Kicking the Busyness Addiction

This past week I have been on holidays.  Actually, for the first part of it, I wondered if I hadn’t just swapped addresses only.  Instead of being at work, I was at home; but still operating with a ‘to do’ list and a rigorous pace.  It was as if I could not stop being busy.  I began questioning myself “Am I addicted to busy”? 

I admit I find it rewarding to have ticked things off of my ‘to do list’.  If my brain rewards me with dopamine when I complete a task, then I can think of worse things to do for this good feeling hormone!  Perhaps I should worry though when I cannot stop. 

U.K Psychologist Jaimie Bloch, says a sure way to know if you’re addicted to busyness includes packing your schedule to the brim, panic at the thought of an activity free day, you can’t stop checking your emails and phone when you’re out and you feel the need to constantly be productive.  She says that busyness is often our way of avoiding our emotions and thoughts and busyness is often seen as a status symbol. 

We even ‘humblebrag’ about it, Michael McKeown says.  Busyness is code for us being successful and important.   In his article “Why we humblebrag about being busy”, McKeown says we are in a cultural bubble which is caused by an unholy alliance between three powerful trends: smart phones, social media and extreme consumerism. He said the antidote to it is the pursuit of less. If we don’t then, one day, we will wake up to the fact that our overstuffed lives are as empty as the real estate bubbles’ waste of foreclosed homes!

How do we pursue less then in our overstuffed and busy lives? We have to be still long enough to allow those thoughts and emotions we are escaping to catch up with us and deal with them.  During this process of being still some of us may just remember to breathe deeply again.  And while we do that we may also consider exactly what our priorities are and what we must now say no to.  Afterall, who wants to get to their deathbed and think ‘what a bunch of useless and insignificant things I filled my life with.’  We may also have to talk ourselves through those feelings of being unproductive, of missing out, boredom and whatever else we are trying to outrun.  For some of us, this is going to feel like a detox. 

How do you slay busyness in your life?  In spite of my busy start to the holidays I think I have improved over the years.  I have stopped believing multi-tasking is good for me or even good at all.  I much prefer doing one thing at a time and enjoying it.  I still have ‘to do’ lists, though not as long nor so urgent.  I refuse to operate as a machine and prefer to do meaningful work; work that I have identified as important and important for this season of my life.   And I schedule time off.  There is nothing more therapeutic than hanging out in nature; going for a walk, a swim or just sitting and watching the world go by, taking in the smells, the sounds and the sights.   

And that is how I finished my holidays; a weekend by pool and overlooking the beach-kicking my addiction.