Found very interesting reading in today’s “Times of India” in an article titled Are you “Too Busy To Notice You’re Too Busy?” by Alina Tugend.
Are you merely busy or CrazyBusy asks Dr. Edward M Hallowell, a psychiatrist and author of “CrazyBusy: Overstretched,Overbooked and About To Snap”? Being crazy busy is about keeping a frenetic pace that seems largely self-imposed, unnecessary- and unenjoyable.
Dr. Hallowell writes about how he crossed into the dark side from busy to crazy busy when he got mad at a rotary phone when staying in a vacation house. Unable to use a cell phone, he was driven nuts waiting for the dial to return to start. Then calming himself, he timed how long the dialling actually took place: 11 seconds. “What a fool I had become” he writes” I had become a man in a hurry even when I had no need to hurry”.
Some of the 26 reasons listed By Dr. Hallowell for becoming crazy busy include:
- It is so easy with cellphones and Blackberrys being a touch away
- It is a kind of high
- It is a status symbol
- We are afraid we will be left out if we slow down
- We avoid dealing with life’s really big issues by running from task to task
- We do not know how not to be busy
Dr. Hallowell is an authority on ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (AD/HD) a condition resulting in symptoms of inability to maintain attention, impulsive behaviors and/or motor restlessness.
Interestingly, the way we answer and receive emails is seen to be a cause for being crazy busy.
Mike Song, co-author of “The Hamster Revolution: How To Manage Your Email Before It Manages You” found in his survey of 8000 employees in major corporations over 3 years that most say they spend about 40 % of their workday on email activity. 75 % said their colleagues used the “reply all” function far too often. Yet only 15 % said they felt they themselves did so!
As Song says” Emails put other people’s priorities in your lives”. If we do not manage this – I call it – “necessary evil”, we could easily end up being crazy busy- sooner than later.
Filed under: Trends
