Analysis Of Stop Buying Into The Busyness By Stewart Topor

In “Stop buying into the ‘busyness’ narrative, and start using the time you have,” by Stewart Topor, the author articulates how the emphasis people place on their busy lives has only fed into ideals within society that connote a heavy workload to success, and that in fact claims of being busy have not been concretely substantiated. Topor then states the importance of recognizing “busyness” to be an obstacle in our lives, and the importance of acknowledging the amount of time we have to “lead more enjoyable lives, with less stress and greater focus.” Through his use of relevant, connecting anecdotes to keep his audience attentive, use of thorough data and credible sources to provide concrete evidence, and use of reasoning through human nature and characteristics to connect the evidence presented, Stewart Topor is able to build a powerful, persuasive argument.

Through his use of relevant, attention-grabbing anecdotes, Topor is able to introduce an argument which he can build upon in the later paragraphs.

In the introduction, Topor begins his argument by stating, “We’ve all heard the news, Americans are busier than ever, perhaps the busiest people in human history.” Through this statement, Topor is immediately able to grasp the attention of the audience he may direct his argument towards, as many “busybodies” within the audience may come to agree with his statement. By going on to say, “We’re over-scheduled, over-booked, and overworked…Ask how a friend how they’re doing lately, and the typical answer is ‘Busy.’,” Topor is able to advance his argument by allowing his audience to agree with him even further. Through this technique, Topor is able to, in a way, infiltrate the opposition his audience may hold to his argument. By building this connection with his audience, Topor is then able to ease into his argument with the use of logical

evidence.
By using evidence in the form of concrete data and credible authors’ statements, Topor is able to furthering his argument by providing a logical approach to the opposition his audience might hold. In his argument, Topor uses evidence from sources such as the University of Oxford’s Centre for Time Research, the US Bureau of Statistics, along with scholars and authors such as John Robinson and Laura Vanderkam. All the sources detail how the hyperboles many of Topor’s audience state in regards to their heavy workload may not accurately represent their true workload. In his argument Topor states, “…Robinson states that, while people report extreme busyness, the numbers don’t really add up. Despite the widely accepted narrative that we’re busier than ever before, the average number of work hours per week has not actually gone up significantly…This conclusion has been supported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics…And the people who claim to work the most exaggerate the most…writes time-use expert Laura Vanderkam…” By presenting his audience with authentic evidence, such as this, that details the exact opposite of what his audience may believe, Topor is able to persuade his audience ever further, as without the data presented, Topor’s audience may not have observed a significant error in their use of hyperboles. By prodding at the opposition through his use of concrete, logical data, Topor is then able to present another logical approach or reasoning to this evidence, while still furthering his claim, by providing some reasoning.
Through his use of reasoning through human nature and characteristics, Topor is able to connect the evidence presented in the former part of his argument as well as being able to further his persuasive argument. After presenting data that provides revelations opposite to what his audience may have expected, Topor then explores different reasons behind the data. In his argument Topor explains, “Perhaps this is due to negative cognitive bias: people are more likely to remember the bad days over the good…Another factor is the desire people have to seem busy, with its connotations of being hard-working, ambitious, high-impact, and perhaps irreplaceable...” Through this alternative, Topor is able to present evidence to his audience that they may generally not have thought about themselves, as those who perform this way may not generally observe these tendencies within themselves. These revelations only allow Topor to penetrate his opposition as the reasoning and evidence Topor presents can continue to present doubts in the minds of his audience. Topor ends his persuasive argument by directing his attention to a potential method his audience can use the evidence presented later.
In his concluding paragraphs, Topor switches from revealing the faults in his audience’s actions to how the audience can use the information presented in their own lives. By presenting evidence that reveals humans are not as busy as they believe, Topor urges his audience to observe the evidence as, “These findings suggest that as much as anything else, “busyness” is a state of mind…focus on all the time you do have-and figure out how you can better use those hours…” This allows Topor to build a persuasive argument that persuades his audience and further the connection he initially developed with his audience by providing a potential solution to the problem he presented in his overall argument.