My Unbusy Manifesto

I have been pondering this unbusy thing this week, and I appreciate those of you letting me know that you have too. :) This does seem to be a problem for so many of us, we have busy coming out of our ears! We are either missing out on what we really want to be spending our time doing, or are sneaking it in guiltily and feeling like we should really be _____ (insert any number of productive, industrious activities here).

My first instinct in starting this blog post was to come on here and apologize for the many days since my last post, I've just been so b___... uh, wait, nope. Insidious. Then I really thought about it, and wait a minute...
I wasn't too busy to work on my art collaboration project.
I wasn't too busy to bake banana bread with Liam.
I wasn't too busy to finish my last book ("Lost at School" by Ross Greene -highly recommend for anyone with kids who struggle at school), and begin my new one ("A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving).
I wasn't too busy to visit an awesome art supply store that I've been wanting to go to for ages, and wander through the aisles like a kid in a candy shop.
I wasn't too busy to talk on the phone to my sister Elizabeth, approximately 1 zillion times (of course, I do tidy my house while I do this, yay multi tasking!).

So I wasn't that busy. I was making choices with my time.

Then I thought how awesome would it be to build a bit of a community feeling around this unbusy idea? I could ask anyone who wants to to blog or tweet about what they are making time for, how they are getting unbusy, maybe like once a week. Wouldn't that be cool? But wait a minute, wouldn't adding "I must blog for Unbusy Friday" or some such onto people's to do lists, be defeating the purpose of getting rid of the extraneous? D'oh.

Still I like the idea of sharing, and sharing here online with the wonderful art/blogging/nerdfighting community that I've found is one of the things that makes me happy. I want to make time for it. So if sharing your unbusy-ing process is one of the things that would bring you a little gladness, I invite you to join in too. No specific day, no expectation of what you have to do, you can blog, comment or tweet (with hash tag #unbusy so we can find each other)...but only if you want to!

This week I am thinking about what unbusy will mean to me, thus my Unbusy manifesto:

I will make conscious choices about how to spend time based on my own priorities, not out of a sense of obligation or because of other people's expectations.

I will no longer use being busy as an excuse or an explanation, but speak up and own my choices about how I spend my time.

I will work hard, multi task like crazy and be as efficient as possible when it is worktime, so that I can put work aside with a clear conscience when it is playtime.

I will clarify what needs to be done and what doesn't, and let go of time wasted on the uninspiring and unnecessary.

I will choose for playtime the things that feed my soul, and do them without guilt or hesitation.

I will treat playtime like it is important!

I will start living a life full of the things and people I love right now!

What will your Unbusy Manifesto be?