Why Being Busy is Ruining Your Life

Hey, it's Joey. What could be better ideas? So, a lot of people think being busy is a good thing, as if picking up pieces of paper and putting them back down again, writing emails, and, you know, walking around checking your watch, and basically just having all these little minut tasks throughout the day. They think that that is somehow synonymous with success.

But there's a huge difference between being busy and being productive, and one of those is way better than the other one. So, being busy is having a lot of things on your to-do list, and being productive is actually completing things on your to-do list. A lot of the time, people think it's somehow honorable or impressive to have like 25 different things on their to-do list, even though, by the end of the day, they only accomplish like three or four of them—sometimes none of them.

And when people ask them to go out or do something fun, they always use that list of responsibilities as an excuse for not going out. Like, “Oh, sorry, I can't go to little nephew Johnny's soccer game. I've got 25 different things I have to do. I have this email to write, I've got things to pick up from the grocery store.” A lot of the time, this list of responsibilities doesn't get any smaller because it's so huge that people get intimidated by the size of it, paralyzing them from doing anything.

That's what it's like to be a busy person. It's not fun, it's not productive—it's just stressful. You know what this is, so I'm definitely guilty of this as well. A lot of the time, I feel like I have so many boxes to tick off on my to-do app that when people come over and visit me in my apartment, I feel like I'm not mentally there to actually sit down and visit with them for an extended period of time. All I'm thinking about is all these things I have to do, and it often negatively affects my well-being.

So, that really got me thinking: what is the point of being busy if you're not productive? Like, what is the point of having tasks to do if you're not actually doing them? And that's when I discovered that a lot of productive people are never busy because they actually do the things ahead of time. They set aside time at the beginning of the day to actually dive into deep work, do the things they need to do, take care of the responsibilities for the day so that they free up the rest of the day to do things like hang out with friends and spend time with people they care about.

You know, being busy is completely overrated. This is really weird framing, but I want to get this guy in the shot. So, here are two powerful tips to be more busy—no, more productive—and less busy. Tip number one is to start waking up early in the morning and use that time as a productivity time.

Man, I just got way brighter in there! Have three or four hours where you don't check social media, you don't do any of those menial, unimportant things, like checking emails and stuff like that, and really use that time to dive into the most important things of the day. For me, that's editing videos for my clients. Editing videos is deep work, it takes a lot of mental energy, and if I wait till the end of the day, I am so likely to avoid doing those things. I probably won't get them done.

Whereas if I do them the minute I wake up, there's a ten times greater chance that I'll actually do them, they'll be good, and I'll have the ability to focus and put a lot of creativity into those things. My second tip is to shorten your to-do list. So, take that list of 35 different things you have to do and shorten it to three—the three most important things you have to do in a given day. Then schedule them. You know, pick three things to do today, pick three things to do tomorrow, and if those are your most important six things you have to do on those to-do lists, then congratulations! You've just finished the most important things on your to-do list.

What's that beeping noise? I have a really old video called "How to Make Better To-Do Lists," and that's a great place to start. I'll link it in the description below, even though I hate my face in that one and I was really bad in front of the camera compared to how awesome I am now. Shorten up your to-do lists, do the important things first thing of the day—that way, you'll be clearing up time later in the day to do the things that you enjoy, work on hobbies, work on new skills, and that giant list of responsibilities you have to do won't be a monster in your life anymore.

There are a lot of weird noises in this house. Be productive, stop being busy. If you like this video, hit that like button. If you like videos like these in general, hit that subscribe button. Also, our Facebook group is absolutely popping off! So many people are using it—they're posting their self-improvement books they're reading and all their different things. I don't know what I'm saying.

If you're not part of the Facebook group yet, you're missing out big time. Link is in the description below. People are posting what books they're reading, what self-improvement things they're working on, and we also have a group chat. So, people are just casually talking about, you know, their goals and how to accomplish those goals. Also, this is not my house—it's probably clear. I'm looking forward to making new content. Catch you in the next video!