Action-packed vs busy
I've decided I'm going to start describing my day, my week, things in general as "action-packed" rather than "busy". I've got my wife on board too, she is of the same opinion.
'Busy' has negative connotations now, it seems. When I say busy I mean I've got lots on (complimentary) but people respond sympathetically, like this is a bad thing. It depends on the stuff. But there's no need to assume it's bad.
My aim is to do more stuff, not less. Good stuff, obviously. But also I find when there's a lot of the bad-stressful-exhausting kind of busy-ness the antidote for me isn't to do nothing in my downtime but to do good things.
This is not treadmill, hustle-culture, grindset, Calvinist, the-devil-makes-work vibes. I mean going out with friends, playing games, learning, trying new things, going to events, going on adventures. And I'm a natural hermit - I don't socialise lightly.
For a lot of people the point of life is to do as little as possible. Okay, sure, you do you. But I want to draw the line at those people telling me to do less. Part of that is describing things in a fun "action-packed" way rather than letting them draw their own negative conclusions from "busy".