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I've got a different answer. People are "busy" because they fill every waking hour with something to do. If they ever find themselves without something to do,

I've got a different answer. People are "busy" because they fill every waking hour with something to do. If they ever find themselves without something to do, they make something up or change something so it provides some perceived benefit and takes more time. For example, I dated a girl who said she had no free time, despite only working 1 job part time and basically never going out. I eventually found out it was because she'd do things like walk go to the grocery store for fresh food every single day. And then complain that she didn't have enough time to spend with her son. I'm not blaming her. It's her choice, and there's nothing wrong with it. But that incident made me look at my own life and I realized that any time I could possibly be bored, I'd find something do to. For me, it was usually something fun in the name of de-stressing. If I ever managed to get bored with everything I had, I'd pick up a new hobby. I now have far, far too many hobbies to actually do much of any one of them, and I switch between them as I get bored. As I look around, I see others doing this as well. The idea of simply sitting and getting bored is basically impossible. At the worst, there's always cable TV or Netflix or something, and shows you just have to watch. It's quite fascinating once you can look in on it from the outside.

namaemuta 10y ago
Then the real answer is "People are "busy" because they don't want to be bored".
TeMPOraL 10y ago
I think there are different types of people. Personally, I always have more things I'd like to do - much more interesting than job, errands, family time, etc. - than time for them. So I wouldn't e.g. go for fresh food to a store every day (other than as a part of the commute, or during lunch break at work), because I need the time for something else (like doing a home automation project, or playing a video game). So I guess some people may be "busy" by inventing activities to avoid boredom (I'm pretty sure I know a lot of people like that), but others would love to have more free time to spend it on even more things they're already interested in.
- wccrawford 10y ago
  Oh, I totally understand that. I'm not saying that there aren't people who are legit busy all the time, just that people who aren't will invent ways to end up with no time left and feel like they need more, even though they are deliberately wasting time. Note that I'm also not saying that people's priorities aren't differently or that any of them are wrong. To re-use my example, having fresh vegetables every day is awesome, it's just that going to the supermarket for them every single day is a waste of time. Even every other day is a huge improvement and doesn't result in the vegetables being any worse off. That 30-60 minutes saved every second day could have been spent with her son instead, as she clearly desires. But something in her mind kept her in the same cycle, "busy" all the time.

namaemuta 10y ago

Then the real answer is "People are "busy" because they don't want to be bored".

TeMPOraL 10y ago

I think there are different types of people. Personally, I always have more things I'd like to do - much more interesting than job, errands, family time, etc. - than time for them. So I wouldn't e.g. go for fresh food to a store every day (other than as a part of the commute, or during lunch break at work), because I need the time for something else (like doing a home automation project, or playing a video game). So I guess some people may be "busy" by inventing activities to avoid boredom (I'm pretty sure I know a lot of people like that), but others would love to have more free time to spend it on even more things they're already interested in.

wccrawford 10y ago
Oh, I totally understand that. I'm not saying that there aren't people who are legit busy all the time, just that people who aren't will invent ways to end up with no time left and feel like they need more, even though they are deliberately wasting time. Note that I'm also not saying that people's priorities aren't differently or that any of them are wrong. To re-use my example, having fresh vegetables every day is awesome, it's just that going to the supermarket for them every single day is a waste of time. Even every other day is a huge improvement and doesn't result in the vegetables being any worse off. That 30-60 minutes saved every second day could have been spent with her son instead, as she clearly desires. But something in her mind kept her in the same cycle, "busy" all the time.