Busy-ness is the easy alternative to doing something meaningful

The above quote is from a Books of Titans podcast episode on (you guessed it) Show Your Work. The discussion was frank and excellent for its frankness. The commentators also remark that being busy is a brag nowadays. I like what Bronnie Ware says about being busy - instead of calling herself busy, she likes to say her life is full. There’s a difference.

Whenever I think of the busy-ness epidemic, I think of one of my favorite articles of all time. It’s "The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and the Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long” by Maria Popova of brainpickings.org.

A quote from this article, which I’ve returned to innumerable times:

"Presence is infinitely more rewarding than productivity. I frequently worry that being productive is the surest way to lull ourselves into a trance of passivity and busyness the greatest distraction from living, as we coast through our lives day after day, showing up for our obligations but being absent from our selves, mistaking the doing for the being."

We are human beings, not human doings.

To discern if I'm doing something to distract myself from life, I ask myself what uncomfortable feelings I'm avoiding. If I have a bad feeling about something for a long time then I know I have to tackle it. In fact, I think I'm going to make a "vague/bad/uncomfortable feelings" list to address them. 

For you to reflect on: How do you stop yourself from being passively busy to escape engaging in meaningful activity?