My attempt to stop glorifying busy

Kaity Holtman

A few columns back, I listed a lot of my favorite quotes and sayings. One of those was “Stop glorifying busy.” (Read here.)

And that’s become one of my favorite sayings because it’s also become one of my goals.

I love being busy — the productive kind of busy that makes you feel good at the end of the day.

I also love the kind of busy that means I have a lot of events going on with my family and friends because it means I get to spend a lot of time with the ones I love.

I’ve always been one to be involved, and to always have something going on.

In fact, sometimes I think I have so much going on, my mom worries about me.

In my job, I help businesses with their advertising needs.

Often, the people in charge of advertising are very busy people. So when they take a second and sit down to chat with me for a little bit, I often get to hear the long list of things they have going on.

Those conversations are usually a reminder to me that everyone is pretty busy. They’re all just as busy as me, if not busier.

Sometimes I feel like I have too much to do in one day and stress about how I’ll ever get it done.

But hearing other people’s schedules makes me stop and think, “Hey, we’re all busy.”

And while it’s nice to always have so much to keep me feeling productive and accomplished, and while I absolutely love to have big families with a lot going on, it’s also nice to have some down time.

I’ve always had the “work hard, play hard” mentality, but lately it’s evolved more of a “work hard, relax well” mentality.

The last two weekends, I’ve taken time to just sit on my porch and read.

And it’s been glorious.

I’m sure there were more productive things I could have been doing, but I’m growing to love the Sunday afternoon recharge.

Taking time to slow down, if only for a couple hours, has been really good for me.

And I don’t mean sitting in front of the TV, mindlessly staring at a show that doesn’t make me think. I do that for 30 minutes before I go to bed most nights.

I mean really, really relaxing. Clearing my mind, enjoying a favorite spot, doing something I enjoy, but put off because of all the other tasks I need to take care of.

It was a real struggle to make myself slow down.

Call me silly, but I actually had to prioritize relaxing. I put it on my to-do list just to make sure it got done.

I think I struggle with the concept because working hard, or always having something to do, was instilled in me on the farm.

We work, and we work hard, and that’s just what we do.

But there can be a lot of beauty in working efficiently and effectively in such a way that we can feel OK with relaxing.

There is a difference between busy and productive.

While recharging my batteries may take time away from “busy,” I still consider it “productive” because it’s very beneficial to me and to those I work for and spend my time with.

So call me lazy if you wish. But I’ve gotten over the guilt I used to feel for relaxing. It has its time and its place.

Actually, it even has its own commandment in the Bible — Observe the Sabbath.

In today’s fast-paced world, we don’t always follow the “do no work on Sunday” commandment, but maybe we ought to think about why it was given to us.

Surely not to just be ignored.

So, go ahead.

Slow down.

Unwind.

Relax.

Enjoy.

Catch up.

Recharge.