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I've been doing a lot of things at the same time for many years, school, work, studies outside school and stuff like that; but have never ever felt stressed or

by ique 16y ago

I've been doing a lot of things at the same time for many years, school, work, studies outside school and stuff like that; but have never ever felt stressed or really "busy" either. When people talked to me about how stressed out they were and all the stuff they had to do i used to think "Seems like you should just do it and not be so stressed and freaked out and everything would be a lot simpler." But some weeks ago I actually felt stressed, for no apparent reason either; it was a really creepy feeling bothering me much, much more than I would have expected. It made it harder to sleep, i would almost get an upset stomach. I could not figure out for the life of me why I was feeling that way, or how I could make it stop. It was completely new. The feeling have since passed and I hope it won't ever come back. But I have a bit more respect now for people who get stressed, it's not really helpful or useful to just tell them "Don't be stressed and everything would be easier." And it's not really that easy to just.. get rid of the feeling. The post is absolutely correct, stop "being busy" and you wouldn't be so busy. But some real tips psychological or otherwise on how to avoid the feeling would be far more helpful than simply; in my opinion: stating the obvious. "Stop being busy. Just decide to stop, today." Has that ever worked? Has it worked for the author or is he like I was and have simply never felt stress?

timwiseman 16y ago
I agree. The closest thing that page provided to concete advice was to avoid busy work and talk to your boss. But that runs into two immediate problems. The first is that unless your boss already thinks you are genuinely overworked, they are not likely to be too sympathetic to you wanting to work less. Now, if you can identify specific tasks that you think are busy work, you may get your boss to remove those or explain why they are not busy work. Of course, those tasks may then be replaced by others. And this also brings me to the second point. Busywork should be avoided, but you need to make sure it is busywork. Your boss may very well have a good reason to have given you a task that you just don't see from your point in the organization. It may be worth asking him/her about so you can better understand why you are doing those tasks, but that does not mean you should unilaterly decide they are busy work and stop doing it. Of course that only addresses work. Outside of work you may have more control, but even there your actions likely impact others and this should be considered when cutting things out. A proverbial soccer-mom may easily free up 3 hours a week by removing her child from soccer, but this will certainly impact the child.
10ren 16y ago
One advantage of busy is that it can distract you from stressful or upsetting thoughts. An alternative distraction is mindfulness - to not be busy, but to concentrate totally on whatever you are doing, as if it were a meditation. This one also helps you to do a good job.

by ique 16y ago

timwiseman 16y ago

I agree. The closest thing that page provided to concete advice was to avoid busy work and talk to your boss. But that runs into two immediate problems. The first is that unless your boss already thinks you are genuinely overworked, they are not likely to be too sympathetic to you wanting to work less. Now, if you can identify specific tasks that you think are busy work, you may get your boss to remove those or explain why they are not busy work. Of course, those tasks may then be replaced by others. And this also brings me to the second point. Busywork should be avoided, but you need to make sure it is busywork. Your boss may very well have a good reason to have given you a task that you just don't see from your point in the organization. It may be worth asking him/her about so you can better understand why you are doing those tasks, but that does not mean you should unilaterly decide they are busy work and stop doing it. Of course that only addresses work. Outside of work you may have more control, but even there your actions likely impact others and this should be considered when cutting things out. A proverbial soccer-mom may easily free up 3 hours a week by removing her child from soccer, but this will certainly impact the child.

10ren 16y ago

One advantage of busy is that it can distract you from stressful or upsetting thoughts. An alternative distraction is mindfulness - to not be busy, but to concentrate totally on whatever you are doing, as if it were a meditation. This one also helps you to do a good job.