‎Zen Habits Favorites: Creating the Habit of Not Being Busy

We have a standard rationalization for not honouring our commitments, not spending quality time with our family, or for not meditating or working out. We claim to be too busy.

Though it feels true that we are busy, it is all just smoke and mirrors and is reversible. We need to develop a habit of not being busy, even while having the same amount of workload.

1. We say yes to things we find difficult to squeeze in our schedule. The key is to commit to less, and be committed to the task we say yes to.
2. We move around, fiddling with one task or the other, habitually keeping ourselves busy, because we aren’t familiar with anything but being busy. This mental habit of rushing from one thing to the next is to be clamped.
3. We don’t have a connection between the task at hand and anything meaningful, and just keep working like a zombie, due to deadlines, and commitments. We need to give meaning and devotion to the task we are doing and connect to it.
4. We work non-stop due to a fear that if we stop working we will lose our job or income. We believe we may lose our respect in society. Focusing on high-impact tasks is key here.
5. We have a tendency to procrastinate over the daunting tasks and keep ourselves busy on other tasks, avoiding the important ones that seem difficult.

We need to find a way where we are:

• Getting stuff done.
• Focused, calm and relaxed.
• Fully present and not rushing anything.
• Having a sense of purpose and meaning in our work.
• Completing important tasks even if they look daunting.

1. Prioritize high-impact tasks that actually matter. These tasks should be 80 per cent of what we do.
2. As for choosing a task, find the meaning and purpose behind it, and then connect to it.
3. Focus on one small task at a time, not doing any multitasking and becoming fully one with the task at hand.
4. Break down big tasks into smaller tasks.
5. Let go of the narratives that are causing fear and anxiety, most of which are false and are adding unnecessary worry to your day. Simply pop them like a soap bubble!
6. Focus with full presence, gratitude and meaning.

• Practice with meaning, purpose, gratitude, peace, focus and full presence.
• Physical reminders and cues work best to help us remember our tasks or the way we have to do our tasks.
• If we see a reminder, we generally have a tendency to ignore it, and we have to fight that default mode of behaviour, going against the resistance and moving towards the practice.