The Busy Trap: And how to dig out of it
~6-7 min read
Don’t get caught in the busy trap. This might be easier said than done – it all comes down to intentionality. Here’s why.
How often do people tell you about how busy they are? How often do you feel like you’re overwhelmed by your own schedule, whether in work or in life (funny how we often separate the two)? In fact, when asked how things are going, people often answer they can barely keep up or don’t have enough hours in the day to get things done. But why is this so pervasive?
Well, part of this is the pressure of Western workplace culture and life. Think about this question in the context of work. Would you ever dare to answer, “Actually things have been really slow recently – I’ve had lots of time to think about and solve [whatever problem]”? Probably not. You wouldn’t want to be perceived as unproductive.
While we’re here: ‘unproductive’ – what a terribly subjective word, rather judgemental and entirely dependent on context.
Nothing blooms year-round
What seems unproductive to someone may simply be a necessary rest to another. What seems lazy to someone may be soul-healing to another. And if we strip away any judgemental associated with the term, why must we always be producing, if non-producing is a negative? Absolutely nothing in nature is able to be 100% productive 100% of the time. Not one single thing blooms year-round. Why on Earth would we hold Homo sapiens to this biologically unachievably standard?
In the context of the workplace, this may have to do with an undercurrent of fear that comes with being seen as not having enough to do. Although how one measures “enough” in the context of human creativity and innovation is another entirely subjective mystery. But our workplace culture exists within a broader cultural paradigm. It is largely influenced by the values of the society in which it operates.
We live in a society that still inexplicably equates busyness with productivity. This, however, has been entirely disproved. The busier we are, the less productive we are. Constant busyness is contributing to a society of pervasive anxiety, stress, rampant autoimmune diseases, and burnout.
A few worthy questions
Why would we continue to propagate harmful cultural values that yield such a net-negative outcome for the majority of humans within that paradigm? Why do we continue to fly from task to task, activity to activity, meeting to meeting, day after day? Why does this persist, particularly when we know that busyness in no way equates to productivity?
This is what’s known as the “busy trap.” Back to the context of the workplace, busyness becomes a self-perpetuating trap as it’s typically valued, rewarded, and promoted. This trap is not specific to any industry; it is simply reflective of a broader cultural context. It only exists at the mercy of social values.
Humans are not renowned for their far-sighted view of their own future and longevity as a species. We are not known for spending the time and effort to solve a problem at its root cause, especially when it may not immediately impact us. In the hunter-gatherer sense of immediacy, this did wonders for both hunting and gathering. But there are close to eight billion of us now, living within a precarious and thrumming hive of globalization. The same impulse that served us well in our prehistoric origins is the same impulse that may be contributing to the burnout of our species.
The magnifying glass of business
Our workplaces can offer us insight into the phenomenon of the busy trap. Short-term rewards are a natural human tendency, as life-sustaining as the sun’s rays. But our business infrastructure is a formidable power within our culture. The ceaseless hunt for sustained short-term profit creates a magnifying glass which amplifies and ignites the sun’s rays, destroying that at which it is aimed.
As I first mentioned, the remedy to the busy trap is intentionality. It will take an intentional social paradigm shift of values to dig our way out of the busy trap. When we no longer equate busyness with productivity. When we internalize that nothing in nature blooms forever. When we replace ‘unproductive’ with ‘rest,’ and allow ourselves to simply exist on this planet, and know we are inherently worthy just by being here against all conceivable odds.
After all, we are stupendously lucky to be here. We may just be the most fortunate collections of stardust (that we are currently aware of) in our universe. That makes us worthy regardless of our output. And perhaps this subtle shift can influence our values in a way that makes long-term goals for humanity’s continued existence more obvious. But again, this will take an impressive attitude of intention. And it all starts by leaning in with curiosity to ask ourselves some of these questions.
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” – Nelson Henderson (although this is a variation of an ancient likely-Greek proverb)
