When to make time when you’re too busy

Have you ever seen an event or training that you wanted to go to but you were just too busy?

You tell yourself that it’d be a great thing if you could go, but being away for even a day is super hard.

You’re just too busy.

A year ago, I was invited to attend a group that meets every Tuesday morning.

It was right up my alley, something I really wanted to attend, but it meant losing a morning of work every week and it wasn’t business related.

I was just too busy to not be working every Tuesday morning.

A couple of weeks later, I was thinking about this group and wishing it met in the evenings so I could attend. I was really interested in it.

Then I realized, that one of the reasons I started my own business was so I could go to groups like this if I wanted to!

I’ve been attending this group for over a year now. It’s very personally fulfilling and I rarely miss it.

We all have personal values and priorities.

This weekly group lined up with one of my top personal values and when I realized that, it made it much easier to make attending this group a top personal priority.

And that made my too busy reason disappear.

I often find that when I say I’m too busy to do something, what I’m actually saying is that thing isn’t a higher priority than the other things I’m doing.

Or, I’m choosing NOT to make that a higher priority.

I’ve learned that anytime I hear myself saying I’m too busy to do something, it’s time to step back and look at my priorities.

It’s easy to use too busy as an excuse to stay in my comfort zone, not leave my house (home is my favorite place), or not learn something new (that will give me more things to do).

So, going back to seeing an event or training that you want to go to but are too busy for, is it something that you need to make a priority?

There are a number of reasons it might be a priority, here are three:

  • The topic is something that you want/need to learn more about
  • You already know about the topic, but know that hearing it again will bring a new level of understanding
  • It’s a great networking opportunity

Next time you find yourself saying I’m too busy, ask yourself, take a step back and check-in with yourself just to see if it’s something that’s a high enough priority to make room for.

If this is something that’s tripping you up in your business and you want some help with that, then reach out and let’s talk. The easiest way to do that is to leave a comment or fill out the Contact Me form here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #116