Member-only story
Busy busy busy.
That’s the American way — and especially around the holidays. (But, let’s be honest: it’s the American way a lot of other times too.) I’ve written about this stuff a lot. Here’s a few samples:
- Please stop telling me how busy you are
- Only about 9 percent of Americans can balance “busy” and “happy”
- Being busy is a drug for most people
- You might not be nearly as busy as you think
- Busy is not the same thing as productive
Sorry for five links, but you know — I’ve been busy busy busy writing about being, well, busy busy busy. Of those links, the most important is probably the last one. It absolutely buries work at most places. Being busy usually means checking boxes. There’s often no tie to ROI, no tie to company goals/priorities, and maybe not even a tie to what your manager assigned you. But you’re busy — and you’ll tell everyone in an 11-mile radius how busy you are. We all know these people and, quite frankly, we’ve probably all been this person too. Busy busy busy.
Now we’ve got some new research on why Americans love us some busy, busy, busy people. What can we learn?
