Day 42: Busy is an Excuse

The point:

In this American society, we use busy-ness as an excuse but really, we are not bees. Our need to fill time is a fear of the alternative. Busy does not make us happy. So what is the alternative?

What is sacred:

the present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it's something we've chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it

busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

I've always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it's possible I'll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn't work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I'll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd. Life is too short to be busy.

Connections to current/future work:

Tim Kreider, the author wrote something that just jumped out on me in his essay:

I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know.

That's my connection. I really despise busy. When I am working at a job that I find is too easy, I do make work, but it is not to keep myself busy. It is more to make sure that I add value to my situation. Wanting to be challenged is not the same as being busy.

Working hard is not being busy. I was the advisor for a high school yearbook. I never paid because I missed a deadline and always left by 4:30 to pick up my kids. I worked hard, but I was not too busy to pick up my own kids, take them to practice, have dinner on the table or at least pick up dinner on the way home. This article reminds me that I need to share those self care strategies that I had when I was a young mother and a young teacher sometimes doing everything by myself.

Source:
Krieder, T. (2012, June 30). The 'busy trap'. New York Times [blog]. Retrieved from https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?_r=0

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