![[Pasted image 20260112205101.png]] In the last few years, I have had a pretty serious problem with busyness. This would manifest as: - Insufficient progress on my most important work because I would get distracted in the weeds - Frequent doom scrolling and avoidance of important tasks - Always thinking about what I should be doing at any given moment rather than just existing in the moment Overall, this aspect of my life has been quite unpleasant, led to many problems, and left me baseline unhappy. I've found the solution to be straightforward but unintuitive. If you are unfamiliar with [[Joe Hudson]], he is an emotional health/productivity coach that's been gaining popularity in the tech industry over the last few years. He frequently emphasizes feeling and expressing emotion as a way to find effortless action, rather than imposing discipline and willpower on yourself. I listened to a [podcast of his on busyness](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Y1nWNVp1EnhrzMeKbsLxk?si=3k2hVGNgQKq-K55FLcCnBw&pi=hy8U_IBkRpyxP&t=1766) that **framed busyness not as having too much to do, nor as physical tiredness, but instead as emotional overwhelm.** When you're feeling that strong sense of, "Oh God, there is so much," and even responding to emails is daunting, that is a relatively clear case of emotional overwhelm in Joe's lens. His recommendation is pretty simple: Every two hours, take five minutes to sit somewhere quiet and Do Nothing. Now, people often fill their Nothings with things, especially checking their phone. When I say "Do Nothing" in this case, I mean actually doing nothing: no phone, no work, no movement or stretching beyond what's required to stay comfortable. No planning or excessive thinking either. The idea is, when you notice yourself trying to do something, just stop trying. This sounds pretty weird, but does not cost anything to try, so I figured I would give it a shot. And to my surprise, it's been not only helpful from a busyness perspective, but also immensely emotionally refreshing. When I do this, my days become baseline enjoyable. I no longer put off responding to messages or emails. I can effortlessly focus on whatever my most important work is rather than getting pulled into productivity-adjacent tasks. This seems to work by forcing you to actually feel whatever emotions are present. Fear, grief, anger, bodily discomfort, etc. By feeling them, and acknowledging them, they lose some of their intensity, and no longer get louder until they're noticed. The same goes for swirling thoughts. For me, various intentions swirl and build in my head, and I'll end up mentally juggling them until there's a chance to put them down. This is also a chance to stop juggling. Overall, whatever the mechanism, it works. There's one big objection. It sounds like "I'm too busy to take that time. 5 minutes every 2 hours is like 30 minutes out of my workday!" This calls to mind the Zen proverb: "**You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour**". I don't think you literally need to meditate for an hour. However, the instinctive reaction of "I'm too busy" is counterproductive when the activity in question will bring you more of what you want and ultimately save you time. How much time do you lose right now on scrolling, on repetitive checking of Slack, or stuck in busywork? How much stress do you accumulate worrying about that fact? I'm not hitting every 2 hours, but even coming close is refreshing. It's like there's a mental buildup of static that I just wasn't noticing before, manifesting as an urge to do anything other than what I "should" do. Now, I can notice the static, release it, then live my life. This sometimes means noticing that I truly need a break. In which case, I take a break, go for a walk, take a nap, etc, but *all without the guilt I'd normally feel about not working.* I know it's the best thing I could be doing in that moment. I'm sure there are deeper philosophical implications to this practice, but those aren't immediately important. Just, if you're reading this and feeling too busy, consider Doing Nothing for 5 minutes instead 🙂 (literally right now, try it) > "This needs to be mandated in all workplaces I'm so serious" > > -Sebastian