Have you ever been in a conversation and had someone say to you, “I’m just so busy this week,” but instead of it sounding like a bad thing, it comes across more like a brag?
I’m willing to bet that not only have you heard this, you’ve also done this to someone else. It’s a common occurrence: fake-complaining about being busy, but really we’re letting everyone know that we just have so much to do because we’re so important. I know I’m guilty of this. But why do we do this? Why do we equate busyness with importance and consider it superior if we have a packed calendar?
The Harvard Business Review did a study on why Americans see busyness as a sign of importance, and had some interesting findings. Their theory is that Americans live in a socially mobile country, which means that individual effort can raise one’s status. So, the busier you are, the more work you’re doing, and therefore the higher up on the social ladder you must be. Additionally, in a capitalist society, we’re raised with the belief that if you work hard, you’ll be in high demand with employers, so by talking about how busy we are, we’re implying that we’re highly sought after and therefore valuable.
So, there are a lot of cultural and societal reasons why we associate busyness with higher worth. Taking a step back and recognizing that this idea of busyness being the same thing as importance is a cultural phenomenon (and a relatively recent one—until the 1960s, having leisure time was the symbol of being wealthy and important) can help us see that maybe this maxim we hold as 21st century Americans may not be true. But let’s dive in more: How does being busy affect creativity? Should we strive to constantly be doing?
The short answer, as you may have guessed from the article title, is no.
For one thing, research has shown repeatedly that switching between different tasks (aka multi-tasking) decreases your productivity instead of increasing it. So while it may feel like you’re getting a lot done as you check email and work on writing and keep an eye on the baby, you’re actual being less effective at all these things and increasing the amount of time it takes to complete them by up to 25%. Constantly doing things means we’re regularly distracted from the things that actually matter and we’re giving our limited amounts of attention to things that only seem urgent, but aren’t actually that important.
Not only can being busy decrease our productivity, it is also detrimental to creativity. You’ve probably noticed this in your own creative life: When your head is full of to-do lists and tasks to check off, it seems like there’s no room left to come up with new ideas or figure out unique solutions. This isn’t just anecdotal; a study in Israel found this to be true. Researchers gave participants varying “mental loads” by assigning them anywhere from two- to seven-digit numbers to remember. Then participants were told a word (such as “white) and asked to respond with an association. Those with a higher mental load trying to remember the seven-digit number came up with more typical responses (responding “black” to white) while those who only had to remember two numbers had more varied and unique answers (like “cloud”).
Recent neuroscience studies support the idea that being busy can kill creativity. There are several regions of our brain that become more active when we’re not focusing on anything in particular. This “circuit” in our brain is called the default mode network, or DMN. Have you ever had a brilliant epiphany while doing something mundane like showering or washing dishes? You can thank the DMN—while your brain is not solely focused on completing a task or taking in new information, the DMN kicks in and is able to synthesize a wider array of information into a solution compared to when you are actively trying to focus on the problem.
The DMN is what allows our brains to recontextualize information we’ve taken in and free associate one concept with another. It is, actually, what we would call daydreaming—making seemingly random connections that can actually lead to ideas we would have never come up with otherwise.
Since the DMN only starts being active when you’re in a resting state, being consistently busy puts a damper on your creativity. When you don’t give your mind a chance to reset and wander aimlessly, you’re inhibiting your brain’s ability to think of unique solutions and new ideas. Our society may be telling us that being busy is important, but in reality taking a break is actually more important to being creative.
Rather than fall into the trap of believing that more is more, take a step back and evaluate how you’re spending your time. What things are you doing because you literally have to (like school or work), what things are you doing because you care about them (spending time with family, hobbies, creative passions, volunteering), and what are you doing that doesn’t add value to your life, but maybe someone happened to ask you and you said yes, or you otherwise feel somehow obligated to do it? Take a look at this last category, and begin to make a plan on how to cut these things out of your life. You don’t need to do things just for the sake of doing; it’s far better for your mental health and creativity to give yourself a chance to rest.
Even when you are busy with things you care about, try incorporating breaks for your brain throughout the day. Go for a walk, meditate, exercise, color, or even just do household chores without a podcast or source of information on in the background. Let your mind wander—you might be surprised what it finds!
How do you take a break? Do you find time to take breaks during the day? Let me know in the comments!
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Featured image by Karen Lau
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