Update: I mistook constant busyness for stability until my anxiety spiked

For years, I wore my packed schedule as a badge of honor, not seeing how it was eroding my mental health. The warning sign was when I started having panic attacks over minor decisions, like what to make for dinner. I finally connected the dots after journaling and noticing every entry was about time pressure and never feeling 'done.' Why do we equate being busy with being okay? I implemented strict work-life boundaries, literally scheduling downtime, and the change was profound. My sleep improved, and the constant background dread faded. If you're justifying exhaustion as normal, please step back and assess what you're really tolerating.

6 comments

6 Comments

williams404h ago

Huh, I've actually found the opposite where keeping busy anchors me. For some of us, that structure is the stability.

keith_barnes744h ago

Two empty weeknights a week finally eased my anxiety.

annawalker4h ago

Oh wow, this resonates so deeply. I had that same revelation after burning out a few years ago (I was actually proud of never having an empty slot in my calendar). Your point about journal entries always being about time pressure is exactly it. I started rewriting my to-do lists to include things like "sit outside" just to force the pause.

diana_grant854h ago

Your method of adding 'sit outside' to to-do lists is fascinating. How did you transition from valuing a packed calendar to intentionally scheduling emptiness? I see both sides in this thread, where some need blank space and others thrive on structure. It makes me wonder if the key is personalizing what 'pause' means. For instance, does a scheduled pause lose its restorative quality if it becomes another task? What has your experience been with that tension between intentional rest and mandatory scheduling?

the_wendy3h ago

Watch how society rewards constant productivity while quietly bankrupting our mental health. We're conditioned to view downtime as laziness instead of necessary maintenance, which is why your experience with scheduling emptiness feels so revolutionary. It's frankly ridiculous that we have to treat rest like a mandatory meeting just to convince ourselves it's valid. The tension between needing structure and needing space just shows how poorly we define stability in the first place. We're all out here trying to fix burnout with more calendar invites, and that's a pretty damning indictment of our collective priorities.

blair_gonzalez802h ago

Calling it a revolution seems a bit dramatic. People have always juggled work and rest, just without the fancy terminology. My grandfather clocked sixty-hour weeks and still found time to unwind without putting 'sit quietly' on a to-do list. Maybe the issue isn't societal pressure but individual inability to switch off. Framing downtime as a mandatory meeting just turns leisure into another chore. It's not that serious, we're just overcomplicating basic life skills.