The Upside to Being Busy
To me, there is a stigma to the words “I’m busy” or at least to saying them out loud to other people. I wrote about it on my personal blog once. Even now that I know I am really busy, I can’t quite get over the stigma. But, I’ll ignore that feeling for now, because I am busy. Crazy busy. No time for anything busy (except blogging, of course, because I can do that from work).
There’s no reason to complain about being busy when it comes to debt reduction, though. It’s all upside. First, I am mostly busy working. Working jobs that pay me. And they pay pretty decently–I mean, not career well, but better-than-most-of-the-grad-students-I-know-get-paid well.
What I learned in the first two weeks of January, when I was only working one job, was that I am less expensive when I’m busy. I don’t eat as much and I don’t care as much about what I eat. I also don’t go anywhere, except for school and work, which are all within a half-mile of each other.
I definitely don’t shop, because there’s no time and it’s the last thing I want to do with my little time off. I don’t usually shop even when I’m not crazy busy, because I’ve sworn it off while I try to get out of debt. But, being busy removes all the temptation and opportunity, so that I don’t even think about it.
Okay, so maybe there are some risks to being so busy. Aside from burnout, there’s the danger of being too tired to care or be strict with myself. There’s also the occasional problem of not having time to buy proper groceries, which leaves me eating out. A combination of the two is what sometimes gets me. It’s not that there’s no food in my apartment; it’s just that it’s not anything I want to eat and after working so hard, I feel like I deserve better. Fortunately for me, I consider better to be fast food and I’ve been making a more focused effort to keep myself better fed this semester, so it doesn’t come to that.
To name the last and probably biggest upside, a goal like getting out of debt gives me a great deal of motivation that keeps my attitude up when I’m busier than is comfortable and tired and dying to go home.
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Busy is the new Good. “How are you?”, “busy. You?” “Busy.” It’s what we are nowadays.
I too have remarked that busy is a good thing. It is, in many ways, the best weapon in fighting off the effects of melancholy and lethargy. We tend to rise to occasions when busy, rather than be consumed by the pace. Once you get to that point, busy is no longer the correct word.
I do find one side effect, though. When working, I find I often have less time to prepare dinner, and therefore lunch for the following day. When there are after-work events, sports practices, State of the Union speeches, etc., dinner time often vanishes. Especially if I eat out with a friend in an attempt to have a social life. So I end up spending more on lunch than I normally would. Still, if you’re busy, as you say, you’re busy earning money. So maybe a $7 sandwich isn’t the worst fate to suffer.
Hey, thanks for your comment. Helped me out! I find that being busy is such a great way to not spend money! It does help!