Being Busy Than Being Bored Research Paper

Siddhi Shah

Being busy is better than being bored. Or that’s what it seems like to every American living in the 21st century. Conversations remain in endless small-talk, thoughts and actions become controlled by electronic notifications and ring tones, and life simply feels like checking tasks off of jam-packed agendas. Everyone’s inner drill sergeant seems to be hastening to conquer his or her overcommitted schedules. To many individuals, no matter how many ways they divide their time and attention, no matter how many duties they try and multi-task, there never seems to be enough time in a day to ever catch up. The default response to how one has been doing becomes “Busy!” “Crazy Busy.” “No time.” But the most absurd news is that such a lifestyle is perceived to be a kind of congratulation or boast, rather than a grievance. People want to be busy, as exhausting as it can get.

Since the 1950s, we have had so many new technological innovations that we thought would make our lives easier, faster, simpler.

Yet, we have no more “free” or leisurely time today than we did decades ago. Students fill their day with community service, take part in educational clubs, and spend hours studying to boost their GPA because it looks good on college applications. Adults voluntarily take back-to-back shifts and overload on work and obligations. Why? Because they feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t working or doing something to promote their work. Furthermore, even the idea of telling others that they are busy these days seems to make people feel more important or sought-after. Not only is this mindset spiritually destructive and emotionally draining to one’s wellbeing, it saps our ability to be fully present with those we love the most in our families, and keeps us from forming the kind of community that we all so desperately

crave.
In fact, everyone seems to be following this cycle of going to school, going to college, getting a job, getting married, having kids, and then putting one’s children through the same cycle again. Even outliers in this situation still feel pressured to enter this path or pressured to overwork their schedules to fill up their emptiness. Not long ago my mother had asked her cousin if she wanted to hang out this week, and she answered that she didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let her know and maybe she could ditch work for a few hours. I wanted to jump in and clarify that my mother’s question had not been a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation; this was the invitation. But her busyness was like some vast churning noise through which he was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it.
It has become time to be truly human, not machines. Have a healing conversation that goes deeper than “Hello,” one filled with grace and presences. Make eye contact and connect with someone for a second. Help them remember too that they are more than mechanics, checking off their program, but a complete human whose relaxation method shouldn’t reflect the same world of overstimulation. Such interactions and connections that will last an eternity, not the mundane errands that crowd one’s health and happiness.
The best investment of your limited time on earth is to spend it with people you love. I suppose it’s possible you may lie on your deathbed regretting that you didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what you’ll really wish is that you could have had one more night with Rachel, another long talk with Hannah, one last good hard laugh with Ryan. Life is too short to be busy.