Busyness is not a Virtue

“Hey!! How are you doing?”

“Ah good. Just busy, ya know?”

I’ve heard that (and said that) more than a few times in my life. A couple years ago, I made a concerted effort to stopsaying it though. And I made an even more concerted effort to stop living it.

Why? Because busyness is not a virtue.

Everyone’s relationship with work and productivity is different. A defining moment in my life came during my Plebe year (Freshman year for the rest of you) at West Point. I had too much homework on top of my rowing ambitions and my ever-increasing need for sleep. So, I resolved in my spirit that I would not waste my time. I would be as efficient as possible. I took a class on how to type faster and take power naps (no joke). I rigorously scheduled my day. And I was almost always busy.

Fast forward 10+ years from that day and I realized that efficiency was killing me. Or, to say it better, it was killing my relationships.  I was missing incredibly valuable moments because I was addicted to being busy…accomplishing my to-do lists, following through on my plans, being “productive”.

It’s not a bad thing to have a full life. It’s not a bad thing (always) to have a full calendar. But the realization I came to was that love was an inherently inefficient process.

My kids don’t care about my to-do list. My wife doesn’t care about my “deep work block” when the kids are gone and she has an hour for a coffee break. My friends and family don’t care that my email inbox is at zero. Love is inefficient and can feel incredibly unproductive sometimes.

Sure, there’s plenty of room for nuance here. I’m not advocating for either laziness or legalism. But I believe there’s something deeper and richer that can fuel our life and leadership.

For a number of clients, colleagues, and congregants, busyness is often a tool used to mask something deeper going on (just as it was for me). Whether that mask is covering grief, sorrow, insecurity, fear…the circumstances may vary, but busyness is often a way of keeping us from feeling pain. It’s an incredibly effective tool.

But it also keeps us from feeling much of the joy available in life. As we think about what it looks like to live and lead from a deeper well, consider your own relationship with busyness in your day-to-day life.  

To make matters worse, technological innovations promising greater efficiency and more productivity have managed to expand “work” well outside the bounds of traditional work hours. I recently came across this article from Microsoft talking about the “infinite workday”. The main point is that “work” has gradually expanded to all of our waking hours, every day of the week. You can read it here.

If you’re driven and in some leadership position, the odds are good you’ve wrestled with this before.  It’s good to remember that, whether you like it or not, your team looks to you set the standard for their work ethic and job performance. As a leader, you are a culture maker, both by what you do and what you communicate.

One of the saving graces for me (quite literally) has come through this philosophy of “Follow to Lead.” If my effectiveness as a leader is tied to my abiding in Christ (not my busyness) and seeking him first in every facet of my life, then the fruit of the spirit becomes my metric. Busyness, efficiency, and productivity can be effectively replaced by love, joy, and peace.  I don’t need to use busyness to mask my insecurity and fear. I can go about my work with confidence as I do what the Lord sets before me and welcome the interruptions as a grace in the midst of my days.  

We can’t forget that leadership is, foremost, a relationship. And relationships always move at the speed of love.

Practices like Sabbath can keep you from putting work and efficiency at the center of your life. Daily rhythms like extended prayer, solitude, quiet, and scripture can help you slow down. Having firm boundaries around email and social media through screen time limits can keep you present in the moment to the people in your life.

Love, not busyness, is our chief virtue as followers of Jesus, regardless of what work we do.

Please know that, today, you’re not alone and we’re all figuring this out together. Cultural pressure and expectations can be hard. Our own leadership formation can make this even harder. But rest assured, there is peace, joy, and abundance in Jesus’ Kingdom. Not only can you live and lead at a different pace for your own benefit, but you can model that for your family, team, and organization too.

Make a great day,

Stephen

P.S. Walks are probably my favorite discipline to help me slow down. Give it a try!