The addiction to crazy-busy is not a badge of honour

The society often calls busy people ambitious, workaholics, only to push them further, until their bodies and minds give up

How many times in a day do you use the word busy? Let me help you here, it’s probably more than the number of times you touch your face (or were used to touching until the pandemic hit and you learnt not to), and that’s a big number. Run a small self-test: how often do you respond to e-mails saying you were ‘busy, so it took you time to write back’ or how frequently do you respond to WhatsApp messages with ‘busy, brb’ or the calls you swiftly hang up saying, ‘busy, can I call back?’ You get the drift, that’s many times in a day, across platforms and conversations. Wait, it gets better, many of us answer the question — how are you/how have you been? — with ‘busy’. To begin with, let’s get one thing straight, busy is not a feeling. So, when you are asked how you are, you could mention you are tired, stressed, or anxious (as you are busy), and not use the b-word.

A cursory glance on social media timelines, WhatsApp groups, and conversations exchanged with colleagues, families, friends, etc. is enough to feel the pressure on how everyone has too much on their plates and how we are drowning in obligations, commitments, deadlines, et al. Sadly, the world we have built up only adds to the glorification of being busy. The society is so unreasonable that we look down upon people, who sit in their balconies and have a cup of coffee without scrolling through Twitter feeds or listening to an audiobook. We even label them as being unproductive or having an easy life, as if that is a bad situation to be in. Busy is not a badge of honour, and if you are burning out (working 24/7), then you should certainly not take pride in your busy routines. The society, which is us, ends up calling these people ambitious, workaholics and super-humans, only to push them further, until their bodies and minds give up. Only then, do we learn to get unbusy!

As the year draws to an end (thankfully, and hopefully, we will be able to put some things behind us soon), it’s a good time to ponder on how whilst 2020 was to teach us to how to slow down, it also put us in a situation where we ended up being busy out of lack of choice. We managed chores, stayed Zoom-ready, popped Vitamin C pills, looked after those who fell sick as we protected ourselves...our 24 hours got filled up with this and that, and hence some of us ended up being busier than ever. Yes, our busyness is a result of choices we make and situations we have no control over. But it is always in our hands to find the balance, and help one another when we tumble. Have each other’s back in 2021.

The next time someone tells you they are busy, acknowledge their productivity levels but ask them to slow down. If you are a singer, you need to give your vocal cords some rest. If you are an athlete, your muscles need some rest. And if you are superhuman, you simply need to take it easy and just slow down for a bit. ‘Un-busy’ yourselves.

—purva@khaleejtimes.com