The deception of productivity
When people are asked how they are these days, what do they say?
They usually respond with something like “insanely busy,” “super busy,” “crazy busy” or maybe just “pretty busy.”
People aren’t just “fine” anymore. Their lives are bustling with things to do, people to see and places to go. They are overworked, overextended, exhausted and deluded by the idea that their degree of busyness is somehow equivalent to their value as human beings in society.
Fifty percent of Americans work more than standard full-time hours, according to Gallup data from the 2013 and 2014 Work Education Polls. And according to a survey released by Citigroup and Seventeen Magazine, nearly four out of five college students are working an average of nineteen hours a week while juggling a full course load.
Regardless of the strange, domineering mentality that being constantly exhausted is a good thing, being busy can be stressful and unhealthy.
Thirty-six percent of employees say that they typically feel tense or stressed out during the work day, according the the American Psychological Association, and stress can cause a lower immune system and problems with the digestive, excretory and reproductive systems, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
The interesting thing, though, is that a study published on the website for the American Association for the Advancement of Science called “Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind” suggests that people’s constant overexertion is something that they subconsciously impose on themselves. Timothy Wilson, leader of the study, and his team observed that participants disliked spending six to 15 minutes by themselves with nothing to do but think, and that many actually “preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.”
People have become so conditioned to a strenuous, busy lifestyle that when they are left by themselves with no tasks to complete, they hate it. They hate it so much that they would rather physically harm themselves than simply sit and do nothing.
One of the possible explanations for being uncomfortable doing nothing is the advancement of technology.
According to Microsoft Advertising, 77 percent of Canadians ages 18 to 24 first reach for their phone when nothing is occupying their attention, and 52 percent of people in this age group check their phone every 30 minutes.
This is a lot of digital usage. If people have the opportunity to be constantly engaged in work and social media, they take advantage of that opportunity. Before cell phones were invented, the 77 percent of 18 to 24-year-old Canadians would not have had the opportunity for such instant entertainment, and would have had to pull out a book or a deck of cards if nothing was occupying their attention.
If there was nothing on hand to entertain them, they would have just had to sit and think — to be by themselves.
Comedian Louis Szekely, professionally known as Louis CK, spoke on the late-night talk show Conan about the detrimental effects of cell phones and their contribution to people’s inability to be by themselves.
“I think these things are toxic, especially for kids. It’s bad. They don’t look at people when they talk to them and they don’t build the empathy,” Szekely said. “You need to build an ability to just be by yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones are taking away: the ability to just sit there.”
He went further, and commented on the fatality of people’s obsession with their phones, saying that people “are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for a second.” Szekely was referring to the approximately 1.1 million crashes caused by texting while driving in 2013, according to the National Safety Council.
People run the risk of dying and possibly killing someone else just because they can’t put down their phones.
In an article published in The New York Times titled, “The ‘Busy’ Trap,” Tim Kreider, essayist and cartoonist, discussed the idea of busyness functioning as a “kind of existential reassurance … obviously your life cannot be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.”
Kreider uses the example of a woman that he knew who interned at a magazine and wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out in case she was urgently needed for some reason. He specified that the magazine was an entertainment magazine whose purpose for existing was crushed with technological advancements, and wonders whether “all this histronic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.”
Kreider also wrote about his own experience with busyness. He said that he is one of very few people that does not feel the need to be busy.
“I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know,” Kreider wrote. “On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie. This, it seems to me, is a sane and pleasant pace for a day.”
Kreider, however, feels this lifestyle is not the norm. The psychology of needing to be busy is incredibly present, evident in other forms such as a new app called “Got This Thing.” The app fills your Google calendar with local events in your area and includes three levels of busyness that you can request to be: “Busy,” “Super Busy” or “Go F— Yourself.”
Along with Kreider, some have recognized the negative effects of leading a life that is “too busy,” and have worked to create a more stress-free environment. For example, Lori Deschene, founder of the Tiny Buddha organization, a self-proclaimed leading resource for those seeking peace and happiness, shared her experiences with busyness on her blog.
“If I was busy, I was using time wisely,” Deschene wrote. “If I was busy, I was proving to myself that I was valuable. If I was busy, I was creating the possibility of a better life in the future. Any threat to my productivity was a threat to my sense of hope.”
According to her blog, Deschene was forced to take life a little slower when she got sick and spent a prolonged amount of time in the hospital. Her time incapacitated helped her to realize that she wanted to work with the elderly — and not become a famous actress. The experience “of not doing helped me better understand what I actually wanted to do.”
Deschene also discussed ways to live an appropriately busy life, posing these questions to her audience: “What is it you really want to accomplish? What can you do today that supports your deepest passions? If you knew your days were numbered, how much time would you want to devote to activities that have nothing to do with striving and achieving? Our days are numbered, so why not start creating that type of balance now?”
In doing so, Deschene highlights the intersection of happiness and busyness. An even smaller number have found the perfect balance of busyness and relaxation to best suit them.
Timothy Sharp, author of “100 Ways To Happiness: A Guide For Busy People” and “100 Ways To Happy Children: A Guide For Busy Parents,” and founder of the Happiness Institute in Sydney, Australia, talked about cultivating an environment that allows people to be both happy and busy.
“It’s a fine line,” Sharp said. “It’s a bit of a balancing act because being busy can be a good thing. And by that, I mean engaging in pleasurable activities — in meaningful pursuits. That can provide satisfaction. It can provide a sense of pride and happiness and joy and pleasure.”
So busyness can be good to an extent. On one hand, it can give people’s lives meaning and on the other hand, extended periods of time without stimulating activity can produce negative effects, such as depression.
“Not doing anything might sound nice, but most of us will find that pretty depressing after a while,” Sharp said. “Because if you think about it, you’ve got no stimulus. You’ve got no sense of satisfaction, no sense of pride, no sense of accomplishment or achievement and no stimulation.”
Sharp said this impacts people’s health.
“You start to get sick,” Sharp said. “You can’t get to the gym. You can’t exercise. You’re not eating well. Maybe you’re drinking too much. … If it’s impacting your ability to stay fit and healthy, it’s a problem.”
Busyness can also be a problem when it impacts important relationships. Sharp said if people are spending 50 to 80 hours at work each week, then their ability to connect with their loved ones is very diminished and that those relationships are “vitally important for our health and well-being.”
So. Are you crazy busy? Insanely busy?
And are you happy?
If you’re not, fix it.
Find what is best for you in terms of the balance between busyness and rest — every person is different. But you also don’t have to be busy to be happy. You don’t always have to be working or be on your phone to be valuable in society and have a happy, full life.
Remember how happy Kreider is with his lazy ambitiousness; ask yourself the questions posed by Deschene and think about the words of Sharp.
Take a breath. And the next time someone asks you how you’re doing, make it your goal to truthfully say, “I’m doing great!”
Annika Kushner is a freshman journalism major who is totally chill with being chill, you can contact her at [email protected].