes out, cooking, and cleaning 7 nights a week, you’re only doing it 3 but you still have 7 nights worth of meals.
So once you’ve done an inventory of your time and decided which tasks need to be purged, take the remaining tasks and batch them so that you’re being the most efficient with your time and energy.
3. And last but certainly not least thing that I’m going to share today that you can do to help you choose joy even when you’re busy is: SERVE!
You might be like GIRL I AM BUSY I DON’T HAVE TIME TO VOLUNTEER OR SERVE OR DO ANYTHING ELSE.
Listen, you need to make time. Because getting out of our own bubble and pouring into the lives of other people grounds us. Re-centers us. Reminds us how important it is to connect with others. Look them in the eye. Listen to their stories.
I’m not saying you need to go volunteer for 25 hours a week. I’m just saying to serve other people in some capacity regularly. Maybe that looks like buying someone a coffee. Or offering to help an elderly person load their heavy groceries in their car and walk their grocery cart back for them. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture to be an impactful one.
Serving others instead of constantly striving for the sake of ourselves is the true way to feel joyful, friends.As a follower of Christ, I am actually called to love and serve others. Like HELLO that’s what I am called to do. Everything else, like my never-ending work to do list, comes AFTER serving others.
I’m gonna leave you with a little quote from Will Smith: “If you're not making someone else's life better, then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.”
Alright, girl, I hope these tips were helpful if you feel like you’re struggling to find joy amidst a busy schedule! This time of the year is crazy for everyone so just remember that you’re not alone! And if you want to listen in on this conversation, make sure to tune into episode 010 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast:
Interested in learning more about the Hustle Sanely® Kickstart Course and how it can support your life?
