# Busy
- URL: https://www.petrikajander.com/busy/
- Author: Petri Kajander
- Date: 2004-11-09
- Language: en
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4A10QvKqOw

We claim to be so busy. What does it really mean, and is it  
actually possible?

Being busy means that we are occupied at the moment. Therefore, we are intensively carrying out the task at hand and focusing our undivided attention to accomplish this task. If we really are occupied and in a hurry, we need to concentrate and get rid of the tasks one at a time in order to move to the next one. A metaphor from the computer world would be a processor who is either idle or busy, never in between.

In ordinary language, our busyness (any relation to business?) means something else. We mean that we should do or achieve a lot of things in a certain time period. Most of the time, however, we are not actually occupied in a way that requires our undivided concentration and attention. Our busyness has nothing to do with achieving and accomplishing things. We simply mean that there is something in the future we would prefer to be doing than what we are doing at that particular moment. For instance, we have been occupied in a meeting and now we are headed to the next task. We get stuck in traffic, but we are not occupied by the traffic because our mind is urging us to jump ahead and skip this unproductive moment. Being in traffic is something we would rather not do—we would much rather be accomplishing the next task. This is how we are kept "busy." Similarly, when we are finally taking care of the next task, we are often not occupied here either, but thinking about yet another task on our list.

Busyness is our own creation. It has nothing to do with the real world and actual accomplishment and achievement. Busyness simply consumes our time and makes us worry about the future. We trade the current moment for something we have no influence and control over—the unknown future.

We ignore the now time and, above all, get stressed over something we can, at that moment, do nothing about. "Being busy" does not help speed up the traffic while we drive to another meeting or fast forward the current appointment if we would prefer to be at the next occasion. Paradoxically, when we are really accomplishing something that requires our attention, we cannot be busy—we have no time to think about "being busy"—we just carry out the task. Therefore, we should forget the whole concept of busyness and focus on just doing the things we have at hand.

Looking at our daily life from the outset, we are not really occupied. Most of our time goes to moving from one place to another or physically doing something—seldom is our full and undivided attention required to do something. We actually have plenty of time to enjoy the moment and observe the world around us. Stop being busy and occupy yourself for the actual moment—you might even learn something new. Busyness directs our attention to the future, which is just an illusion created by us—it's not real since we can only live in the moment. And you are not busy if you have time to think about being busy.