Why We're So (Too, Crazy, Ridiculously, Insanely) Busy

BLOGGER'S NOTE:  Amid a week of new job work travel, multiple personal commitments and a never ending cold, I miraculously carved out time to sit in a quiet coffee shop (perhaps St. Patrick's Day has something to do with it and yes, that was almost a month ago), drink a double espresso and contemplate why I'm just too busy to write about why we're all too busy.

TOO BUSY TO READ THIS POST? SPOILER ALERT: SO IS EVERYONE ELSE
Sorry, I'm just so (too, crazy, ridiculously, insanely) busy!" We're hearing and using this blanket apology with increasing frequency.  In the past week alone, I've witnessed several coworkers and friends lament about their individual battles with busy.  I even found myself using it as my own get-out-of-jail-free card of sorts while recently lunching with a dear friend.

Me:  So, how are you!?!?  It feels like forever since I've seen you!  With the new job and everything else, I've just been so busy!"

Friend:  "Yes, it's been what...  A few months?  Sounds like your new job has you working hard!  We really need to get together ore often...  I'm good through.  How about you?"

Me:  "Oh, I'm fine... Crazy busy!"

If orange is the new black then busy is the new orange that without apology is taking over not only our small talk, but also our lives. Busy is aggressively replacing the coveted gold star of our childhood good behavior with a burdensome badge that's heavily weighing us down in adulthood. Regardless of what cars we drive, smartphones we use, or how we take our morning coffee, busy is the professional tie that now binds us. In fact, a USA TODAY multi-year poll found each consecutive year since 1987 that participants were busier then the year before with 69 percent responding that they were either "busy" or "very busy."

It's certainly no surprise that we're busier then ever before, but just how busy are we?

• Commuters are experiencing greater levels of stress than fighter pilots and riot police - BBC News
• Only one in five employees takes the traditional hour-long lunch break - theguardian.com
• 60 percent of those who use smartphones are connected to work for 13.5 hours or more a day - Strategy&
• 94 percent of 1,000 professionals surveyed work at least 50 hours a week, almost half work more than 65 hours - Harvard Business School

BUSY EVOLUTION
In the Middle Ages frenzied behavior, or what we know today as "busy," was considered one of Catholicism's seven deadly sins.  We've come a long way since the fall of the Roman Empire, but when did our busy paradigm so dramatically shift? According to Bridget Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has Time, our ever-increasing culture of busy gained a permanent professional foothold in the 80s when economic uncertainty plagued the white collar workplace and workers began clocking more hours to distinguish themselves from their 5-9 peers.

30 years later, we're taking busy to an entirely new level.  Not only do our lives remain consumed by work, we're now addicted to technologies promising but, unfortunately, not delivering greater productivity.  In his insightful article, "Why the Modern World is Bad for Our Brains," Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin says that our addiction to technology actually is making us less efficient.  I certain agree with Dr. Levitin and would add that our present-day addictions to laptops, tablets, ereaders and specially smartphones are keeping us busier than ever before.

Since the inception of the smartphone 20 years ago, we've progressively and substantially limited our time, as well as ability to concentrate, remember, sleep and remain efficient.  Though I'm not ready to concede to the results of several recent studies claiming that our smartphones are making us dumber, I will say that our post 2.0 impatience that includes demands like, "Just Google it!" is pushing us beyond the busy breaking point.

MULTITASKING MYTH
We'v been told for years that the most effective way to deal with the mounting daily pressures in our busy lives is through multitasking and to survive, we've become grand champions. We tweet during breakfast, text while driving and send work emails while in line at the grocery store. We are beating the busy odds, or are we?  Earl Miller neuroscientist at MIT bursts our multitasking bubble when he confirms that our brains simply are "not wired to multitask well."  He goes on to say that "when we think we're multitasking, we're actually just switching from one task to another [cognitive switching] very rapidly and every time we do, there's a cost."

TRANSLATING BUSY
Perhaps it's time to put down all that swipes right, take a collective deep breath and better understand how we are defining busy.  I've found that its simply not a reference to our lack of time, but more a catchall for combating the less-than feelings we have and how we believe family, friends, our boss even strangers perceive us.  The most common translations for what we're really saying when we emphatically claim, "I'm so (too, crazy, ridiculously, insanely) busy!" are below:

Importance: For many, being busy equates self-importance, or what I like to call an "I'm kinda a big deal" mentality.  In his New York Times opinion piece, "The Busy Trap, " Tim Kreider shares his belief that busyness brings meaning to our lives and "serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness."  Though we'd never directly or seriously tell anyone, I'm kinda a big deal," we would imply our importance by sharing, often in explicit detail, just how busy we are.

Fear: As one writer puts it, busy wards off our FoMo, or fear of missing out.  Our dread of being left out or behind often is what drives our desire to stay busy. As shame researcher and author Brene Brown states in her book Daring Greatly, what drives our need to stay busy is "fear of irrelevancy, of seeming unimportant, of not being enough." And as of late, studies are showing that social media is taking our FoMo to an entirely new level.

Guilt: We all feel guilty about something in our lives and for many that's work.  My work-related guilt presents itself as what's now known to me as the sinking Sunday feeling.  That never-fail Sunday afternoon anxiety I get when doing something I enjoy rather than working.  It simultaneously shames and scolds me, "You really should be working so you don't start the week behind..."

Excuse: Whether we'll admit it our not, busy is our best and probably most overused excuse.  It's the polite yet generally unchallengeable way of telling someone, "Nah, I don't wanna" without actually having to say it.  I'll admit, I've excused myself with "I'm too (so, crazy, ridiculously, insanely) busy" my fair share - many times as a justification for my lack of interest, more often for my lack of time.

COMBATING BUSY
Now that Spring has sprung, I'm reminded by the annoying (there, I said it) runners who breathlessly talk on their cellphones while pushing baby strollers trails by family dogs just how crazy busy (not "Crazy busy!") is.  Sure we're under great societal pressure to reject all forms of idleness, and as I'm sure some future advertising campaigns will direct us, to "live busy."  I do agree though with the many work experts who subscribe to the believe that our busyness primarily is self-imposed and we indeed can empower ourselves to combat it.

Of course combating busy is much easier said then done.  It takes concerted and often uncomfortable effort on our part.  We, however, desperately need to break through our self-orchestrated chaos to find balance and a new professional equilibrium.  Finding our inner Tibetan Buddhist, as a long-time friend considers himself, certainly won't happen overnight but with time, we'll slowly and gradually change our behaviors while sharing our learnings and successes with others.  So how do we do this? Though the listography for beating busy is impressive, I've found the advice below not necessarily the easiest, but definitely the most meaningful.

Learn to say "No"- It's certainly difficult telling others what they don't want to hear, as most of us generally want to be cooperative, accommodating and flexible.  Keeping in mind the popular idiom, practice makes perfect, the more we stand up for ourselves and the distribution of our time, the easier it will get.  We'll quickly realize the significant rewards being less busy brings.

Develop a specific work plan - As we often create strategies and plans for our professional clients and customers, it's critical what we also develop a plan four ourselves.  Our busy preparedness plan should include solid steps to maximize our 9-5 time.  Consider such tactics as creating filing efficiencies with email, better managing meetings, taking time for lunch, and limiting the amount of after hours work done.

Stop micromanaging and multitasking - Since it's been scientifically confirmed that there's no such thing as multitasking (see the Myth of Multitasking above) we need to once and for all accept that we can't do it all.  We must empower others to hep take responsibilities and tasks off our professional plate and squash the guilt associated with our workplace superhero complex.

Make time for fitness - I'm certainly not a doctor, but I do know that increased endorphin levels have an uncanny way of putting the unmanageable into perspective.  Whether it's a walk in the park, golfing with a client or backyard baseball with the kids, making time for fitness is a great way to maintain mental clarity when life becomes chaotic.

Eat Healthy or Healthier - Fueling with fast food and other high fat, sugar and sodium foods will not appropriately sustain a busy body.  When possible, plan a weekly lunch (and dinner) menu and prep in advance.  There are countless resources online that promote not only quick prep, but also lower calorie and great tasting meals.

Turn of all technologies before bedtime and SLEEP - Since cellphone use before bed can interfere with the melatonin that promotes a good night's sleep, we need to stop talking, texting and tweeting at least an hour before relaxing for the night.  Speaking of sleep, try and get a full eight hours every night.  It's the easiest and most natural way to fight the exhaustion busy brings.

Create a support team - When making a significant lifestyle change such as joining the busy battle brigade, its always helpful to enlist the help and support of others.  Whether at work, home or among social circles, it's crucial that we find like-minded folks committed to the same positive outcome such as eradicating the busy adverbs too, crazy, ridiculously and insanely from our vocabularies.