The Busy Trap

Ask someone how they are doing and what do they say? 'Busy.' Always busy. So busy. Crazy busy. Busyness has become the default response, the automatic status update, the humblebrag that replaces actual conversation.

We turned being overwhelmed into a personality trait. If you are not stressed and exhausted, are you even trying? Rest became something to apologize for. Free time became suspicious. The person with the most packed calendar wins.

The Performance of Productivity

Much of this busyness is performative. We are busy being busy. Meetings about meetings. Emails to confirm emails. Tasks created to justify tasks. The appearance of work matters more than the output.

Social media amplifies this. Everyone is posting their 5 AM routines, their packed schedules, their daily grinds. The 'that girl' aesthetic requires constant motion. Sitting still is not content-worthy.

The Cost of Constant Motion

Here is what we are not posting: the burnout, the anxiety, the relationships neglected because we were too busy being busy. The hobbies abandoned because they did not 'optimize' our time. The joy of doing nothing, lost to the pressure of doing everything.

We are collectively exhausted and pretending we are fine because admitting you are not busy feels like admitting you are not valuable.

Permission to Be Unbusy

What if we stopped treating rest like a weakness? What if 'not much' was an acceptable answer to 'what have you been up to?' What if we measured success by how well we feel instead of how full our calendar is?

Try it. Next time someone asks how you are, do not say busy. Say 'relaxed' or 'taking it slow' and watch their confusion. That confusion says everything about how broken our relationship with time has become.