The Busy Trap

Do you know the Busiest Person Ever? Take a look in your circles and I’ll bet you can name the BPE, the friend who lists on social media all the things that he or she has to do (or worse, has already done)…the mom whose kids are involved in a gazillion different activities and she’s so busy, carting them hither and yon…or the co-worker who complains constantly about everything that has to be done but insists on doing it all, without any help.

Yep, the Busiest Person Ever is everywhere—even in writers’ circles. And though we may find the BPE annoying, there’s a secret (or not so secret) part of us that wishes we could accomplish as much as that busy writer. I mean, the busiest writer ever is so productive, right?

Um…maybe not so right. Because productive implies that what’s accomplished has a positive impact, that the work is producing great results. But sometimes, being super busy isn’t producing anything of much importance. In fact, sometimes, and ironically, busy work can grind a writing career to a halt.

Take, for example, the busy social butterfly. This is the writer who spends hours on social media, promoting a book or engaging in witty writer banter, maybe sharing cute pics with clever hashtags. And that’s not a bad thing, promotion. Unless a writer is so busy promoting that he or she doesn’t…well, write more than a tweet.

And speaking of writing few words, I might as well admit that I’m guilty of hopping on the busy train, telling myself that this development project or that organizational chart is important and I’m ever so busy, working on all this fun and/or exciting stuff! But you can probably guess the truth: I’m just busy not writing.

Ugh. It’s so easy to get stuck in the busy trap. We’re working hard, after all, on all kinds of writing-related stuff. We’re accomplishing a lot, but often, we’re just treading water rather than moving forward in our writing goals.

So how to get out of the busy trap? For me, it starts with realizing that I am, in fact, avoiding writing by filling my hours with busyness. And honestly, it’s not that easy figuring all that out because busy can look so darn productive and make one feel so giddily accomplished! But if you find that the busy days are piling up and the writing is not, then you, like me, may be stuck in the busy trap.

Now it’s time to do something by possibly doing nothing. Give yourself a mini-retreat, maybe a long walk or an afternoon relaxing with a cool drink and a book. Turn off the noise and listen for the answers you’ve been too busy to hear.

What’s keeping you from writing? Business burnout? Writer’s block? Creative juices gone dry?

Maybe a mini-retreat isn’t long enough to renew and refresh; maybe you need a major break, a couple weeks away from the hustle and bustle of your writing busyness. Take the time you need to find the why and the way back will follow. And then you can become the Busiest Writer Ever—and I mean that in the best way possible!

~ Cathy C. Hall