Think about the “I need to” thought that is taking up too much real estate in your brain right now. Is it actually something you need to do? Or something you would LIKE to do and your mind made it into a need in the tricky way it has?
I have spent most of my life stressed out. But, I would say 80% of the mental energy I spend fretting about thing are things that are “fake busy” items. If I put them off a week, the need to do the thing has completely passed.
Right now, I cannot tell you the amount of time I spend in a day planning out the patio I would like to make under my second level porch. I spend time looking up projects on YouTube, loading my cart on AceHardware.com, fretting about the weather coming up, the tools I don’t have, etc.
But, if I don’t EVER make the patio, what happens? NOTHING. I will be fine. This is a classic case of fake busy. It’s something I would like to do that my mind transformed into a need.
In the before times, I spent so much of my days feeling the need to run to stores to pick up the flower pots, the shoes, the random assortment of other things that I “needed.” Tasks of medium importance at work became essential. A family outing that would be nice to do became forced.
Why do we do this? I think it may be a fancy form or procrastination, or anxiety reduction. If we have a problem we don’t know how to address, or feel generalized creeping anxiety, we make up things we need to do to help alleviate the stress. But the whole process backfires. Instead we are harried, over busy, and fragmented, chasing the wants we have allowed to become needs.
What projejct do you need to just put down? What is distracting you from what is really going on in your life and taking up too much real estate? Try hitting the snooze button for a week, give yourself permission NOT to do it, and see if it seems as crucial in 7 days…
JoyPlusGrace 
Very sweet introspective message. What is so special about you is that you can articulate such a tough distracting habit so that others can see the same in their selves and soak in the advice you are giving from your heart. I am pretty much not frantic to do anything unless I have made a commitment to someone or something….and I am till working on watching what I do commit to.
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