I’ll admit it. When someone asks
me how I’m doing, the first word that usually comes out of my mouth is – Busy. Usually
preceded by a big, overly dramatic sigh. And I’m definitely not alone. If you live in Malta in the 21st
century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they
are. It has become the automatic response to when you ask anyone how they’re
doing: “Busy.” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty
obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the usual response is a kind
of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have.” or “Better than the
opposite.”
Almost everyone I know is busy.
They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working, or doing something
to promote their work. I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do
something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time, but if
something was going on to let him know and maybe he could get rid of work for a
few hours.
This made me think about how we
glorify being busy, and the impact that this path takes on our lives. Our two
main metrics for success are money and power, and they drive us to work longer
hours, sleep with our phones, and miss important moments with our families and
friends.
People are busy because of their
own ambition or drive. They’re addicted to busyness, and fear what they might
have to face in its absence. The present hysteria is not a necessary or
inevitable condition of life. It’s something we’ve chosen. Even children are busy now. Their
schedule is jam-packed with classes and extracurricular activities. They
come home at the end of the day as tired as adults. Exhausted. Dead on their feet.
I named this article ‘’Being
Busy is a Disease’’ because it is! Constant stress is linked to all sorts of
issues. From migraines and anxiety to sexual disorders. All these things come
secondarily to what it’s called - Time Compression. It’s when you put too many
items into too little time, and you feel stressed about it. But that’s the
world we live in. You’re driven to do more than feels comfortable. The mind
needs to unplug, and the body needs to relax. But we’ve become so accustomed to
this lifestyle that we can’t get out.
So why, exactly, is it so hard
for us to slow down? Why ‘Busy’ has
become the new normal?
It could be, because we love feeling important and needed,
which is what busyness provides us with. Busyness serves as a kind of
existential reassurance. A shield against emptiness. Obviously your life cannot
possibly be insignificant and meaningless, if you are so busy, completely
booked, in demand every hour of the day.
The rise of Facebook and
Instagram has just magnified those ideals. We’re constantly comparing our lives
to others’ lives (or, at least, what others choose to show us) and trying to
keep pace socially and materially. Everyone thinks they’re only as good as their
ability to produce. We get into this social construct, where you can never be
happy just relaxing. Because if you’re relaxing, you’re a loser. And so we fill
our days with work and social commitments. Lots of activities and distractions. There’s
a lot of societal pressure to be involved in a lot, and always have a full
plate.
Focusing on how busy we are is
like putting on a mask. It keeps us from connecting on a deeper level with each
other. In this day and age, we can all readily accept that we lead busy lives.
This shows that your mind is elsewhere, thinking about work you have ahead of
you, or something you just finished. Instead of, you know, the people in front
of you.
But are we really as
busy as we think we are? Most career-driven people probably think they
work way over 40 hours a week, and spend far less time doing other things. But
time is vast. We have 168 hours in a week. If you want, you can have all the
time you need, and life can be pretty chill.
We overestimate the things we
don’t want to do, like work. And we underestimate the things we do want to do. Negativity tends to stand out in
the mind, more than positivity. Simply tracking how you spend your time, is the
first step to breaking free of the ‘Busy’ trap. It’s also a good way to
identify all the ways we waste away the free time we do have. Like checking Facebook
and watching TV. And what about those of us, who really do clock 12+ hours in
the office each day and spend more time with our friends on Snapchat than in
real life? Start by recognizing that you’re mostly in charge of how you spend
your time, and that you can choose differently. Sometimes that means saying - No! We all have the same amount of hours in the day.
Idleness is not just a vacation.
It is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and if we are
deprived of it, we suffer mental affliction. The quiet that idleness provides
is a necessary condition to see life as a whole. It is, paradoxically,
necessary to getting any work done in a proper manner. Our history is full of
stories of inspirations that come in idle moments of daydreaming. It almost
makes you wonder whether idlers aren’t responsible for more of the world’s
greatest ideas and inventions and masterpieces, than the hardworking. As the great John Lennon once
said: “Time you enjoy wasting, was not
wasted.” Which is true.
Oh! This is really
important: Stop telling people
how busy you are. Take a pause when someone asks ‘How are you?’ and give a
proper answer, instead of relying on the ‘Busy’ line. Stop wearing busyness as
a badge of honour. There’s a lot more to your life than your to-do list. Life
is too short to be busy.
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