6 Signs You’re Not as Busy as You Think — And What to Do With the Time

Leave busyness culture behind

I don’t care if you’ve got a family to take care of, two jobs, or even just one in which you overwork. You’re not too busy. You’re just as busy as most people. There will always be someone busier than you.

I bet you’re not even all that busy.

You still have time to take care of what excites you. What gives you the chills. What makes you smile. What you can’t wait to do again. What came to your mind right now as you read these words. That.

You keep pushing what you love away like a pest even though, in reality, it’s like a cute puppy with whom you want to play with.

Don’t you love your puppy? Don’t you want to give it a hug?

Here’s why you could. If you realize how much time you have on your hands.

You Use Your Phone More than 2 hours a day

In 2019, the average US adult spent 3 hours and 43 min on their phone, according to a study of 11,000 RescueTime users. This is based on people who checked their time, which means the less conscientious phone addicts used it even more. In France, the average 18–30-year-old person spent 5 hours and a half.

Obviously, this trend is skyrocketing this year with lockdowns around the world. Some people even increased their time by 185% in a week.

If you can spend that much time on your phone, you’re not that busy.

Even if you spend it on “productive tasks” like reading the news or replying to messages.

You unlock your phone all the time

The average smartphone owner unlocks their screen more than 150 times a day, according to Inc. This figure keeps increasing every year and the lockdowns certainly increased that number as well.

If you’re awake for 14 hours and work 8, you should have only 6 hours using your phone — even though we all use it during work hours. That would mean we unlock our phone 25 times an hour, or once every 2.4 minutes.

Each time you check your phone, you lose any concentration you had. It then takes about 25 minutes to get it back. You also lose any flow you had going before then.

You meet your friends more than 3 times a week

Let’s be honest for a second. If you have time to go for a drink — or hold a Zoom party — with your friends more than 3 times within a single week, you’re not busy.

You don’t need to spend all your time with your good friends to stay friends. Only acquaintances require this from you.

In my 12 years as an adult, I’ve seen a lot of people come and go in my life. The ones that stuck around never were the ones I met all the time. They were the ones who could accept not seeing me for a few weeks or months even. They were the ones for whom time apart didn’t matter. Every time we met, our friendship stayed the same.

If some of your friends require you to be around all the time, ask yourself why. And then consider refusing one time.

Check if your entire life goes up in flames. Chances are, it won’t.

You’ve recently binge-watched a TV show

If you have the time to binge-watch something, you’re not busy. It’s that simple.

Even a “short” season of 12 episodes of 40 minutes is still than 8 hours. Do you really need to watch them all in a row?

Even if you watch that in one week, that’s still more than an hour a day spent just on that task. It can be acceptable, and even good to decompress after a long day at work.

But if you have time for this, you can’t say you’re too busy.

You handle tasks you could delegate

One of my colleagues in my last job was always overwhelmed. When I asked him what he had to do, half of the tasks could have been handled by someone else. He likes taking care of his tasks on his own so that’s fine. But it also meant he wasn’t as busy as he thought.

There will always be some tasks you can delegate. Ask your partner to help you with the dishes. Teach your cat to relieve itself in a box, outside, or in the toilet even. Ask your friend to help with the organization of your party. Ask your colleague to handle one project for you.

You triple-check everything

Hey, I get it. I can be a control-freak as well.

But the moment you start over-checking at the cost of the rest of your tasks, you’re the one to blame. Check once, fine. Check twice, why not sometimes. Check three times, you’re wasting your time. Check four times, you’re not even hiding that you’re trying to waste time anymore.

Nothing deserves that many checks by you. If you feel uncomfortable, ask an external opinion, but don’t keep checking yourself. The more time you spend, the less you will find potential problems. And you might even add some yourself.

What can you do to find that precious time?

Now that you know you’re not that busy, it’s time to notice the bits of time you have available.

Schedule time to look within

You said you liked being busy, right? Then, how about scheduling a meeting with yourself? Add in your calendar a 15-minute meeting to start reflecting on your life.

We’re talking about 15 minutes so I’m sure you can find the time within the incoming week. Make the time and at the end of that session you’ll be able to find the extra time you weren’t noticing.

List what “makes” you busy

During this meeting, take a notebook out and reflect on your day-to-day life.

Check if every weekday follows the same pattern or if you have days your schedule seems a bit more lenient. Why does that difference exist? What changes? Can you adapt other days to fit the same pattern?

How about weekends? What have you been doing? Do you binge-watch shows? Do you catch up with your children? Do you keep working? If yes, why? Do those need to be done in one go or could they be spread throughout the week instead?

If you’re triple-checking everything or not delegating, why are you doing so? Do you lack confidence in the people around you? Would a small error cause the world to crumble? My experience has shown it wouldn’t.

Bundle the boring tasks

Handling your taxes, calling the bank, repairing the door, buying a new lamp, or cleaning your bedroom all take your precious energy away. Remember that your mental energy is limited each day.

Instead of doing them as they arise, bundle them in one day. Use your energy then and only then. No need to tire yourself out every single day for boring tasks.

I organize my tasks in a simple manner:

Bundle the boring, spread the fun.

If you have fun and exciting tasks throughout each day of the week, you’ll keep your energy high and will accomplish a lot more. Do the opposite and you’ll have only an hour or two of uplifting tasks each week. Is that what you want?

Reevaluate your priorities

In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey separates each task based on 4 criteria: Important, Not Important, Urgent, Not Urgent.

Quadrants 1 and 2 are the tasks you will need to handle while Quadrant 3 and 4 shouldn’t take your time. The typical mistake is to spend too much time on tasks in quadrant 3 and 4 and not enough on 2.

There will be times you can’t delegate quadrant 3 tasks but you should always strive to find a way. If you need to repair your bicycle for a race between friends this weekend, it’s an urgent task but it won’t ruin your life if you can’t do it. If that race is for an important cause for you, then it’ll jump into Quadrant 1.

Quadrant 2 is too often overlooked. These are the tasks that’ll change your life in the long-run. Prepare for the future by making sure they fit in your schedule.

Want to move to South Korea next year? Great, then you need to find the time in your schedule to learn Korean. Planning a career change into the world of coding? Perfect, then you have to find the time to practice often.

Find your style

Some people are more creative in the morning. Some others in the evening. Some people are more organized in the morning and some others in the afternoon.

Test things out. Find how to best use your energy levels based on the time of the day. Handling a task at the wrong time of the day can cost you some of that precious time and energy. And cause errors more easily.

Don’t always focus on How. Be aware of When.

Final Thoughts

I know what it’s like to feel like you’re always busy. I’ve thought so many times. I still think that way often. In reality though, we’re not all that busy.

You’re making yourself busy. You always have something on your plate because you choose not to notice the bits of time available in your day.

You choose to spend so much time on Netflix and your phone. You choose to not trust others and handle things on your own or triple-check everything.

Schedule some time for yourself once and start changing your rhythm. Notice your patterns and correct what you don’t like. Drop what you can on others. Eliminate what doesn’t deserve anybody’s time.

Repeat the process and keep finding more and more time.

And enjoy your life on your own terms.

Have fun!