Monday, March 9, 2026
Humans are not designed for constant productivity. We feel urgency to “be productive;” however, this is excuse-making. Excuse is from Latin excusare (to free from blame), from ex– (out) + causa (accusation). That’s frenzy—busyness of the ego pretending to be “the cause.”
Busyness is filling time with static about there being “no time,” one of the ego’s most insatiable frenzies. The static port is a convincing bottleneck. Excuse-making is creative, but it contains no substance. My time is between the hours of two and six a.m. That’s when everyone else is sawing logs, exhausted from excuse-making. By that time, I will have journaled, meditated, run two miles, made and uploaded two episodes of my podcast, written a section of a book, and made a couple of blog posts. My window wanes by seven a.m.
Excuses are hot air looking for release, venting. Stuck in lack, excuses are cunningly creative, but like slipping wheels on a greasy runway. A creative person uses what time they have and releases their clear energy in spurts—when the window is open and the rubber hits the road. These people are “clear ports” where substance is excreted. Excrete is from the verb excernere, from ex- (out) + cernere (sift). They’ve sifted the noise, and “dried up” the runway. There is grit, but it’s sifted from static cling.
Piddly excuse-making is wheel-spinning from a static port. Creativity is a clear port, sifting out static and using slight friction for moving the needle. It’s openness that prioritizes substance before quantity. In the moment, it’s an endless “excretion” of flowing release, backed up by foundation. Excuse-making is creative (noise, grinding, venting, grease, and spinning) but it’s not productive. There is no real grit. Creative people have sifted that out and found Real Foundation upon which to “push.”