It’s cool to be busy. It’s a symbol of status, value and importance. When someone is busy, they become scarce, and scarcity is desirable.
That’s why Apple decided to set the starting price of the new iPhone X at $999 — it makes it slightly more out of reach, a status symbol of importance.
But busyness has become more of an indicator of importance than the iPhone or other similarly pricey items.
Silvia Bellezza, a professor of marketing at Columbia University, said when someone talks about the scarcity of time in their life it indicates value. “It’s implicitly telling you that ‘I am very important, and my human capital is sought after, which is why I’m so busy’,” Bellezza said.
When someone says they are too busy to do something, it communicates they have something better to be doing, and people respect that — some even envy it.
If someone lives a lifestyle that isn’t busy, they might be seen as lazy or unmotivated.
What if the busyness is actually a distraction from what truly matters?
Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher from the 19th century seemed to think so.
“Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy — to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work … What, I wonder, do these busy folks get done?” Kierkegaard said.
In the eyes of Kierkegaard, busyness was a distraction from discovering self-identity and the purpose of life — it simultaneously made everything and nothing important.
In college, students are encouraged to take a full semester of classes, joins clubs, get involved with extracurricular activities and maybe work on the side — all the while making time for friends, family, personal hobbies, projects and a little bit of fun. Students are basically told to be busy, because that’s what society expects of them. Get more done, do more. Fill your resume and portfolio with a bunch of stuff.
There is an idea that worth can be earned — if enough is achieved, a sense of identity can be formed.
Busyness is the result of a mindset that revolves around doing, rather than being. It’s the misconception that by doing more one can achieve a greater sense of worth.
You are already valuable. You are important. You don’t need to do anything to prove yourself or earn a sense of worth.
Being busy doesn’t equate to productivity, and being idle doesn’t equal laziness. The pace of life will go at the rate at which it is set. People are as busy as they allow themselves to be.
There is an endless amount of stuff to do — no one can do all of it. A deliberateness is required to choose only what is most important and say “no” to the rest.
There is a difference between living a busy life and an active life. Being active can be deliberate, intentional and full of purpose. The difference is identity. An active life is lived from a place of authenticity, while the busy life is lived from a place of striving for something — often ambiguously.
A conscious choice has to be made in order to reject a lifestyle of busyness.
Take a moment to escape from the busyness, and notice what life is like.
Be active, without being busy.
Andrew Brand can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @theandrewbrand