"Just Too Busy' Series - 2. Addicted to being busy?

In this episode, we explore the addictive nature of being busy and how it can impact your personal and professional life. Being constantly busy might feel rewarding, but it often leads to prioritizing motion over meaningful movement, affecting your health and relationships.

Key Insights:

The Dopamine Rush: The adrenaline and dopamine rush from constant activity can be addictive. This addiction is reinforced by praise and promotions in many organizations, creating a cycle of busyness.

Motion vs. Movement: Being busy isn’t the same as being productive. Many CEOs and professionals mistake busyness for effectiveness, focusing on urgent tasks rather than important ones.

Recognizing the Symptoms: Long hours, multitasking, and the constant need to do more can indicate an addiction to busyness. This behavior often leads to burnout and diminished enjoyment in both work and personal life.

The Neuroscience Behind It: The brain patterns seen in those addicted to work are similar to those addicted to gambling or substances. Each dopamine hit from completing tasks reinforces the behavior, making it difficult to break the cycle.

Steps to Take:

1. Self-Reflection: Identify if you’re prioritizing the right things in your life and work.
2. Health Check: Consider the impact of busyness on your health and well-being.
3. Relationships: Evaluate how your busyness affects your relationships with family, colleagues, and yourself.

This video is part two of a series on the pitfalls of being overly busy. Stay tuned for the next part, where we’ll discuss strategies to manage and reduce this addiction.

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Transcript

0:05

So today I want to talk about being busy and the addiction to being busy and the dopamine. Adrenaline rush that can come from being busy all of the time. Last week. I spoke a lot about how that can be counterproductive to the personal relationships in your life, how that can make you really grumpy when somebody interrupts some of the work you're doing and how that can be detrimental. To the relationships with those around you. But the dangers of being busy is that it is. Addictive. You can prioritize motion over movement. What do I mean by that? The very act of being busy can be the thing that you self put self perpetuate that becomes your badge of honor. And for many people. In their career, they've been praised by it. It's been the reason they've got promotions there. Admired by others for being busy all the time. They're always on their phones. They're, we're sending emails. They're always on the phone. They're always doing many, many things at the same time. And we know that being too busy is detrimental yet still it's praised in many, many organizations. And the reality is is busy. People are not people making the right prioritizations or choices. They're doing way too much. Rather than doing necessarily the right things. And what's interesting is the CEO's I work with out here. There's quite a lot. They say things to me. Oh, I'm just, I'm too busy to make changes here. I've got too many direct reports to spend the time dealing with the fact I've got too many direct reports. They prioritize the things that are urgent that are in front of them, from the people that are there again. The extremely busy, but they're not doing a prioritizing the right things. A big part of being addicted to being busy. It's really identifying the fact that that's what's going on with you is looking at the symptoms of this. Maybe you're working long hours. Maybe you get that buzz from doing all of this stuff all at the time. Maybe you enjoy having lots and lots of things on your plate. Maybe you see that as being one of your superpowers is that you can multitask and do many things and get lots of things done. The reality is, is perhaps you need to step back and look at well, is that what I want? Am I doing the right things? And we're prioritizing the right stuff in my life. Am I liking who I am, what this busy-ness is making me. Because again, if you're ultimately busy all the time, have you got time to be doing the important things in your life? Looking after the key people in your. In your world around you. The folks that you work with your direct reports to other people in the C suite. Your family, your own health, cause busy-ness can be detrimental to that as well. And it comes from really understanding that you get a buzz from being busy and that buzz reinforces the behavior. I have a background in neuroscience and. Being addicted to work. And, um, the dopamine hits that come with that is not unlike the same addiction and the same brain patterns that are used. So you see from people who are addicted to gambling or people who are addicted to other substances as well. So self-reinforcing every time you get that buzz, it reinforces that behavior. And ultimately longterm, it leads to burnout. And it's that point where a lot of the things that you're doing in your life are not as enjoyable as they once were. You're not getting that same buzz that you once were. Are you having to do more and more to get that same bus? And, you know, that's detrimental to your health and to the quality of work that you're doing. So now is the time to do something about it. And the next couple of parts of this series. I'm calling, being too busy are going to be how you deal with that. And the next one we're going to have a lookout is being accountable for the behaviors of you and those around you. To deemphasize this. I suppose addiction to being busy or at the time.