Moving the Needle. Yorkey Mike

what point did our obsession with busyness become a badge of honor? We seem to be consumed with cramming more in a day, in an hour, and in a minute than ever before. We thought technology would help us manage our busyness, but in reality, the opposite has transpired. The more time-saving gadgets and applications we have, the more we try to do. It seems counterintuitive, but the more time-saving technology we have, the less time we have.

      Because of this – and many other things – we don't have any time to reflect or think about how we're living our lives. When we do take time to get quiet, we uncover the things in life that intrigue and inspire us, but more important, we learn to tune out some of the noise in our lives that doesn't matter. We learn to say yes to what is important and no to what is not.

      Whenever I think about how busy we can get, I recall an amusing story about one of my brother's friends named Tom, who worked in the warehouse for a distribution company. He was a slight fellow who reminded everyone of Woody Allen.

      Tom was eventually laid off from his job. My brother, Mark, would run into him from time to time and ask, “Hey, Tom, how are you doing?”

      Tom had gone to work for a competitor, and he would say, “Oh, man, Mark. Let me tell you…we are busy! Oh, how we are busy!”

      These exchanges went on for a year or so:

      “Tom, how are you doing?”“

      Oh, Mark, man, are we busy!”

      This went on until one time Tom said, “We're so busy that if we get any busier, they're going to have to move me to full time!”

      Tom was busy all right. He was like many who've built barriers in their minds of what they can and cannot do. In Tom's mind, his definition of being busy was working part time.

      Do you know people who can't stop talking about how busy they are? When you inquire why they're so busy, they usually respond with something like, “Well, I have to go to the store to pick up a few things, and then I have things to do around the house. Yes, it's going to be a very busy day,” which prompted me to come up with a great title for my next book: When You Have Nothing to Do, It's Hard to Get It All Done.

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      Schulte, Brigid. Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2014.