Busy - a modern disease
October 21, 2008 by gbrown
Busy - a modern disease
Busy…it’s a modern disease. Yet, common sense holds that busy people are by definition successful people.
How we boast about our “busy-ness”.
Got to dash… You don’t get much busier than the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo where I lived for several years in the post-bubble 90s.
How is it that the consumerist dream where money buys everything from limited edition Paul Smith brogues to 7 story Louis Vuitton megastores to the latest 3G mobile phones that outperform your average handycam to school girl knickers, that Japan ranks consistenly last in the WHO rankings for “happiest people on the planet”?
Ironic that the culture that created Zen Buddhism finds itself lost in noise. Zen - the art of doing one thing at a time. The art of taking time off…
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
If you’ve watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off you’ll know how the rest of the story plays out. We can choose to be Ferris or the cowering best buddy Cameron, shaped by the agendas of his father - the father who kept the Ferrari in the garage. Too busy to enjoy the Ferrari, Cameron’s father would keep the beast under lock and key, until the day that was - that he “arrived”… or retired.
Taking time off
So, I’m taking a day off, or maybe a week or a month - and choosing not to waste life on “work” or the pursuit of other people’s goals. Through leverage and massive outsourcing, I’m able to work a few hours a week and get a lot done.
Jeni, my PA, called the plumber to arrange a gas inspection on Friday, straight after she called the new tenant to welcome her to the property and let my cleaner know that Monday was a bank holiday and spend the morning calling furniture stores to get quotes to equip a 6 bedroom HMO. Jeni costs a lot less that you’d pay a graduate from these shores - and she is excellent at what she does. She’s one of a larger outsourced team, all of whom are very good, hand picked and trained. Friday was so productive that I snuck out to play the driving range for an hour, came back took a nap and woke up to watch some Olympic action. Not much happening there, but better than answering emails all day.
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Hello Graham! I’ve just dropped by to see how are you doing. I must tell you I’m impressed by your whole common-uncommon thing. And I totally agree with you: every once in a while a man needs to press the pause and look around him from a new perspective, with different words - hack the matrix! If you more like it that way!
Cheers!