For years, "busy" was my answer to everything. How are you? Busy. Can you come on Saturday? Sorry, busy. It sounded important, a little tired and impossible to question. Nobody argues with a busy person.
Then a friend said, "You say 'busy' the way other people say 'fine'." She was right. The word had stopped meaning anything. So I made an experiment: for one month I would not use it.
It was harder than I expected. Without the word, I had to give a real answer. "Can you come on Saturday?" became "I'd prefer to rest, but let's meet on Sunday." "How are you?" became "I'm tired, because I'm finishing a report by Thursday." At first, I felt exposed. Then I noticed something odd. People reacted with more interest, not less. Honest answers started better conversations.
The second discovery was more uncomfortable. I wasn't as busy as I claimed. When I listed my week truthfully, I found three free evenings. I had used the word to protect myself from invitations I didn't want, and from the effort of explaining why.
I am not saying that busy people are lying. Many people have too much to do, and the word is, for them, painfully true. But for many of us, "busy" works like a closed door with a nice sign on it. It is polite, but it ends the conversation.
I still have deadlines. I still say no. But now I say it with a reason, and I have finished three books since March.
Fiction note: All people, places and events in this text are fictional.