Everyone has a go-to excuse. Find yours and retire it.

Most people run one main excuse rather than a collection, and its job is to cover a wide range of unrelated situations with a single respectable phrase. Because it gets reused, it stops being examined by anybody, yourself included. The people around you noticed it a while ago, which is the uncomfortable part. It usually contains some truth, and that is exactly why it survives.

Find out what yours is by asking a friend who will tell you, because they will know instantly. Then ban the phrase for two weeks and say what is actually going on instead. The replacement is usually shorter and far more useful.