How Can We Idle Productively?

We listen to a lot of people tell us how busy they are. “Busy!” “So busy!” “Crazy busy.” Somehow, the response is often a boast disguised as a complaint. In return, we congratulate them on the assumption that they are spending their time wisely. It is not the case that any of us wants to live in such a manner. It is something we collectively force one another to do. How often are our lamented busyness self-imposed? That is to say, work, classes and obligations we’ve taken on voluntarily?

Are we busy feeding our drive or feeding the anxiety to be addicted to busyness and dread what we might have to face in its absence?

Often, we feel guilty when we’re neither working or working out. So we schedule time to be busy working or working out, and we unknowingly do what is commonly known as planshopping for other priorities in life. When our friends or colleagues ask us out, we seek to find out the fullest potential of the event. As a result, we defer committing to any one plan for an evening until we know what all our options are, and then we begin to pick the ones that is most likely to bring us the best benefit.

In other words, we treat people like menu options or products in a catalog.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life. It is something we have chosen. It is our reluctant acceptance of the present situation without protest. Some of us may not know that we’re doing it, but we’re using busyness to serve as a kind of existential reassurance. It is a hedge against emptiness. Our emptiness.

Can we truly appreciate what is going on if we’re completely booked in demand every hour of the day?

I am for the idea that sometimes we need to have days where we feel like we don’t deserve to live life like this. I believe there is a need for us to idle once in awhile. It is not an indulgence or a vice. It is a necessary component to recharge and reevaluate the cause of our busyness, as compared to feeling the brief moment of being seen as important, sought-after after telling people that we’re too busy. Idleness provides the space and quietness to stand back from life and see it as a whole. This is the time when we can actually connect the dots.

It is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.

It is like being the designated driver at a bar. When we’re not drinking, we can see the drunkenness more clearly than those actually experiencing it. Sadly, the advice we can offer to the Busy is as unwelcome as the advice we would give the Drunk. Stop doing work. Stop drinking. When our friends or colleagues ask us out, don’t planshop. We either make it or we reschedule it. The outing will be awesome, regardless of all other choices, because the people we love are gonna be there. Instead of asking, “What are we doing?”, try asking “What time?”