What to do when busyness creeps back in

10 years ago, when I was in the depths of work-related stress and anxiety and searching for a different way to do life, I discovered the slow living movement.

Since then, I’ve been on a mission to keep “slow and simple” front of mind, both in my business and in life outside work.

At first, the difference was huge. We decluttered so much from our home, and I restructured my work in a way that gave me the space I was craving. The relief was immediate and profound.

Over time, that shift became our new normal. And while slow living still underpins a life that feels good, it no longer carries the same sense of contrast or relief — not because it’s stopped working, but because it’s quietly doing its job.

Every now and then, though, things begin to creep. The calendar fills up, life starts to feel a little noisier, and I notice that familiar feeling of busyness returning.

When that happens, it’s not a crisis — just a cue. A reminder to revisit the same first principles that helped in the beginning, not to overhaul everything, but to gently recalibrate.

There are lessons to be learnt from the times things go a bit wonky, so today I’m going to share some of those lessons, in the hope they can help you too.

Firstly, let’s talk about how I can tell when things aren’t right.

I start to feel it in my body. I notice I’m exhausted and physically tense, my sleep suffers and my head feels full to bursting. When things go wonky for me, I don’t worry about getting everything done - the way I organise my time and myself means that’s never a problem - but there wasn’t enough white space in my diary to allow me to rest. Another thing that happens for me is that I get irritable, and making even the simplest of decisions becomes really difficult.

When things creep, it doesn’t necessarily involve a major meltdown, or dragging myself through my days. But when I don’t have enough space, I start to feel the effects both physically and emotionally.

So, what do I do about it?

The first thing I do when things start going wonky, is get my mornings back on track. If I can start my day with intention, before my reserves of willpower start to diminish (willpower is NOT a finite resource), I’m setting myself up for a better day.

If I’ve fallen into the habit of looking at my phone the moment I get out of bed, I remind myself that I don’t need to do that and feel so much better when I don’t.

If I’ve stopped meditating, I reintroduce that into my mornings. 5 or 10 minutes is enough, but if there’s time for more – great! Meditation always helps me keep things in perspective, and I know that over time it’s made me a much more balanced human, preventing me from blowing things out of all proportion as I may have done in years gone by.

Then I make sure I factor in pockets of movement during the day. Usually that involves making sure I get out for a walk.

If I’m sensing that my nervous system needs a proper break, I’ll look at my diary and block out some time to switch off completely.

But by far the most important thing I do when I can feel myself drifting further away from slow and simple living, is to give myself permission to NOT get things done. (Or as someone in my world once put it, to give myself an ‘un-to-do list’.)

I’ve also put things in place that allow me to take my foot off the gas. For example I don’t create new episodes of my podcast for a month or so over the summer, but republish some existing episodes that you might have missed. I also choose not to email my mailing list every week over Christmas.  

When I do (or should that be don’t do) all those things, I feel much more relaxed and my thinking is so much clearer. I’m ‘on it’ with work when I need to be, but protect my boundaries more fiercely.

If you can identify with those feelings of heaviness and tiredness that creep in sometimes, here are some things you can do that might help:

1) Put the things that nourish you back on your list

Whether that’s exercise, a walk in the fresh air, sitting with a cup of tea and a book for ten minutes, a five-minute meditation or dancing round the kitchen. Those are often the things we think we don’t have time for when we’re busy. But it’s precisely because we’re busy that we need to make them a priority.

2) Make an un-to-do list

Can you let yourself off the hook with anything that ‘needs’ to be done this week? Take a look at your list and get ruthless. Identify the absolute, ABSOLUTE essentials and then see if there’s anything you could let go. I choose not to publish new episodes of the podcast over the summer. Does the world stop spinning? Nope. Let go of any shoulds and your aspiration for perfection and cut yourself some slack.

3) Reflect, review, regroup

When you’re able to breathe a little more easily, look back and see if you can identify the patterns that got you here. Was it simply a busy season that couldn’t have been avoided? If so, don’t give yourself a hard time. Accept that sometimes life gets busy, but see if you can schedule some downtime to give you the chance to recover. Or perhaps with hindsight you realise you said ‘yes’ to things when you could have said ‘no’, you’ve got into some bad habits, or the way you’ve been working just doesn’t feel good to you. What could you do differently?

4) Remove that which isn’t serving you

It’s not just about things that take your time, although that can be a great place to start. What about things that are taking up your precious headspace? Have you signed up for emails you don’t have time to read? Delete them and unsubscribe. Are there things in your social media feeds that leave you feeling heavy? Remove them. Are piles of paper and clutter building up around your home? Stick your favourite tunes on, set a timer for 15 minutes and have a tidying blitz.

When we’re caught up in the day-to-day, it’s easy for busyness and overwhelm to creep up on us. If you’re resonating with any of this, cut yourself some slack, choose NOT to get stuff done, ditch the guilt and focus in on what matters most.