busyness

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” — Socrates

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” — Lao Tzu

Working hard for a long time without checking what the better things to be working on are is a hidden form of laziness. A laziness that disguises itself as something to be proud of. — Julian Shapiro

“Busyness is no different from laziness when it doesn’t lead you to accomplish anything.” ― [@baileyProductivityProjectAccomplishing2016]

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• Perpetual Busyness: We’re in the midst of a global busyness crisis
  • The Busy Trap = The Rat Race — A treadmill to nowhere
    • = 瞎忙 = 窮忙 = 假勤奮 = 偽生產力 ¹
  • Often, we found there was a lot of movement, but no forward progress (like a “Rocking Horse” — always moving, but never going anywhere).
  • 有時候，我們會覺得自己很忙，好像做了很多事，卻根本沒做出什麼明顯的成績。有行動，卻沒有成果。辛苦了老半天，結果卻回到原點，開始時和結束時的狀態都差不多，沒什麼進展。這正是 「效率 (Efficient) 」與「效能 (Effective) 」 的關鍵區別。兩者看似相近，實則大不相同 — 如果方向錯了，即使做得再好，也只是徒勞無功。
  • Action: Break the busyness cycle. Don’t fall into “The Efficiency Trap.”
  • See also: The Red Queen Effect
• “Being In Motion vs. Taking Action” by James Clear
  • You gain clarity through motion, but don’t mistake motion with action.
  • “Never mistake activity for achievement.” — John Wooden
• Don’t confuse being busy with being productive.
  • Being busy is a form of laziness–lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
  • Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
• The most invisible form of wasted time is doing a good job on an unimportant task.

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See also:

• Scarcity creates a mindset that perpetuates scarcity

Footnotes

1. Hard work is a secret form of procrastination or laziness due to a misallocation of time and energy. ↩