Shouldn't We Be Less Busy?

I ask a lot of people how they’re doing—how they’ve been, what they’re up to, how they’re feeling. Predictably, I get a lot of different answers. They’re good. They’re fine. They’re better or worse than they were. But the answer I get the most has to do with being busy: they are busy, they’ve been busy, or just busy, period.

I’m hardly alone in getting this answer. Everywhere we look, everyone’s got a lot to do and not enough time to do it. The American Dream is no longer a couple of kids and a white picket fence. It’s to be busy. It’s so ingrained in us to be busy that we no longer question whether it makes sense.?

And in fact, being this busy doesn’t make sense at all. We’ve spent the past 50 years buying, developing, and investing in technology that was supposed to save us one thing and one thing only: time.?

Texting: that’ll keep you from having to make that pesky call. Instagram: now you won’t have to go to all the bother of printing out all those photos. Carry a bunch of CDs around? Tsk. Spotify, idiot! Disorganized? Do I have good news for you! There’s a calendar option right there on your phone. And Google makes one, too. And if that’s not enough, there’s Monday.com and there’s Asana and do you know about Slack? That should help!?

It doesn’t help. None of them help. If they did, people wouldn’t be so busy. And they wouldn’t be so tired. Because it’s not just that people are busy. They’re also exhausted. You can feel it in your bones because you can feel it in their bones, by way of their eyes. They look like they’re being held hostage. And they are, in a way.?

All these gadgets and gizmos we acquire: they’re sold as tools. And that’s not wrong—they are tools. But they’re products, too. This isn’t inherently a problem. When I go to Lowe’s to buy a drill bit, I’m buying a tool that’s also a product. The difference is that the drill bit doesn’t try to take over my life. A drill bit knows to stay in its lane. Or its yellow, DeWalt-branded case.?

Not so with all the rest of these “tools” we buy, download, or sign up for, all of which want more of our time, more of our energy, more of our lives. Which, I think, speaks to an insecurity by their makers. Drill bits have their place and the people at DeWalt know it. Not so with all the rest of this nonsense. Someone knows their utility is limited and that’s exactly why they have to steal so much of our time reminding us, alerting us, notifying us—giving us more and more to do. Keeping us so busy.?

And leaving us very little time to ask why we’re doing this to ourselves.?