There is no doubt that we all feel overwhelmed from time to time. It’s natural. But a few years ago I noticed that the pace of change had markedly accelerated to the point where it was changing other things. It was changing our capacity to create and innovate. It was crippling our ability to effectively “spend time” with people that we care about. And it was skewing our sense of entitlement and investment.
What we all seemed to be suffering from as the state of “busy brain”.
Think, for example, how many times you have done the following in the last week:
- Shared a link without checking it first
- Stayed awake too late at night doing work
- Relied on alcohol or drugs to slow your body rhythms
- Avoided exercise because there is not enough time in the day
- Were impatient with a child or a colleague
Because we are consistently rushing from meeting to meeting, task to task and tweet to tweet, we forget.
We forget the reason. The purpose. The force of the activity that drives us.
And we do so because we have given over to busyness rather than focusing on business. Sometimes it seems that we are barely in the business of living.
We are not just distracted but alerted. Buzzed and connected. We hurry between places, spaces and events not because we fear missing out but because our presence is marked on a hidden scale of check-ins, appointments and leaderboards. We have given over to the machine and it keeps its own counsel.
So what are we to do?
I like these simple suggestions from Deepak Chopra. And like everything simple, they require us to forego complication. Here’s to a less busy brain. Sleep well.