On being busy

Sorry, I'm a day late with this one.

Not sorry because I'm in the quaint city of Winchester in the UK. It has a population of 130,000 people, a kilometer walk into town from where I'm staying, and from what I can see, mostly independent shops with no mass chains for now.

I've read a lot of Enid Blyton books back in the day, and the cobblestone paths and fresh smell of bread and cookies remind me of that. Everything shuts down by 9 or so. It's beautiful.

The city is slow. Nothing like Dubai, where everything is go go go. Both are purposeful, , for sure, but for very different kinds of attitudes and people.

Which brings me to today's theme: Being busy.

So many things to do.

So little time.

How do I finish everything I have to do?

Everyone's got their act together.

Not me.

What do I do?

I'm sure at some point you've had these thoughts percolating in your head.

Don't worry, you're not alone. If I were to take a guess, 99.99% of the world's population has some of these chaotic thoughts crashing into them every day.

So it's entirely normal. Hello, welcome to being human.

Here's How I'd Encourage You to Think

Think long-term. Who told you that you don't have enough time? Is there a timeline for these things? Are you just comparing your accomplishments with someone else's? Remember what they say: don't compare their highlight reel to your life. The point is not to impose arbitrary timeframes for achieving your goals. If your goal is to live a good life, then almost certainly it's a long-term goal. Which means—it takes time.

View time differently. Think of time as an expansive space, not as minutes, days, and years. When you think the latter, you're more concerned about doing things within a timeframe versus being on a perpetual journey. Think of the journey itself as the goal, and everything that comes in and out of the journey is just an ingredient that contributes to the flavors of the journey.

Question the "so many things." Who said you have to do these? Who imposed these on you? And why are you so stressed to finish them? It's silly. Don't get caught up in what the world tells you. The only things you need to do are the ones that contribute to your happiness. Everything else is just noise.

Winchester Wisdom

As I mentioned earlier, everything closes down in the early evening here. When you see shopkeepers close up without urgency, it makes you reflect on your relationship with busyness.

I think it's fair to say that as a human, you have limitless power and unlimited energy. But the moment you start living alongside others in the world, you absorb their timelines, their definitions of success, and their sense of urgency. You start measuring your worth by their pace. And your power and energy go from limitless to copy-paste—just like everyone else.

But here, the baker doesn't seem worried that someone in London might be making more bread faster. The bookshop owner isn't stressed that Amazon delivers quicker. They're operating at their own rhythm, focused on what matters to them.

We've been stupidly conditioned to believe that if we're not constantly moving, we're falling behind.

But behind what? Behind whom?

Most of the time, the race we think we're in doesn't actually exist. The timelines we're stressed about are imaginary. The competition we're losing is with people who aren't even playing the same game.

While I dislike travel—think check-ins, immigration, tight spaces, crowds, cramped planes, standard plane food, and the sheer exhaustion of getting to a destination—trips like this remind me that there are many ways to live a life. The frantic pace that feels so essential in Dubai suddenly seems optional.

What if we stripped away the noise of other people's expectations and arbitrary deadlines? What remains?

The work that energizes. The relationships that matter. The experiences that create meaning.

That's it. Everything else can wait. Or better yet, be eliminated entirely.

Permission Slip

You don't need permission for any of this, but here it is anyway:

Slow down.

Say no to things that don't serve you.

Operate at your own pace.

Redefine what "having your act together" means.

Stop racing toward a finish line that keeps moving.

Let's be real here. You are a speck of dust on this rock we call Earth. The world has been operating for billions of years and will continue to do so. It'll keep turning. And my friend, the Winchester baker, will close at 6 pm tomorrow, the same as today.

The point is do shit you love. Stuff that matters to you.

Your worth isn't measured by how many things you crossed off your list. Because no one's measuring it in the first place.

And if they were, you shouldn't care.

-Parves