The Addiction to Being Busy

By: Tariana Williams

I recently learned how to set up my Google Calendar so that it has an image in the background, something cute to ease my mind as I look at the fact that I have scheduled time to eat dinner, do crafts, and even rest. 

This is the direct effect of busy culture. Social media is constantly flooded with the “busy girl” aesthetic, the day in the lives of the people who have three screens open and are constantly on the move. It’s great to stay busy, but here I ask two questions:

• Why are you so busy?

• Who are you when you are not busy?

Busyness serves as a symbol of both addiction and identity. In an effort to analyze the impact of busyness and the sense of self, it’s imperative to look into the psychology of busyness and break down the cultural narrative tied to the idea of busy culture. 

Why It Feels So Good

In feeling busy, we get the dopamine of checking things off. Really, though, our brains are not made for the novelty of constant dopamine hits. Instead, we are attempting to train our brains to recognize it, crave it. However, this has adverse effects, creating an addiction-like relationship to our busyness (and behavioral dependency—who are we without busyness?), decreased motivation, and emotional stability. 

It’s ironic, then, that busyness is supposed to feel so good and give us a feeling of control when it actually causes instability. 

The Results?

Burnout, best defined by Dr. Marny Lishman, is a psychological syndrome emerging from a prolonged response to chronic stressors in the context of a person’s life. The constant pressure to stay busy in a fast paced world also expedites the process of burnout. 

Further, the packed Google Calendar discourages rest. Rather than prioritizing rest away from responsibility, the best rest one gets is the 3 hour nap block. Lack of rest leads to chronic health conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure, while also impacting our memory, creativity, and ability to process our trauma. The constant pressure to stay busy is eroding our mental and physical health. 

Setting Expectations As a Culture, Not as Individuals

So what is it that makes us feel like we need to be as busy as we are, and why does it feel like it’s not as fulfilling? It’s important to ask, who benefits from constant busyness? Who defines what is and is not busy and fulfilling, and why is “doing nothing” framed as a failure? Who is setting these expectations?

In reality, it is seemingly never you. 

1. Capitalism

Feelings of  busyness have replaced leisure as a primary indicator of social status. In a 2005 article analyzing the exploitation of the working class–how despite the rise in leisure time, people continue to feel more busy–sociologist Jonathon Gershuny argued that social status was no longer signaled by people having time to leisure; rather, busyness is a “badge of honor.” In turn, busy culture not only prioritizes constant labor, but also creates a paradox where people feel more pressured despite having more aggregate leisure time. 

2. Academia

In academia, the pressure to stay on top of everything and say yes to every opportunity leaves less room for you.

Being busy does not equal being productive. But it feels otherwise when you constantly check off the loads of homework assignments due on Sunday or continue to push out college applications. It feels otherwise when the to-do list gets smaller and smaller, the notifications of things due dwindles to nothing. 

It’s important to separate intentional busyness compared to compulsive productivity, separating the external validation from our teachers and peers from completing intentional tasks that actually benefit you. 

3. Social media

Being busy and productive turns itself into a status symbol, not only in the work place, but in social media. We see the hustle culture. The busy woman effect. Your Instagram feed will show people studying in the week hours as the 5am day in my life TikTok has accomplished more by 10am then you finish in a day. 

Social media depicts what the average user views as success, so if this is the feed you have curated for yourself, you will also feel like you are never getting things done (or you are not doing enough). We now feel like rest is earned, something that we have to carve out time for or receive after a productive day.

But being busy doesn’t mean you are getting things done. 

4. Wellness Culture, Ironically 

Ironically, this is further encouraged by wellness culture. The truth about being busy is that we would rather fill our time with any kind of activity than stepping away from our tasks and being alone with our thoughts. Our society encourages this, as having too much free time is considered a sign of failure or being lazy. 

We crave certainty in an unstable, uncertain world. But being constantly busy is taking us away from knowing ourselves. 

Healthy Busy

The goal isn’t to abandon the color coded Google Calendar or ambition; rather, to decouple worth from exhaustion. It’s amazing to have a day where you feel like you got a lot done, but the trick is finding what is meaningful and productive and not just a distracting task. How can we distinguish, then, what is a meaningful task?

1. The “Busy Matrix”

Neuroscientist, writer, and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff recommends the “busy matrix,” where she creates a quadrant chart measuring meaningfulness and relevance. 

“Relevance is based on how aligned the tasks and activities are with your current professional and personal commitments. Meaningfulness is based on how alive these tasks make you feel.”

This “busy matrix” breaks up your tasks in looking at fulfillment versus compulsion. Should you consider this method, place your tasks amongst the chart. In looking at your tasks, ask yourself:

• Irrelevant/Meaningful: Is there time for this now?

• Irrelevant/Meaningless: Do these have to get done?

• Relevant/Meaningful: Are you in the state of mind/energy to do this now?

• Relevant/Meaningless: Can you get rid of these, at least until it's meaningful?

• Changing perspective

Checking in and asking yourself whether or not this is a meaningful, needed task will allow you to change your perspective from action to intentional action. Instead of doing things to mask insecurities and take away from taking care of your mind, prioritize meaningful tasks, make peace with inaction, and most importantly…

3. Learn to say no

You do not need to say yes to every opportunity because not every opportunity is meant for you. Just because that door is unlocked does not mean you have to open it right now. Set boundaries with the things you do and do not have time for, prioritize intent and meaning in your tasks and all that you do, and you will (hopefully) not be on the fast track to burn out. Take care of yourself, first. 

This paper was supported by:

Foeken, E. (2025). Who enjoys being busy? On busyness as a gendered norm and technology of the self. Journal of Sociology. 

Fuller, Jess, and Anika Baset. “Disarming Busy Culture.” Centre for Public Impact, 12 Apr. 2025, centreforpublicimpact.org/resource-hub/disarming-busy-culture/. 

Gershuny, Jonathan. “Busyness as the Badge of Honor for the New Superordinate Working Class.” Social Research, vol. 72, no. 2, 2005, pp. 287–314. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971766 

Lane, Dixie. “Why Do We Valorize Busyness?” Public Discourse, 23 Feb. 2024, www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2024/02/92777/. 

Le Cunff, Anne-Laure. “Ness Labs: Addicted to Busyness 🕒.” Ness Labs: Addicted to Busyness 🕒, 11 Apr. 2024, newsletter.nesslabs.com/posts/ness-labs-addicted-to-busyness.