4 Signs You’re Too Busy and About To Burn Out Real Bad

Call a brief time out

You’re not exactly breaking any laws being busy. But some people get too busy with the goings-on of everyday life.

Yes, people have to fend for themselves, feed families, shelter dependents, pay bills. The demands of life can be mean, forcing them to stay in busy mode all day. For such people, my barrel of sympathy runs over.

I see them all the time. I read about many others. I wish I could step in and help. Maybe I can’t help physically, but I can only prompt you to look out for these signs that you’re probably too busy and will soon wear yourself down at this rate.

You can’t have a Schulz hour

A Schulz hour is nothing fancy from a sci-fi movie. It’s a phrase named after George Schultz, a US secretary of state in the 1980s. He usually carved out one hour every week for quiet reflection.

It’s an untouchable one-hour period that only the president of the land and his wife had the power to interrupt him.

Others are even known to dedicate one hour every day to that quiet reflection duty. I know it’s sometimes impossible to do in modern times.

For example, a good friend has two exciting babies. They scream for fun. The last time I visited, my eardrums got a worthy welcome.

Under those circumstances, it’s nearly impossible to get that uninterrupted hour. She can only enjoy a peaceful 30 minutes of quiet reflection when she has family over. Even then, it’s usually on the WC.

I don’t envy her at all. I know many are going through even worse.

However, barring some valid exceptions, if you can’t get an uninterrupted hour: — okay, 30 minutes out of the 168 hours you get every week for some quiet reflection, don’t you think you’re approaching too busy terrain?

I was once there. But I’ve now seen the need to carve out that time. Sunday afternoons work best for me. Yours doesn’t have to be on Sundays. Whenever works best for you, go with that.

You can’t stick to your schedules

I don’t like the baptism of fire to-do lists get recently. They’ve done nothing wrong. A to-do list is still a helpful tool. But like any useful tool, if you don’t use it well, you’ll hurt yourself with it. Think of a knife or a car.

Here’s what I’m driving at: If you can’t stick to your schedules — to-do lists, or just plans for the day — could that be a sign you’re too busy? Context is always king, and it all comes down to what caused you to veer off your schedule.

Going off script once in a while isn’t a big deal. But when it becomes once too often, that could be a sign you’re probably too busy to even stick to your schedules for the day.

That’s what gets some people to shred their to-do lists and swear at anyone preaching that message. But could you be the elephant in the room? An elephant in fitting pink pajamas?

You think leisure activities are a waste of time

Leisure is nowhere near throwing away precious time into a smelly garbage bin. A friend recently noted that leisure complements work. He couldn’t have nailed it any better.

Work, rest, refresh, restart. That’s the cycle you should seek to follow. Or something similar. All things being equal, that is.

If you think leisure is a waste of time, maybe that’s a sure sign you’re too busy. Mark it somewhere before you crumble under the load of your schedules and force yourself to take an even more extended rest.

Everyone tells you Rome was not built in a day

Yup. You can’t do it all in a day. Or in a year. You may stretch yourself too thin. Yes, time waits for no one, and I understand the need to finish what you’ve started soon.

But when those close to you keep telling you to find time for a few other things and people that matter, maybe you need to give them an ear.

Flipping the switch to denial mode is the easiest thing anyone ever did. But if people — not one, not two, but several people — can see it from afar and point out that you’re too busy, could they have a fair point?

Ding! Let that ring in your ear for the next few seconds.

How unfair of me to suggest that you take things easy, right? I know, I know. Again, it’s almost wrong for me, or anyone else, to boil things down to such simple assumptions. But that’s not the case.

I’m not asking you to quit everything you’re doing. I’m only asking that you take some time to take stock of signs you’re probably too busy.

Oops. That’s the problem. There’s no time to do a thorough self-assessment. Something has to change. Are you willing to accept change?

Before you go…