How Being Too Busy Affects Your Productivity

Have you ever asked yourself: was today's work productive or was it just me being too busy and distracted?

Being busy is often seen as a sign of self-worth. Especially when you have been assigned a role where huge responsibility comes with it. However, being too busy can negatively affect your emotional and physical health.

Many of us struggle to identify that we're doing too much. I am in the same space as you. In this episode, I will share my experience of how busyness with no space to breathe has played a huge role in my well-being.

I was promoted and realized it wasn't what I wanted.

Our schedules, never-ending tasks, and to-do lists have become so overwhelming that we are no longer able to ignite the potential within us. 

When I was promoted, I was thrilled, but I was also overburdened with the additional obligations that came with it, and I eventually realized that I was not growing.

Busyness Vs. Productivity

Busyness and productivity can often be confused with one another. If you are busy, you may be doing a lot of things, but this doesn't necessarily mean you are productive or time efficient. Being productive means you are able to fulfill a task or get something done. You do not need to be busy in order to be productive. Being busy has to do with how you spend your time, whereas productivity has more to do with what you accomplish.

Give Yourself A Break

A break can be helpful to refocus your attention if there’s a lot going on. After I finally got promoted, I was overwhelmed with the workload, because there were a lot of things that needed to be corrected and processed.

When I found myself unable to even eat lunch, I realized the importance of taking a break because then you can think about why you are feeling the way you are. It gives you time to think of additional solutions you are working on.

Why Do We Fall Into This Modern Trap Of Busyness?

If you are in that space of feeling guilty when you are not doing something, you are not alone. This is what our modern trap has done to us. We’ve all internalized a mantra that busier is better. So, what we need to do is rewire ourselves and break the cycle. 

Scientists discovered that being too busy has to do with how different our brains work together. Whenever we do complex tasks, an area of our brain called the frontal lobe carries most of our thinking. Our frontal lobe has a short battery life and it gets tired quickly. 

It needs regular breaks to recharge. This means that if you keep pressing yourself to complete complex tasks without taking a break, your frontal lobe will lose efficiency and you will start making mistakes and errors.

How Do We Boost Our Productivity?

Researchers and case studies have found that taking quick breaks of 30 seconds or less can increase task focus and workplace engagement. Another study by Harvard Business School classified pauses into four categories: social, nutritional, relaxation, which includes time spent performing light exercise or daydreaming, and cognition breaks, which involve reading a book or a quotation and reflecting on it while adding your own thoughts. These four different kinds of breaks will increase our productivity and aid us in escaping the vicious cycle of nonstop activity.