Without busyness where would business be? Noplace, and that’s the truth. But there is a point where busyness goes beyond the point of productivity and into the blasted plain where crows feed on the eyeballs of those who didn’t make it across to the other side. Ask yourself the following questions:
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Do you forget what you were about to say just as you enter somebody’s office? And you know that it wasn’t that old canard about, “Oh well, that probably means it wasn’t important,” no, it was important all right, and it clear left your brain as you were walking the ten steps down the hall?
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Do you keep lists on your desk that are full of Things To Do, but you have to keep updating them because all the Things To Do that were once at the top are now in the middle, supplanted by More Critical Things To Do that accumulated while you were doing Other Things To Do that weren’t even on the original list?
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Are you interrupted every time you start to do something by another person’s agenda?
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Do you eat lunch at your desk just about every day and are forced to talk to people, either on the phone or in person, with tuna fish hanging off the end of your chin?
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Do you sometimes find yourself running to get to a meeting in your own building?
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Are you late for things a lot of the time when before you used to be punctual?
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Are you often shocked to find out what time it is? That the days seem to whiz by and at the end of them nothing really got done to completion?
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Do you eat Advil three times a day?
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Do you sometimes begin a sentence and then stand there with your mouth open, looking for the right word?
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Did you scream at some innocent subordinate today over something so minor it now seems ridiculous? And would you like to do it again right now?
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How many times does your phone ring while you are trying to concentrate?
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When you close your door for some privacy, do people constantly knock on it and say, “I’m sorry to disturb you, but this’ll just take a second”?
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Do you suddenly have difficulty conjuring up the names of people with whom you’ve worked for years if called upon to introduce them to a stranger?
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Did there come a time in the last three months when you forgot to go to the bathroom and were then sequestered in a room you could not get out of for so long you nearly died?
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Do you sometimes lose a document on your hard drive? Like, work on it for a while, leave to attend to another matter, return and can’t find it?
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Is your e-mailbox over its size limit?
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Do you put yourself to sleep at night thinking about all you have to do the next day, and then wake at 3:00 AM filled with free-floating anxiety?
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Do you sometimes sit at your desk, thinking about a big, sweaty martini… at 11:00 AM?
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Do people talk about movies you haven’t seen, candidates whose names are unfamiliar to you, and celebrity sex tapes of which you have no knowledge?
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Are you developing BlackBerry-related arthritis of the thumb?
If you answered yes to more than three of these questions… what the heck are you doing reading this? Get back to work!
