I’m a big believer that inertia is better than waste, but I’ve also been “busy” on many days in the last decade. As I progressed in my career, I thought that, eventually, only focus would matter.
To some extent, that turned out to be true. As a creative, I’ve reached the point where more isn’t better. To improve the quality of my writing, I now need to tackle bigger projects. Books. Longer essays. I need to spend more time on each piece instead of just cranking out more of the same.
But as a worker, an entrepreneur, an earner, I’m currently discovering that, sometimes, busy is all you need. Since my main source of income has fallen apart, I’ve put countless irons into the fire. On most days, I spend an hour here, an hour there, and nothing feels all too focused. For many of these endeavors, I have no idea how they’re going to work out, if ever.
But sometimes, as Cammi Pham notes, “more is more.” When you’re stumbling through the fog in hopes of arriving somewhere, anywhere, really, the faster you stumble, the higher your chances of making it back into the sun.
When I started my self-employment journey ten years ago, it all began in that same spirit. Back then, I simply didn’t know how to do anything, nor what I should be doing to begin with. Ergo, I just tried it all. I dabbled and played and learned and failed—and eventually, the threads started running together.
A decade later, I didn’t expect to find myself back where I began. But as it turns out, focused and busy are simply two more of the many seasons we go through in life.
Sometimes, your focus is taken away without you asking for it. Being busy can be a wonderful way to stay occupied while you’re waiting for ambiguity to give way to a new direction.
“Are you productive?” does not equal “Are you focused or not?” The real question is whether it’s focus or busyness that most equates to productivity in your current phase of life—and either is a valid answer if you believe it’ll get you where you’re trying to go.