The cult of busy

When I was younger I thought busy people were more important than everyone else. Otherwise why would they be so busy? I had busy bosses, busy parents, and always I just thought they must have really important things to do. It seemed an easy way to see who mattered and who didn’t. The busy must matter more, and the lazy mattered less.

This is the cult of busy. That simply by always seeming to have something to do, we all assume you must be important or successful.

It explains the behavior of many people at work. By appearing busy, people bother them less, and  simultaneously believe they’re doing well at their job. It’s quite a trick.

I now believe the opposite to be true. Or the near opposite. Here’s why:

  • Time is the singular measure of life. It’s one of the few things you can not get more of. Knowing how to spend it well is possibly the most important skill you can have.
  • The person who gets a job done in one hour will seem less busy than the guy who can only do it in five.  How busy a person seems is not necessarily indicative of the quality of their results. Someone who is better at something might very well seem less busy, because they are more effective. Results matter more than the time spent to achieve them.
  • Being in demand can have good and bad causes.  Someone with a line of people waiting to talk to them outside their office door at work seems busy, and therefore seems important. But somehow the clerk running the slowest supermarket checkout line in the universe isn’t praised in the same way; it means they’re ineffective. People who are at the center of everything aren’t necessarily good at what they do (although they might be). The bar of being busy falls far well below the bar of being good.
  • The compulsion to save time may lead nowhere. If you’re always cutting corners to save time, when exactly are you using the time you’ve saved? There is this illusion some day in the future you get back all the time you’ve squirreled away in one big chunk. I don’t think time works this way. For most Americans it seems most of our time savings goes straight into watching television. That’s where all the time savings we think we get actually goes.
  • The phrase “I don’t have time for” should never be said. We all get the same amount of time every day. If you can’t do something it’s not about the quantity of time. It’s really about how important the task is to you. I’m sure if you were having a heart attack, you’d magically find time to go to the hospital. That time would come from something else you’d planned to do, but now seems less important. This is how time works all the time. What people really mean when they say “I don’t have time” is this thing is not important enough to earn my time. It’s a polite way to tell people they’re not worth your time.

This means people who are always busy are time poor. They have a time shortage. They have time debt. They are either trying to do too much, or they aren’t doing what they’re doing very well. They are failing to either a) be effective with their time b) don’t know what they’re trying to effect, so they scramble away at trying to optimize for  everything, which leads to optimizing nothing.

On the other hand, people who truly have control over time have some in their pocket to give to someone in need. They have a sense of priorities that drives their use of time and can shift away from the specific ordinary work that’s easy to justify, in favor of the more ethereal, deeper things that are harder to justify. They protect their time from trivia and idiocy. These people are time rich. They provide themselves with a surplus of time. They might seem to idle, or to relax, more often then the rest, but that may be a sign of their mastery not their incompetence.

I deliberately try not to fill my calendar. I choose not to say Yes to everything. For to do so would make me too busy, and I think, less effective at what my goals are.  I always want to have some margin of my time in reserve, time I’m free to spend in any way I choose, including doing almost nothing at all. I’m free to take detours. I’m open to serendipity. Some of the best thinkers throughout history had some of their best thoughts while  going for walks, playing cards with friends, little things things that generally would not be considered the hallmarks of busy people. It’s the ability to pause, to reflect, and relax, to let the mind wander, that’s perhaps the true sign of time mastery, for when the mind returns it’s often sharper and more efficient, but most important perhaps, happier than it was before.

This post was inspired by Marrissa Bracke‘s essay Why I stopped working with busy people.

Also see:

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119 thoughts on “The cult of busy”

  • panax - March 22, 2012 at 4:53 am #

  • This coincides with your practice of choosing not to say ‘yes’ to everything.

  • Reply
  • Panax - January 3, 2012 at 6:24 am #

  • I like the article today all are thinking that they are busy but that is not true all times because if time is managed properly then there is no question of ‘i dont have time’.
    thanks for the article

  • Reply
  • Scott Berkun - July 2, 2011 at 11:10 am #

  • Busy people spend a lot of time DOING and not a lot of time BEING.

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  • Jackie - April 18, 2011 at 11:34 pm #

  • Unfortunately our society seems to give more respect to those who simply appear busy even if they aren’t productive. It’s more socially acceptable to look busy and in some cases people who “appear busy” are only doing so because they think it’s expected of them. It takes a much more strong willed person to be indulgent with their time, without fear of appearing lazy or as a bum.

  • Reply
  • Jackie - March 21, 2011 at 9:18 am #

  • Time is definitely more valuable than money and it’s the most precious commodity because as you said; it’s limited. The best part about being wealthy is the ability to spend your time however you like without being tied to a job. Also, it’s not a matter of how long your work but how much you accomplish. If you sit behind the desk 10 hrs and just read forums and mess around it doesn’t count for anything.

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  • David - March 13, 2011 at 9:24 am #

  • I think it is inaccurate to say “The phrase ‘I don’t have time for’ should never be said.” If a person is well organized, there are allocated amounts of time for different parts of one’s life. For example, unless you work literally 24/7, there will only be so many hours in a day, and in a week, that are allocated for work. If you already have all of those hours filled with projects, it would be in your best interest to say ‘no’ when asked to take on additional projects. This coincides with your practice of choosing not to say ‘yes’ to everything. So saying “I don’t have time for” or maybe, more appropriately, “I don’t have time right now for” is actually a part of good time management.

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  • taking pictures for the web - January 30, 2011 at 10:17 pm #

  • Thanks for the article it shows how busy people are actually. If the time is managed properly then there is no question of “i dont have time”.

  • Reply
  • taking pictures for the web - January 30, 2011 at 10:13 pm #

  • I like the article today all are thinking that they are busy but that is not true all times because if time is managed properly then there is no question of ‘i dont have time’.
    thanks for the article

  • Reply
  • fewo fischen - December 15, 2010 at 2:15 am #

  • Being busy makes people feel more important! Nobody would admit that he is idle because it is socially not well accepted. Even if somebody is more efficient than others and finished his work earlier he´d pretend to be busy with something.

  • Reply
  • marina's dream - October 6, 2010 at 7:19 am #

  • Great article! The busy culture is definitely pervasive; if only “busy” people weren’t given the adulation that they often receive.

    It is similar to people constantly checking their phone for new emails or texts. Even during dinner. I’m sure it can wait, but being busy is very a la mode.

  • Reply
  • Subin Sebastian - October 2, 2010 at 6:07 am #

  • What matters is not how busy you are but why you are busy the bee is praised, mosquitoes swattered

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    • Ronald Green - November 1, 2011 at 5:46 am #

    • After many years of working at nothing, I can confirm that while it is possible to be busy, it is impossible to do nothing.

      Ronald Green
      “Nothing matters – a book about nothing” (iff-Books)

    • Reply
  • the voyages of the door - September 24, 2010 at 3:51 am #

  • I think there are some corollaries with other books like the Four Hour Work Week, where the emphasis is not work for work’s sake which I think is what most “busy” people do.

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  • ???? ?????? - September 21, 2010 at 9:56 am #

  • So, even if you can break away from the cult of busy long enough to want to inform yourself,

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  • Coop - September 16, 2010 at 4:29 pm #

  • Just came across you post. It comes at an interesting time as I turn 45 tomorrow. I have a few commitments, but the main part of my day will be spent thinking. Thinking about how I want to spend the other 45 years of my life.
    Best,
    Coop

  • Reply
  • remanunity.com - September 13, 2010 at 5:07 am #

  • ha time management is very essential. just busy word does not make people make busy, one should not be lazy and does the work by managing time.

  • Reply
  • wall mount TV - September 6, 2010 at 5:36 pm #

  • Great article! The busy culture is definitely pervasive; if only “busy” people weren’t given the adulation that they often take.

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  • website design - August 31, 2010 at 2:08 am #

  • Very good article. I’m a busy man myself who spends extra time in perfecting a piece of work. Certainly it shouldn’t always be like that.

  • Reply
  • professional seo - July 7, 2010 at 10:20 pm #

  • The ability to say no to worthless meetings, not answer your phone just because it rings, or otherwise get distracted from the work that matters is very tough to learn. However, going down this path right now I can say that it is invaluable. I don’t get it right every day, but every meeting I say no to where there is no agenda or no decision being made gets me that much closer to having my mind freed up to just think…..

  • Reply
  • Samantha Laing - June 28, 2010 at 11:29 pm #

  • Firstly – thanks for an awesome blog that makes me think a little more about how and what I do in life :)

    The “busy doesn’t mean I’m good or happy” is something I’m noticing more and more – quality over quantity.

    Time is so precious – and as you state busy people usually squander it. Your post reminded me of another where the author said unless his answer was “Hell yeah!” he should consider if it was worth his time.. http://sivers.org/hellyeah

  • Reply
  • Jon Whipple - June 28, 2010 at 11:17 am #

  • I think it was Ben Franklin who said, “Never confuse Motion with Action”. Thanks for this, I think it’s pretty well timed for me.

  • Reply
  • codemaverik - June 3, 2010 at 7:56 pm #

  • The author of this work talks about quantitiy of work but not the quality that may be all too important in some instances. Eg. A surgeon may need to spend more number of hours in a particular instance, how ever effecient he wants to be. Just because a surgeon finished early does not mean his/her treatment was succesful. Generalizations dont always work in the real world. Imagine how it would apply to a bomb disposal expert when compared to a supermarket checkout clerk.

  • Reply
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