Finding Your Busy-ness Level

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The summer after I got out of high school, I got a job at a bank as a teller. I enjoyed the work, and I was good at it.

One of the things that tellers have to do is to balance out at the end of the day. You start the day with a certain amount of cash; you take cash in and give it out all day, and then at the end of the day it all has to even out.

I balanced almost all the time; I even got an award for it. I noticed, though, that on our busiest days, I would balance almost to the penny, and it seemed that most of my co-workers would have less trouble then, too.

When you’ve got just enough to do, and there’s just that right amount of adrenaline going, it seems like the days just glide by and you get so much more accomplished.

Think about it: you’ve got a long weekend, or a few vacation days with nothing to do, and so you decide to tackle something you’ve been putting off. Maybe you’re finally going to clean the garage, or start that new project or give the dog a bath. Heck, you’ve got so much time, maybe you’ll just do them all.

You know that feeling, right? And you know what happens, too, don’t you? Nothing. Nothing gets done. Things might get started, but not finished, cause you’ve got all this time, and you can get to it later. Yeah.

In my last post, I talked about control, and about cutting unnecessary things out of your life. That’s still good advice, but sometimes, you cut so much that you end up with free time. Too much free time. Yes, there is such a thing.

Your goal is to fill your life with things you have to do (like the dishes) with things you like to do (like hang with your family) and to do it in such a way that you end each day feeling as though you’ve been productive and yet you’ve had some time for pleasure, too.

When you’re at the right busy-ness level, you seem to be able to focus more easily and to really take command of that awesome brain of yours. It’s not an easy thing to find – the perfect busy-ness level – but now that you know it exists, you can start looking for it.

Picture of Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle is the writer of Lacyestelle.com and the Podcast host for An ADD Woman.

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