Blog post #15: Too many busy bees
It’s Saturday afternoon at 3pm—I’m just getting around to lunch—where did the day go, I wonder? I didn’t take a nap and I don’t recall sitting on the couch for hours doing nothing—yet the only major things I recall doing was a work-out and grocery shopping at Trader Joes. How could I be so unproductive, I scolded myself—with half of the day gone by now—my only noteworthy accomplishment was 2 small tasks?! I’ve always equated busy to be a sign that you’re being productive but apparently on this day, I was seemingly busy—yet hadn’t done much of anything.
The Busy trap—In the NYT Op ed, writer Tim Kreider describes how people in the modern age seem to be addicted to busy—somehow we’ve even tied our self-worth to how busy we are—and this mentality is resulting in us not being able to just sit still and smell the roses, if you will. As I recounted my day in more detail, I realized I checked my personal email no less than 5 times, a few more times on my work email, I was texting back and forth with several groups of friends, and I was online wine shopping. Then I thought about during normal times—I always rushed to fill my social calendar, making sure I had multiple events and activities every week—sure I loved seeing my friends—but could there be something else at play here in terms of me always wanting to keep myself occupied? Kreider so profoundly says, “Busyness serves as 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.” Holy s**t, I thought—could this be me, or at least partially me—am I just going around filling up my calendar to “hedge” against the notion that I may not matter to the universe.
Idle dreaming. Novelist Thomas Pynchon said, “idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do.” At first thought—no way that staying idle should be a thing! Second thought—why am I actually so resistant to it. The other day, I sat on my couch and recounted several things I was grateful for and it felt amazing afterwards. Then last weekend, I woke up much later than my usual time—and even stayed in bed while awake daydreaming about probably a million and one things—and it felt pretty good actually—one of the things that popped into my mind during this time was me trying my hand at bread making—and just as luck would have it, I did make a loaf of bread for the first time yesterday. (Admittedly, it still needs some fine tuning but perhaps not bad for a first timer). Therefore, my challenge for the next week—I’m not going to arrange any virtual happy hours for the week. Some extra idle dreaming could be a good way to declutter my mind—which would be welcome news—as I need some inspiration for my next blog post.
But what about when I do need to stay busy, you say? Well, for those times—there is still a good way to go about it and a poor way to go about it. Busy doesn’t necessarily equal productive so be careful of being caught in the trap of busy but not accomplishing anything.
Less is more. In 1974, researchers Paul Slovic and Bernard Corrigan conducted an experiment on the impact of information on decision making. The subjects were 8 professional horse gamblers who were asked to predict the result of horse races. They were presented with 88 variables of the horses’ past performance and asked to pick 5 variables to guide their estimates. Subsequently, they were then asked to pick 10 variables and then 20, then 40. As they got more information, their predictions clearly should have gotten better right? Actually Wrong! Their accuracy was about the same regardless of the number of variables. In today’s information age, it is so easy and maybe even encouraged for you to chase down the complete and comprehensive answer to whatever question. I was recently trying to put together a proposal for work spending several hours looking at the issue from all angles—when really what my manager wanted was a quick response and a simplistic approach. Oftentimes in life or at work, less is more—and we’ve just learned your accuracy often times does not go up with more information. So give yourself some busy-ness time back and your sanity will thank you too.
Pitching for perfect. A few months ago, I was in the market for an aromatherapy diffuser—I started reading reviews of several different makes. One model makes too much noise—says a reviewer—and another model apparently had a faulty filter that trapped dust and particles. The more reviews I read, the more factors I had to take into consideration to find the perfect one—and all in the context of the right balance of high quality at a reasonable price of course. Well, an hour-plus later, I eventually picked the original one I read about. (Ironically, aromatherapy is supposed to be relaxing but the experience was more stress than relaxation). Salvatore Dali once said, “don’t fear perfection, because you’ll never find it.” Well my search for the perfect diffuser kept me “busy” for way more than necessary—my past few months of using it has been quite therapeutic as promised. And Is it perfect? Of course not!
As I thought about what else to write about “busy-ness”—I also decided I should take my own advice—less is more—Instead, I will use this time to daydream about something now.
