Has this happened to you? You run into a friend and ask “how are you?” and the answer is “Busy!” often followed by an explanation of just HOW busy he/she is.
Why do so many of us answer “busy!” when someone asks us how we are? Are we proud of this state? Is this something to brag about? If so, when did it become cool to brag about how busy we are? Or, is perpetual business the new norm?
Status symbol? Social disease?
Has busyness become an important symbol when it comes to defining how successful we are? Or, has it become a modern-day social disease? Busyness and multitasking are the by-products of our hyper-speed world. I get the distinct impression that many people get a heightened sense of importance when they declare just how busy they are.
I hate the state of busyness. Many of us confuse busyness with being productive. Busyness is a trap. I know because I’ve been there. Many days, I’m still there, in spite of my best efforts. I’ve taken steps to slow things down and stop being so damn busy. Part of this process has involved separating what’s important from what’s urgent in my life. The urgent stuff often seems to have a way of derailing the important things.
Urgent vs important
What’s the difference between urgent and important? Urgent things need to be done immediately. Typically, there are deadlines involved in urgent things. Important things contribute to our long term goals. Yes, urgent things need to get done. But, I wonder how many times we ignore the important stuff for the ever-present urgent tasks that are thrown our way.
But, what if we changed our approach? What if instead of over-cramming our lives and calendars, we took a step back and consciously decided to put an end to this permanent state of busyness? What if we focussed on the important stuff more? How do we do this?
I read an interesting blog about just this subject. (https://crew.co/blog/urgent-vs-important/) In it, the author, Jory MacKay, talks about Einsenhower’s matrix. The matrix breaks down the urgent/important tasks into a quadrant. This blog spoke to me. I get it. It doesn’t make it easy to do, but it makes sense to give this a try. Reading about the regrets of the dying put things into perspective. I don’t want to regret not staying in touch with loved ones.
A promise
If you run into me and ask how I am, I will not answer “busy!” There’s way too much of this busyness nonsense. I’m not contributing to it.
