As a corporate society, America praises the idea of busy culture without even realizing it.
Busy culture refers to the toxic instinct that we have to constantly be – or at least appear to be – busy. While there are plenty of days where busyness comes unwarranted, a lot of the plans we make or things we do are out of a desire to fill the need a lot of us have to be busy. That mindset is outdated and unnecessary, and fixing it begins with yourself.
Everyone has had that friend that seems to constantly be doing something. While they could just be an individual with several commitments, chances are that they are mindlessly filling each day with things to do in order to feel good about themselves. Some people even do this as a way to combat anxiety – if that works for you, great. However, being comfortable with being alone and free from distraction is when you are truly able to dissect your emotions and find yourself. The busy culture mindset tells us that being alone and still is unproductive and useless.
Busy culture not only keeps you away from time with yourself but also wedges gaps in relationships. It only makes sense that overly-busy people are unable to have several strong relationships in their life as they are either never around to do that or stretching themselves too thin in many surface-level relationships. Having a support system developed around strong relationships is one of the most invaluable assets in life and a busy culture is keeping many from having it.
Personally, I am comfortable being alone, but I am almost always consuming some form of media. I have combated the idea of busy culture taking over my life, but it still takes over my mind. I am completely uncomfortable when my mind is not busy – it has to be inhaling something. A lot of us, including myself, have some work to do.
Working against busy culture is harder than it appears to be. Whether it’s your inner critic or your critical friend, some voice will be telling you that you should be doing something at all times as that is what we have been trained to think. Summer is an especially hard time for those that buy into the mindset of busy culture as, without school, many are left with lots of free time that can get difficult to constantly fill.
Instead of filling that time with constant work or plans, I encourage you to do things with yourself and those that you love. Deepening your relationship with yourself and your support system is productive and useful. I doubt you would regret doing that. However, I would bet that you would regret being constantly busy to the point of extreme burnout and exhaustion.
In an attempt to fix this toxic mindset, some businesses have even incentivized being less busy. It sounds backward, but encouraging employees to not check their work email or do work outside of the workplace actually makes them more productive in the time that they are working.
One particular company, FullContact, jumped on board quickly. They paid their employees a $7,500 vacation bonus if they didn’t do work or check work messages while away on vacation. They reported successful results and explained that their employees came back “shining brighter, working harder and more excited to get back into the swing of things.”
Taking a break is OK. Staying home all day is OK. Leaving work at work, and school at school, is OK.
Until next time, I’ll be busy working against busy culture.
Layne Rey is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Let Layne know by tweeting her @laynerey12.
