Crazy Busy

 

PIC No. 105: Pails in Comparison (July 29, 2025)
Book #3 of 12 in the Time Management Series

• Title: Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem
• Author: Kevin DeYoung
• Publisher: Crossway (Sept. 23, 2013, 128 pages)
• Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket 

 

Welcome to Issue No. 105 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system. 

Frazzled? “A one-point plan with no guaranteed results!”

Just when you think you can teach the course on time management and life management, along comes a quick-reading 128-page book by a pastor who wrote the book because—wait for it—he was yes… “crazy busy.” I will read this book again. I may even review it a second time. It won the 2014 ECPA Book of the Year Award (and my book of the month honors!). This is Book #3 of 12 in our monthly time management series.

WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (and workaholics) to this month’s Book Award Show. Our Book-of-the-Month Award goes to Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem, by Kevin DeYoung. This book won ALL the awards this month!

BEST SUB-TITLE!
“A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem”

BEST FINAL CHAPTER: “The One Thing You Must Do”
Gratefully, the author doesn’t promise a “a great five-point plan to simplify your life; a brilliant ten-point manifesto on restoring sanity to your world; a simple twelve-step program to becoming a less hectic you in forty days.”

But Kevin DeYoung does recommend one thing: “… I don't have a self-help makeover to offer. I can't fix your broken, busy life. I'm having enough trouble dealing with my own. But what I can give you is one thing you absolutely must do. Think of it as a one-point plan with no guaranteed results. Except that it will bring you closer to Jesus. Which, come to think of it, is positively the best way to handle your busyness.”

In Chapter 1, “Hello, My Name Is Busy,” Kevin DeYoung begins, “I’ve yet to meet anyone in America who responds to the question, ‘How are you?’ with the reply, ‘Well for starters, I’m not very busy.’” LOL!

BEST COMMENTARY ON LUKE 10:
“At the end of Luke 10 we find the closest thing Jesus gave to a sermon on busyness.” It’s the Mary and Martha story and DeYoung confesses, “No matter how many times I read this story I always sympathize with Martha.” He labels this section, “A Martha Work Ethic in a Lazy Mary World!” LOL!

DeYoung pushes back on what Jesus said to Martha and notes, “Besides, Martha was doing important things. It’s not like she was glued to her phone, watching kittens breakdance.” Then he twists the busyness knife: “Someone has to set the table and preheat the oven so that the Marys of the world can have their spiritual epiphanies.”

BEST DRUCKER QUOTE:
How did I miss this? Quoting from The Effective Executive, the classic book by Peter Drucker, DeYoung urges readers and leaders to establish “posteriorities” and adds, “This is Drucker’s word for the things that should be at the end (posterior) of our to-do list. These are the things we decide not to do for the sake of doing the things we ought to do.” (See also Worksheet #16.4, “My Don’t Do List” in the Delegation Bucket.)

BEST PASTORAL COUNSEL FROM ELDERS:
DeYoung writes, “Making goals is not enough. We must establish what tasks and troubles we will not tackle at all.” At his church, the “elders made a rule that I couldn’t do any more premarital counseling.” (That’s not prescriptive for every pastor—but it’s a good question to ask: Are your bosses, boards, and/or elders discerning what you should not do?)

BEST THERAPY:
Addressing “apostolic anxiety,” the author writes, “Second Corinthians 11:28 always seemed like a strange verse to me. Until I became a pastor. This is a must-read chapter (well…actually every chapter is must-read). See Chapter 9, “Embracing the Burdens of Busyness.” DeYoung writes:

“Paul was busy, in all the right ways. If you love God and serve others, you will be busy too. Sometimes we will get frazzled. We will feel pressure. We will be tired. We will get discouraged. We will feel exhausted.” (He goes on and on…!)

But DeYoung also urges us to read 2 Cor. 12:9 and then adds, “Paul had pressure. You have pressure too. But God can handle the pressure. Do not be surprised when you face crazy weeks of all kinds. And do not be surprised when God sustains you in the midst of them.”

BEST SEVEN-POINT OUTLINE!
I would be remiss if I failed to mention Kevin DeYoung’s diagnoses for busyness (he lists seven!)—and you would be remiss in not reading these seven chapters:

• Diagnosis #1: You Are Beset With Many Manifestations of Pride
• Diagnosis #2: You Are Trying to Do What God Does Not Expect You to Do
• Diagnosis #3: You Can’t Serve Others without Setting Priorities
• Diagnosis #4: You Need to Stop Freaking Out about Your Kids*
• Diagnosis #5: You Are Letting the Screen Strangle Your Soul
• Diagnosis #6: You’d Best Rest Yourself before You Wreck Yourself
• Diagnosis #7: You Suffer More because You Don’t Expect to Suffer at All**
     *Note: Read more on raising your kids in this Wall Street Journal article (July 25, 2025), "Goodbye, Gentle Parenting."
     **Note: Speaking of suffering, watch for my review of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund (written seven years after Crazy Busy was published.)

Oh…there is so much more. Even with just 128 pages, I’ve barely skimmed the surface. If you’re “crazy busy,” I urge you to read this important book. And…I hope DeYoung will write an update. Since 2013, our lives are even crazier today, right? The “screen strangling your soul” is now 10x the problem—thanks to artificial intelligence and all of our frazzled friends. (By the way, check out my AI-generated podcasts here. Oh wait…you’re too crazy busy!)

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Team Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.

[  ] Read about my workaholism journey in Chapter 9, “The Team Bucket,” in Mastering the Management Buckets. (Order from Amazon.)
[  ] Read these two chapters in Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes and What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson:
   • Mistake #8: "Incessantly Whining About Being Too Busy: My default conversations were         about busyness, not results."
   • Mistake #20: "Trying to Fix Workaholism on My Own: I should have asked a counselor for        help much, much sooner."
      
NOTE: I quote from this book in Mistake #8: Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels 

NOTE: I quote from this book in Mistake #20: Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry (Expanded Edition, 2018), by Ruth Haley Barton (Note: I reviewed this book three times! Read the review here.)

[  ] Free Study Guide (13 pages) to Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. (Download free e-book of the study guide here.)
[  ] Read the short chapter, “Delegation,” in Leadership Prayers, by Richard Kriegbaum. (Read more.)
[  ] Read this very helpful blog from Time Boss, “Are You a Time Prisoner?”
[  ] Visit the Time Boss website. “Time Boss helps high-performing leaders master their time, scale with focus, and lead without overwhelm.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem, by Kevin DeYoung. Listen free to the first five minutes of Chapter 1 on Libro (the audiobook is 2 hours, 56 minutes). For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews.

MORE RESOURCES:

   • John Pearson’s Buckets Blog
   • Subscribe: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
   • John Pearson’s book reviews on Amazon
   • Management Buckets website
   • Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog

Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Pails in Comparison Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 100+ blogs posted (between 2022 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month. 

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