Una Mullally: Ban ‘busy’ in 2017 and get more out of life

The first thing everyone tends to do in January is to imagine themselves as people they are not. Resolutions, to-do lists, grand plans, aspirations and abstinence are January’s favourite sports. It’s a noble thing, but best laid plans and all that. There were plenty of oft-spoken and over-referenced words in 2016 such as fake news, populism and alt-right. But one word keeps overtaking most: busy.

I’m allergic to the cult of busy; the boring, competitive culture where everyone tries to get one up on each other regarding how many hours they are putting in and how run off their feet they are. If you really want to do something for yourself in 2017, then ban “busy”.

We exist in a working culture where burnout is often worn as a badge of honour. As if to run yourself into the ground is ever going to be beneficial to one’s productivity or one’s career.

What burnout reveals are poor working practices: allowing a job to infringe upon your life and to eradicate spare time, relaxation and fun from your week. It’s not an achievement. Yet it springs from a culture where we believe constantly working is somehow admirable.

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I cut out “busy” talk a few years ago. What’s funny is that before when people asked me if I was busy and I responded “yes”, or with the exaggerated sighs and knowing looks that “you know yourself” work conversations prompt, the conversation shut down.

What more can you say? People don’t want to hear about your daily timetable or what level of stress you are under. It’s tedious.

Stressed out

Everyone is ultimately suffering from various stresses to varying degrees. Detailing them is more boring than listening to people describe their dreams. Talking about being stressed out or crazy busy, or up the walls as a throwaway remark ends that part of the chat. It’s a declaration, rather than a discussion.

Now, I always find it hard to engage with people whose default response is saying they are “so busy”. Rather than hearing about how someone is up to ninety, I’d prefer to hear about what someone is actually doing. What do we know about our friends’ and family’s working lives on a day-to-day basis? That’s more interesting to learn about than to hear how many hours someone puts in.

What’s interesting is, when you respond to the “you must be really busy at the moment,” opening salvos with “not really,” it actually tends to illicit surprise. I think this is partly if one isn’t “busy” then they must doing something wrong. But I think being “busy” is the failure.

There is nothing commendable about wearing yourself out. Working constantly isn’t fun or cool or admirable. Having plenty of time off is a far more significant achievement and version of success to me than being the last person in an office.

Social media has certainly had an impact on the cult of busy. I find it odd when people talk online about how much they are working, detailing days spent doing various things. Do people want to be congratulated for putting in the hours?

I understand that plenty of people attach a significant part of their self-worth to “what they do”, but working every hour in the week is not going to make you a better, more interesting or more attractive person.

Self-congratulatory behaviour

If anything, it shows that the time you should be putting into yourself is absent, and that’s going to be a problem. But in a culture where so many people spend a lot of time projecting a version of themselves online, characterising oneself as “busy” is basically another strain of self-congratulatory behaviour. Saying how busy you are is often an attempt to project your indispensability or amplify your importance. But equating busyness with success is misguided.

The hardware of technology has also backed many of us into a corner professionally. We carry work around with us constantly, checking our work emails in bed for God’s sake. But how often when you refresh your mail last thing at night does something pressing or urgent pop up?

Work mentality

How often have you needed to respond to something at midnight or later when you are winding down or falling asleep that couldn’t wait until the morning? When we impose our daytime work mentality into our “off” hours, we are never fully disconnected. Then, everything becomes about work.

Being constantly “on” denies us one of the most important aspects of working: not working. The best thing you can do for your productivity or creativity is to take a break and to stop.

We need rest. We need to be refreshed. We need to approach things having not thought about them for a while so our perspective is fresh.

No machine or appliance can constantly keep going with its button switched to “on”. Basing work on things done rather than time spent makes you focus on your productivity rather than the hours you are putting in. What’s the point in working 12-hour days when you could achieve the same in seven?

So when you crack out the to-do lists and goals for this year, make time off a priority. It should always be number one. By banning “busy” in 2017, and by the very act of not doing, funnily enough, you will be surprised by the amount of things you get done.