Busy little bitches

Man, am I guilty of this.  I probably wrecked at least one lifelong friendship over the past year because of what a busy little bitch I’ve become.  Every returned text and email reply I’ve sent to this guy is like “crazy busy, bro!”  I have no idea how he hasn’t told me to go eff my self by now.

What am I so “crazy busy” with all the time?  Much of it is self-imposed, turns out.  There is my career and there is my family and then there is a ton of stuff I say yes to because it looks and feels and tastes like it’s career-benefiting, but it turns out to be a waste, and that’s why I’ve had no time for my friends and relationships away from work.  And that sucks.

So I can totally relate to this opinion piece Tim Kreider wrote for the New York Times today, everyone is *gulp* busy talking about it:

If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”

Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs  who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.

I’ve elevated checking my iPhone every 5 seconds to an art form at this point, scrolling that thing is the new cigarette fixation for many of us.  I’m totally totally guilty of all this stuff, glad I read this piece, at least I’ll be more aware of it.

Go read the rest – if you’re not too busy 😉

Source:

The ‘Busy’ Trap (NYT)