I used to be the poster-child for “Busy Woman.” But when I became a mother, I decided to change that forever. After racing around from commitment to commitment for most of my adult life, I discovered that busyness was not the legacy I wanted to leave my children. Instead, I took control of my schedule and chose to lead a Non-Busy Life.  Here’s why.

Four Reasons Busyness is Bad:

1. Busyness makes us less productive and less effective. Who has time to actually sit and talk on the phone without also sorting mail or folding laundry? Who can listen to our children study spelling words without also checking e-mails and texts? Who can carpool every day without trying to redeem some of that lost time by also returning phone calls? We could….if we weren’t so busy. Lots of research has been done on the subject of multitasking. And contrary to what many of us believe (and practice) multitasking makes us less productive than we would be if we stopped and concentrated on one task at a time. (See this 2001 CNN.com article Study: Multitasking is counterproductive)
2. Busyness makes us sick. When we are too busy, we become stressed-out. And stress causes countless health problems, including headache, back pain, chest pain, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, decreased immunity, stomach upset, anxiety, depression, over-eating, and sleep disorders. And about fifty more that I didn’t list.  Who needs that?
3. Busyness makes us unavailable to people. When was the last time you sat and talked to a dear friend ? Or took a leisurely walk with your child while he or she looked at every bug and flower ? Or lingered with your spouse over lunch? Or stopped and chatted with a stranger at Starbucks ? Most of us have a long list of people we’d call, invite over, visit or write…if only we had more time.
   
4. Busyness makes us unavailable to God. What if after your one-chapter Bible reading tomorrow morning, God nudged you to stay and worship a while? Just to spend some time in His presence so He could reveal some insight or drop some wisdom into your heart? Would you have time? What if while running to the end of your driveway to retrieve the mail you noticed your elderly neighbor pulling weeds, and you felt God whisper, “Go visit her. She’s lonely.” Would you have time? What if during church on Sunday, God moved on your heart to organize an outreach to the homeless shelter down town. To feed and clothe the poor in your community? Would you have time?

Most of us don’t have time to fix dinner, change the light bulb or sort the socks. How could we possibly take on one more thing? My point, exactly.

Clearly, busyness steals more from us and from the people we love than we realize. Take a look at your schedule this week and see if there is something you can scratch from your calendar. There’s never been a better time to get your busy life under control.