I started working fully remote with my new job almost 3 years ago and since then, my disabilities have become easier and easier to manage.
Previously I would have to take so much time off and burnt out quickly, but now with access to my needs at home, work feels manageable.
I wish this was an option for everyone.
Being busy is the laziest thing you can do. This one is gonna make some people feel defensive. Good defensive usually means accurate.
Busyness has become the default status symbol of our generation. “How are you?” “Busy,” said with half a smile that kind of says, I’m important, I’m in demand, I’m doing things.
We wear busyness like a medal and we judge rest like a crime.
But here’s the truth that took me years to see: Being busy is easy. Terrifyingly easy.
Anyone can fill a schedule. Anyone can reply to every email, attend every meeting, say yes to every request, maintain a to-do list so long it could wallpaper a house.
Being busy requires no thought, no strategy, no prioritization, no courage. You just say yes to whatever shows up and call the exhaustion hard work.
Being effective—actually moving the needle on the things that matter—is hard. Because it requires you to think, to choose, to say this matters and this doesn’t, to disappoint people, to sit with the discomfort of an empty calendar and the terrifying question it produces:
If I’m not busy, who am I?
That question is the real reason we stay busy.
Busyness is a hiding place.