Inescapable, Insatiable, and International Busyness

At first, busyness is seductive. It’s the satisfaction we get from furiously shooting off email replies until our inbox is blessedly empty or the sense of accomplishment as we squeeze in extra commitments into our already overpacked schedules.

All of this keeps us craving more—until the busyness becomes too much. Things start slipping through the cracks. Productivity wanes. Performance falters. The God of Busyness is fickle.

This thankless cycle happens to everyone, everywhere, regardless of country or culture. In fact, I’ve witnessed the universal struggle with busyness firsthand from interactions with hardworking Italian B&B hosts to an active retiree from Texas.

As you may have noticed, my past few newsletters have featured excerpts of my new book, A Minute to Think. In celebration of the upcoming book launch this August, I plan to continue sharing these sneak peeks with you over the next two months. Here’s the latest excerpt, which looks at the pervasive pull of busyness. 

            Busyness is Everywhere—excerpted from A Minute to Think

Motrone, Italy, has 30 inhabitants—35 on the week we visited. You arrive there through the medieval town of Lucca, winding up a steep eight-kilometer road cut into the side of a wooded mountain. It is a two-way road that is the width of one car. When you meet another driver, one of you needs to ever-so-gingerly inch over into the foliage to let the other pass. The ice truck comes twice a day, and you better pray not to meet it.

There we met our B&B hosts Geoff and Jenny. Geoff was adopted by parents who then separated, with Dad heading to New Zealand and Mum staying with him in England. When he turned 11, Geoff left to go live with Dad, on a seven-week trip by ship. Standing on the deck and so alone, he felt the hot tears start, and one of the passengers firmly said to him, “Boy don’t cry. Eat this apple.” And he did—and grew up in that singular moment.

A fierce self-protective drive to have money in his pocket led him to many jobs. He learned to trap possums at two shillings per and was soon the only boy his age who could afford a chocolate milkshake at the corner store. (The girls soon realized he was also the only boy who could buy them one.) He worked in many industries but found his true calling when he fell in love with Italy on a visit and became a farmer in Motrone, where he and Jenny raise sheep, geese, and bees.

In this microscopic village without a single store or restaurant, Geoff and Jenny are blisteringly, screamingly busy from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In fact, when he drove me down the perilous hill to buy some prosciutto and cheese, he kept checking his phone (yes, while driving on that road) and muttering, “It’s a busy day. It’s a busy day. Whew! What a busy day!”

Busyness is everywhere.

Busyness is overseas and in our backyard. It’s felt by the young and old, working and not. In Houston after a speaking engagement, a radiant older woman approached me. Her perfume cloud was like being passed over by a Chanel crop duster, but her manner was instantly appealing. She said my message was a gift because she’d been trying to slow down for years. I asked what on earth keeps her so busy, and with a huge smile and a little ironic laugh, she said, “Oh, I’m retired!”

There is no “they” doing it to us anymore. From corporate executive to sheep farmer to retiree, our driving pace and pressure have become fully internalized. But as indoctrinated as most are to the white-water rush of busyness, a small yearning lurks within us. It’s a little whisper we can hardly hear that says an element is missing in our work and in our lives. That we just want a minute to think. A minute to breathe.

That missing element is white space, strategic pauses where you’ll discover your untapped potential just waiting to be unleashed. To learn more, pre-order A Minute to Think, and sign up for your bonus kit to get an early-release unproofed digital copy of the book and an exclusive invite to my book-launch event. (Claim even more free perks when you join my VIP Early Reader Club.)

Already had a chance to dive into the book? I want to hear from you. How has A Minute to Think inspired you to change your habits? Share your story on LinkedIn using the hashtag #MyMinutetoThink. And don’t forget to take The Busyness Test, and share it with your team to help conquer busyness in your organization and reclaim thoughtful time in the workplace.