Busy Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves

Busy is one of the most socially acceptable lies in business.

Ask someone how things are going and the answer is almost automatic.

"Busy."

It sounds responsible. It sounds important. It sounds like progress.

Most of the time, it's none of those.

Busy is what happens when effort replaces clarity.

It's motion without direction. Activity without outcome. A calendar full of things that feel necessary but don't meaningfully move the business forward.

The danger of being busy isn't exhaustion.

It's self-deception.

Busy gives you cover. It gives you an excuse to avoid harder questions.

Why isn't this working?
Why does this feel harder every year?
Why are the results not matching the effort?

When you're busy, you don't have to answer those. You can point to the workload and assume progress will eventually catch up.

It rarely does.

Most business owners aren't overwhelmed because there's too much to do. They're overwhelmed because they're doing too many things that don't matter.

Meetings that exist because they always have.
Tasks that exist because someone once asked.
Processes that exist because no one ever removed them.

Busy businesses accumulate work the way cluttered rooms accumulate objects. One thing at a time, all justified in the moment.

Eventually, there's no space left.

Another reason busy feels productive is that it creates urgency. Urgency feels important. It triggers adrenaline. It gives the illusion of momentum.

But urgency is a terrible long-term operating system.

When everything is urgent, nothing is prioritized.

Busy businesses respond faster but think slower.

They solve today's problems at the expense of tomorrow's clarity.