11/07/2025

The Great "Busyness" Delusion: Confusing Motion with Movement

Chaos isn't proof of relevance

Last week, I asked a good friend what they had accomplished that day. She launched into a 15-minute monologue about attending three meetings, responding to 47 emails, updating five spreadsheets and reviewing countless documents. When she finished, I asked her again: "But what did you accomplish?" The silence that followed was deafening. She'd confused being busy with being productive, motion with movement, activity with achievement.

She's not alone. We're living through the great "busyness delusion" — a collective hallucination where everyone thinks they are incredibly busy, but most people are just incredibly scattered. We have created a culture where being busy has become a badge of honor, like wearing exhaustion as a designer accessory.

I see it everywhere: executives bragging about their packed calendars like they are trophies, employees competing over who stayed latest at the office, entrepreneurs wearing stress like a superhero cape. We have somehow convinced ourselves that busy equals important, that frantic means successful, that chaos is proof of relevance.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Rolling Stone.