The Myth of Being Busy

When asked how we are, many of us will reply that we are, or have been, busy.  Using busy as an adjective in this way seems to separate the state of being busy from any of the actions that this busyness entails. The Myth of Being Busy is that it is enough simply to have lots to do without there being any need to identify, reflect upon or justify, what it is we are actually doing. 

The difference between the state of being busy and the act may well be about perception.  Believing we have lots to do can give us a sense of purpose and make us feel valued, while having little or nothing to do can lead to listlessness and even depression.  

Being an employee usually means committing to working specified hours for someone else.    For people who have any degree of autonomy over their work, there is often little distinction made between hours spent at work and time spent actually working.  All of it can be described as being busy, almost as if being busy has become the baseline from which all activities are measured.

Keeping busy can be a distraction which can help us get through difficult times, such as a relationship breakdown or the death of a loved one.  However, such distractions can also keep us from taking time to consider the implications of such events and to come to terms with the different futures we are now facing. A busy work schedule can keep us from having to look at things we find difficult, giving us an excuse for avoiding challenging or troublesome aspects of our lives.  When we do not have specific work to do, keeping busy can fulfill the same function.

From childhood we are encouraged to be busy by having our time scheduled, both at school and play, with few opportunities for day-dreaming.  People who have recently retired from full-time employment often report feeling dislocated and may even start to question their value as citizens or their roles within the family.  It can take some people several years to find a new rhythm and sense of values, while others may never achieve this.

Types of people and animals are characterized as being lazy because they appear to be doing very little or their physical appearance seems evidence of a lack of activity.  This is the opposite of busy.  To confess to doing nothing or having nothing to do would seem to be an admission of a failure to fully engage with the world.  The language of guilt is easily applied and only evidence of ceaseless activity can overcome it.

Perhaps it is only during our holidays away from employment that we can legitimately cease being busy.  Yet lazy days on a beach can be re-framed as getting a sun tan, creating an intention out of what seemed at one time to be passivity.  The perpetually busy will be busy enjoying themselves when they are not busy working.

There used to be a negative caricature of the busybody who devotes their time to involving themselves, usually unwanted, in the lives of others.  Having been consigned to period fiction and replaced with the more positive busy bee tirelessly carrying out their tasks is perhaps evidence of the rehabilitation of busyness.  

The similarity to the word business, which has become the accepted narrative for describing all areas of daily life, may mean that common criteria are being applied.  It is enough that we are busy.  There is no requirement to validate, or even describe, the specific tasks or their outcome.

It is important that we continue to distinguish between worthwhile activity and what is merely a distraction. Through endless application of the business model, financial cost or reward has become a significant arbiter of value for all our activities, but there are many other criteria that can be applied.  I wonder about the importance of effort, whether physical or mental, in qualifying time spent usefully.  There is a difference between working hard and being busy, and while some forms of effort can be compared others will only ever have a value specific to each person.  We no longer care to consider intrinsic value, but choose instead to rely on a collective sense of busyness, or business, as the only justification we need for how we pass the time.  Our validity and status is becoming based upon what we are, instead of the impact and value of what we do.

Perhaps the Myth of Being Busy is that it keeps us from having to consider the true value of how we spend our precious time and what is important in our lives as a whole.

© 2015 Michael Golding