It’s a common complaint of our era—we’re busy, busy, busy. With all the time saving devices over the last few decades we are busier than ever. We are enslaved to our busyness and unaware that we are. Our busyness can own us and become our unconscious default setting. We’re so busy we don’t do the things we really care about. We say we don’t have enough time for…
Being busy has become a badge of honor and explanation of choice for all sorts of things.
Many say they can’t slow down no matter how hard they try. Busyness has become an addiction. We get annoyed if we have to wait more than just a few minutes at the grocery store checkout stand. Being too busy can also make us defensive. After all, aren’t we working so hard and fast to be shown worthy, essential, and important?
We fill our calendars because we believe we are the only ones capable of doing what needs to be done at work, home or elsewhere. When we burn the candle at both ends, refusing to respect our physical, emotional, and mental limitations we bring on much of our stress and anxiety.
Some people are always on and they like it that way. They barely have time to tell you they do not have time to talk. Alina Tugend wrote an essay in the New York Times entitled “Too Busy to Notice You’re Too Busy.” Tugend’s article was written in 2007. Nowadays for the reasons she highlighted in her article millions call less often and prefer texts, tweets and Instagram. What are some of the causes of our unbridled busyness?
We Live in a Should Culture
Forbes.com recently ran a series of articles proposing “16 Things You Should Do at the Start of Every Work Day,” “16 Things You Should Do at Lunch Every Day,” and “16 Things You Should Do at the End of Every Work Day. What about the 16 things you should do before bed? Our culture says we should:
Maintain our home, work out 3 days a week 20-30 minutes, eat healthy, floss, read good books, watch, listen, attend, give, nurture, play, get organized and don’t forget to make time for_______, etc. Time can’t be made, only spent wisely. Our American rugged individualism suggests that we “should” be able to have it all and do it all by ourselves.
Consumerism
Deep down we know our culture is lying to us when it tells us can have it all and that more stuff will make us happier. Consumerism confuses us with its messages about what “enough” is. Even if we resist the urge to buy certain seducing products somehow our perception is that having more is better or having that certain thing will somehow do it for us.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking…Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level. Romans 12:1-2 The Message
Stimulation Overload
The “more is better” philosophy behind consumerism is not limited to gaining possessions. Today we expect greater efficiency and more free time. We have too much on our mental plates day-in and day-out. The daily ceaseless flow of information and constant interruptions puts immense stress on our brains, making us constantly “on.” For many they’re constantly thinking about what they’ve done or what they’re about to do.
Digital stimulation can make us feel temporarily energized and productive, but it doesn’t last. In an article called Origins of Overload, Christine Spicer says, “So we check our phones that haven’t chimed or vibrated, just in case there might be a message waiting to perk us up. Technical stimulation excites us and entices us and we can’t function without it. We struggle to put our phones aside when we are at the dinner table or on a walk or at a red light. We know we need turn it off but the urge to be stimulated is very strong.”
Our brains scan Facebook posts and tweets about which we will do nothing and about which we may feel nothing.
The bottom line is that we’re busy with the wrong things.
Inevitably, all of us have times and seasons when we cannot avoid being busy for good reasons. The more important question is what we are busy with and why? Join us next time as we learn practical insight from the One who had the right kind of busy.
