The hidden costs

Does busyness deliver on its promise, or is it more costly than we realize?

Thanks to my friend Kim for sharing Dr. Jason Fox's post, which inspired this writing.

I enjoy getting reading recommendations from all of you. To share, feel free to leave a comment below or visit my website. I want to hear from you.

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We are increasingly busy. The world seems to operate at a pace like never before. Resorting to productivity tactics appears like the only solution. Although, much like quicksand, the harder we try to solve busy, the deeper we sink.

Busy comes at a price; we might not realize we pay a premium. The price is hefty, and many pay it unknowingly. Seen as a badge of honour, being busy seems like a necessity for success; without it, we cannot succeed.

Here are some of those costs:

We sell out: A term I borrow from Dr. Fox. We resort to doing the bare minimum, finding the patterns that afford us more time and relish efficiency. We optimize at the cost of effectiveness.

We become strangers: We cancel plans, archive personal projects, skip the gym and forego family time. We lose touch with ourselves and the things we deeply value. We slowly forget who we are and want to be. Interestingly, the stranger we become to ourselves, the more familiar we are with society.

We lose our humanity: Empathy is a critical ingredient in healing shame and trauma, says Brené Brown. But, there’s just no time, we say. We're busy being busy. We eliminate empathy for the sake of efficiency. We see empathy as effortful, sloppy and unpredictable, so it doesn’t fit the optimized busyness model. Our workplaces are the first area this becomes apparent. Humanities are deprioritized for the sake of the facts, the tangibles, and the science because they are more predictable and easier to optimize.

We burn out: Regardless of how hard we try, it never seems enough; we struggle to find satisfaction. We double down, try harder, and slowly, the light of our candle diminishes until we no longer recognize ourselves.

We become irrelevant: Stuck in this cycle, there’s is no better way to become irrelevant—another cog in the machine. Consumed by the repetition of doing, self-reflection is rarely employed to question and clarify what is truly important and if more of the same will deliver on its promise.

The ecosystem of capitalism requires its participants to sacrifice more constantly—the race to the bottom as referred to by Seth Godin—for the system to keep functioning and remain stable. It is up to us to choose how much is enough.

It is good to ask what that extra dollar is worth. Is it worth the sacrifice? Will it afford something that genuinely changes the quality of life? Will it contribute beyond affording more material things? Will it add to our reason d'être?

In recognizing the price we pay, we get to ask, is the cost of busyness more than the value of its return?

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.