Not Busy

A woman in a  business suit walking briskly and checking emails on her phone while crossing the busy intersection, a young mother frantically maneuvering  a double stroller with her two children at the curb while talking loudly on a phone, and a well-dressed man with an expensive garment carrier running to catch the only available yellow cab; it’s 8:30 am on a Monday and welcome to the land of busy.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about “busyness” and “busy” people.  I talked about the “busy” culture and how everyone is somehow always busy. Fast forward a few years and  it is even worse now.  I have to admit, there are times when I feel that I should be “busier”, catching up to the hamster wheel of time that keeps turning.  I've had momentary guilt when I get texts from friends saying how busy they are when I don’t feel as “busy”.

New York City is the superstar of busy culture; everyone is caught between work, going to work, coming from work, dance classes, piano lessons, painting classes, watching games, going to concerts, dinner, or events; a sea of people caught in an invisible trap.  Mothers are some of the busiest people in the city, shuttling children back and forth between sports and music classes, some of them after coming back from a long and hectic day at work.

There are some people who cannot help but be busy because their lives demand it. For example, a single mother working two jobs to support and take care of her children or a man who has to take care of his elderly parents while working. Then, there are others, who choose to be busy.

There are a few reasons why we are continuously living in the culture of busyness.  Humans are naturally inclined to copy others in terms of how we spend our time and money.  If you want to emulate others, you have to catch up with them and in some cases, show off. If a friend’s child is taking a piano class from a master instructor, another mother may feel that she is depriving her child of that special instruction, if she doesn’t provide the same for her child. Even though she might be pressed for time, she would somehow find a way to fit that into her already busy schedule of running errands on a weekend or cooking.  Single people living in the city are also victims of this.  A friend who enrolls in a Bikram yoga class on a Wednesday evening will persuade another friend to take that class. The already swamped friend influenced by her friend might take that class even though she already works  more than 60 hours per week at her job. What used to be luxuries in the past have now started to become necessities.

Consider the life of an average person living in New York City.  That person probably spends about an hour to two hours a day commuting to and from work.  That equates to about 10 hours a week spent on commuting alone.  Most of my friends work more than 40 hours a week at their jobs. Let’s say that the average person works 45 hours a week and commutes for about 10 hours – that translates to 55 hours spent going to and coming back from work. If you are a banker, doctor, or a lawyer, you can add at least (note, I said “at least”) another 20 hours to that. That translates to 75 hours a week. This doesn’t include time spent answering work related emails and other business related tasks. 

Efficiency is not talked about much at work or in school. The 9-5 workday (in most cases, is much more) is part of the reason why efficiency is in peril.  A person who can complete his or her work in half the time will either wait for others to complete their work or may take on additional tasks during the day.  However, if there were no set work hours, the efficient person could get a lot more done in a shorter period of time.  That person might not “feel” as busy since he or she has more time to get involved in other activities. 

Ideally, time management should be a required course in every college or high school.  People who manage time well and efficiently can still find time to do things they enjoy.  Workdays can become more flexible to let people with families and other commitments juggle their time better.  Also, people can start saying no to commitments that can make them “busy” without feeling guilty.  It will create a world that is a bit slower, giving people time to reflect and actually breathe. Maybe that woman in  a business suit can listen to music while walking to work or that young mother can actually take a nice stroll with her children in the stroller.