Has Being Busy Become A Badge Of Honour?

Just to give some context, let’s start with a little storytime.

I once stayed in an Air Bnb, where the host who was living in the same house, did not introduce herself or even say hi to us for the whole 6 days we were there. Well, until the last day right when we were carrying our things into the car to leave.

“I’m so sorry, I’ve been so busy working from home the whole week, I didn’t even get a chance to say hi.”, she said.

Now I know we shouldn’t assume, and maybe there was something else going on that we don’t know about, but it just got me thinking. Has being busy now become a badge of honour, that it is worthy enough to excuse taking 5 minutes to say hello to your guests? Has being busy become a badge of honour, not just in this situation, but within our society in general?

There is a sense that the busier we are, the more important it makes us feel, and the more interesting our lives seem. If we aren’t busy all the time, then we must not be working hard enough. I have definitely fallen into this trap before, having been in a high-performance environment for a large part of my life. I always felt like there was more to do, and felt lazy or guilty if I wasn’t utilising my time as best as I could.

Moreover, contrary to the belief that being busy equates to being productive, there is a point where busyness actually becomes counterproductive. We can end up filling up our time with tasks that do not provide any real value, distracting us from doing the important tasks. We end up trying to multi-task in a way that our brains are not physically capable of, leading us to perform worse in all tasks, than if we had just done the tasks one at a time. Lastly, we do not utilise the immense performance and health benefits of rest, play, and relaxation.

To conclude, I would like to make 3 suggestions for you to think about exploring:

• Get comfortable with being still. I get some of my best ideas during meditation and before I sleep, when I’ve allowed my mind to simply, be still. As Terry Bradbury says, “We burn valuable time doing things that aren’t necessary or important because this busyness makes us feel productive. As it turns out, you really do have to slow down to do your best.”
• Incorporate play! This is certainly something that I need to work on, but play is incredibly important for creativity and releasing stress. This doesn’t include, for example working out to achieve a specific goal, but it is about doing something with no agenda or goal, letting go, and purely doing something just because it is fun!
• Focus on a life and career with joy, meaning, and value. The combination of these three brings fulfillment and purpose to your life. You enjoy the process and do not feel a need to prove your worth or importance by having a jam-packed schedule, but you are intentional with how you spend your time and focus on what is truly important to you.