I’m not busy
Three times in the last week or so, I have received a communication from someone which says 'I know you are very busy…' and these take stuck in my mind. One of these said 'I am certain yous are very busy—I know that I am.'
A couple of things struck me immediately. The commencement, and almost urgent, was: What have I said or done that has provoked this comment? Am I looking tired, or hassled? Have I failed to give people my attention? Accept I non replied to letters? What is information technology that makes me look 'busy'? If I am giving off signs that I am busy, that suggests that I broadcasting a betoken 'I don't have time for you lot'—and that is worrying.
Secondly, how do I reply to this comment? In our culture, are nosotros immune to say 'Actually, I am not very busy'? I practised maxim this in my head, and it sounded odd. What kind of people say 'I'm not decorated'? When my tardily mother retired, one of her comments was 'I don't know how I e'er plant the fourth dimension to piece of work!' Even in retirement, she was busy. We appear to have created a culture where the only people who are not 'decorated' are people who are, well, a bit sad. Busyness has become the marker of a full and satisfied life. Just is it really so?
So what practise nosotros mean when nosotros say 'I am very busy'? It might actually mean 'I am in a role which demands more of me than I want to give.' This might exist the case for those in 'secular' employment or with responsibilities for family members. We might genuinely be in a situation which, through little choice of our own, makes unsustainable demands of us. Economic pressures have recently robbed u.s.a. of an hour's sleep; nosotros sleep as well lilliputian on average; and the hyper connectivity of digital devices makes it worse. Clergy need to take this reality seriously. They are in the incredibly privileged position of having more control over their own time than most in their congregations; woe betide the vicar who takes the morn off and then complains when commuters who were up at vi am don't attend an evening coming together!
The phrase 'I'm very busy' is sometimes a weep from the middle—I feel oppressed by the brunt of the things I am supposed to do—either from a sense of guilt, or need, or the agendas others impose on me.
One of my favourite books on fourth dimension management isDo It Tomorrow past Mark Forster, who also wroteGet Everything Done and Still Have Fourth dimension to Play.Mark refreshingly blows abroad a lot of nonsense nigh fourth dimension direction—including the idea that yous can ever 'manage' fourth dimension. The issues about busyness we face are not issues of time management, simply issues ofselfmanagement—how we perceive things and how we organise our lives. Romans seven is actually highly relevant to our 'time direction' problems!
Simply Forster also highlights early a fundamental reality: if we are 'busy' then information technology might just be that we are over-committed. How much work can you practice in an hour? Reply: an 60 minutes'due south worth. Only if you are committed to ii hours' work in an hour, no amount of 'fourth dimension management' is going to solve that. Y'all actually need to cut down on your commitments. That is more easily said than done, but it still raises a challenge for me. Practice I take on likewise much? Am I as well quick to say 'yes' to things? Even if a large part of the commitments we take isnot under our control, there are always parts which are.
Maxim 'I am very busy' can express a unlike kind of frustration too. It might non simply be the amount of piece of work we take, but the way it comes to us. Constant demands and a steady stream of interruptions can frustrate our sense that we are achieving anything. (Ask my married woman!) Mark Forster once again puts his finger on this: what we need is 'sufficient focussed attention' on the things that are of import. And that ways setting aside some of the immediate demands. Do emails need to be answered on the day they are received? Can I talk to that person tomorrow, rather than right at present? Does that coming together demand to exist this week, rather than adjacent? This is where we need to employ careful judgement; putting people offcan communicate the 'I am very decorated' line. But surely ameliorate to say 'I'g not too busy; let's conversation tomorrow' than 'Yep, I tin can talk now…but I have a lot to practise!'
But there is also a third possibility: we make ourselves decorated considering that is the way we gain a sense of significance. If we were non busy, there might exist the gnawing sense that we are not, after all, totally and admittedly indispensable to the projects nosotros are involved in and the people we are in contact with. And that is deeply threatening unless we take a well-rooted sense of identity and confidence in who we are.
God gives us two gifts which tin serve every bit a defence against these feelings. The beginning is the gift of Sabbath. The command to residual (not just me, but all my household) is at in one case an invitation to trust in God for his provision (the crops will still grow, the emails will wait another solar day) equally well as a bulwark confronting the presumption that the universe will not run unless I practise my bit to go along it going. In fact, Sabbath rest can ofttimes be a primal to fruitfulness. Last week I saw an interesting 'infographic' which suggested that the world's greatest artistic geniuses had only achieved what they had because they took balance seriously.
The 2nd is the gift of calling. If we are involved in the things we are because God has called us to them, is our level of busyness a reflection of that call? Is God calling u.s. to be busy? In one sense, yes. We are to 'redeem the fourth dimension' (Eph 5.16). But I am not sure that this is always the source of my busyness.
And so: are y'all decorated? What is the reason for your busyness? Is it poor utilise of fourth dimension? Or circumstances beyond your control? Do you need to requite more 'sufficient focussed attention' to some of the things you are doing? In the stop, is your activity borne out of your sense of God's phone call on your life? Are you free to say to someone 'I'm not busy'?
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