I don’t know if you are anything like me, but I struggle with time. I don’t always use it wisely. I often feel like I need to be doing more, and I am terrible about trying to fit too many things into my schedule.
I also have found that a lot of time management and organization books are truly unhelpful. They are written by ‘uber-organized’ people, and I leave them with an overwhelming amount of time management tips and tricks.
That’s why Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung is so refreshingly different. It’s not a ‘how-to’ book but a ‘why’ book. DeYoung’s intention is not to help us get organized, so we can be as effective as possible every minute of the day. Rather, he takes us on a practical journey of self-examination to learn why we are so busy, and even more importantly, why we want to be so busy in the first place.
DeYoung correctly surmises that the problem is not simply cultural for the times we live in but, rather, a product of our own sin. We are too busy because we want to be too busy even if we don’t realize it. DeYoung exposes that our own pride is often the reason we have such frazzled, unmanaged, and stressful schedules. This is important for us to know because it moves the issue from being a schedule problem to a ‘me’ problem…a much harder fix.
In a brief tour of the book, DeYoung leads us to begin our examination with our own hearts and then moves to dealing with the expectations of others, setting Biblical priorities, evaluating how we raise children, and tackling our ‘addictions’ to our personal technology. In one of the closing chapters he offers a very helpful and needed balance to understanding our crazy schedules. We are too busy, most of us anyway, but the remedy to that is not to become lazy and selfish. Rather, we must learn that we will be busy and strive to become a better kind of busy – a busy for the right reasons.
Crazy Busy is a short book (only about 120 pages) and an easy read with endorsements from the likes of Rick Warren, Trip Lee, Marvin Olasky, Shai Linne, and Al Mohler. One of the greatest benefits of this book is not only its helpfulness in examining our busyness but also the practical advice it offers for marriage, parenting, and work.
Take some time out of your normal busy schedule and read this book. You might find that you don’t have to be “Crazy Busy.”