“Busy!”
This week I’d like to share my thoughts around “being busy”. It’s quite common when we ask people how they’re going, how their week’s been or looking, and I find answers circle around one of the below:
- So busy.
- Busy!
- Ridiculously busy.
- Too busy.
- Busier than expected actually!
And the general undertone is that its bad to be busy, like as if we wish we weren’t busy, and it’s made me think about what we really mean. I’m absolutely at fault here too don’t get me wrong, but I’m trying to be more mindful about how I answer such questions and as part of that how I define and feel about “busyness”. I’ve actually thought at times, “do people expect to be not-busy?”. Do we actually mean instead:
- Effective?
- Efficient?
- Productive?
- Dynamic?
- Overwhelming?
Does this feed into our ego needs because we care about how we feel others will judge us if we are “busy”? Why do we care? Do we answer purely with what we think people want to hear, and are too scared to say when things are genuinely overwhelming? If we say “busy” to everything then the word loses its meaning. I feel like “busy” has become a catch-all, and although it seems its bad to be too busy, we seem to wear it like a badge of honour like it’s a status to aspire to, or are we saying it because we think it will convey a certain image or reflect us in a certain light? I don’t know. This is definitely not about me defining this for you, just my thinking, but I do think we need to be more mindful about:
- How we answer such questions, the words we use and whether we reflect the description as positive or negative
- How we structure our work/lives and try to find the balance of “yin” & “yang” that suits each of us
- What our goals are. If our goal is simply to “be busy”, well that’s easy, or if the goal is independent of busy and moreso related to productivity, effectiveness, and balance, then perhaps our language, attitudes and activity should reflect this.
Does being busy mean I’m inefficient or bad at prioritising? How “busy” is ok? This has also made me think about what other unconscious badges of honour do we contribute to perpetuating? How many hours we work? How little sleep we get? Not sure about you but this has given me a lot to ponder, and I’ll be making some changes about how I answer such questions and more importantly how I think about “busyness” and other badges of honour I may be accidentally perpetuating. I’ve included a few links below for your thinking pleasure.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/05/why-you-should-stop-telling-people-youre-so-busy.html
https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-better-responses-to-how-are-you-than-busy
https://memory.ai/timely-blog/the-busyness-trap
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/problem-busyness-wally-schmader/
https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2019/9/the-problem-with-busy
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/the-scourge-of-busyness-4660492/
As always, would love to hear your thoughts or tips. I want you to pull me up if you hear me respond with ‘busy’.
Thanks 😊