Not long ago, I caught myself ending a day feeling depleted but not satisfied. I had bounced from meeting to meeting, replied to dozens of emails, checked off a handful of tasks, and still felt like I’d somehow missed the mark. I paused and asked myself, “Was I productive today or just busy?”
It’s a slippery slope. Our culture praises hustle. Our calendars celebrate clutter. And our self-worth? It often gets tangled up in how many things we can juggle without dropping any.
But here’s the truth: Being busy is not the same as being productive. One scatters; the other focuses. One feels frantic; the other feels purposeful.
So, let’s take a look:
Busy is reactive. Productivity is intentional.
Being busy is saying yes to everything so nothing gets your best. It’s jumping from tab to tab, responding to every ping, chasing tasks that may not matter a week from now. Busy wears stress like a badge of honor and confuses activity with impact.
Productive, on the other hand, is about clarity. You know what matters, and you prioritize accordingly. You time block your focus. You say yes slowly and no more often. Productive doesn’t mean doing more. It means doing what matters most—and letting the rest be background noise.
Busy masks discomfort. Productivity requires discernment.
Sometimes, being busy is a way to avoid something deeper: uncertainty, failure, loneliness, or the fear of not being enough. When we fill every gap with doing, we can numb the discomfort of being. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have a 45-minute window and a long list of to-dos, and I don’t know where to put my attention.
I instead flip to social media or the news for a dopamine hit, and I end up feeling worse afterward. It was a distraction —but one that left me feeling more anxious or mentally static. The most productive thing I can do in those moments is not give in to the lure of distraction and just pause. I take a few breaths and slow down long enough to know wisely where to put my attention and energy: to choose, to face the tension and make conscious trade-offs.
Busyness often gets in the way of meaningful output. The more we spin, the less we anchor. And the less we anchor, the more we spin.
So, how do we shift?
Start with noticing. What’s driving your busyness? Is it obligation, fear, habit, external validation, or biology?
Did you know that doing something, even something trivial, activates the brain’s dopaminergic system, giving you a small hit of pleasure or satisfaction? This reinforcement loop can make checking things off a list or being in constant motion feel good, even if the tasks aren’t meaningful.
Over time, the brain associates busyness with productivity and worth, reinforcing the cycle. What’s more alarming is that chronic stress (even low-grade stress from a packed schedule) keeps cortisol levels elevated. And we can become biologically conditioned to operate in a high-stimulation environment and feel anxious or restless when things slow down.
The body can actually develop a kind of stress inertia, where calm feels unfamiliar or even unsafe. When cortisol levels stay elevated for long periods, it can have a significant negative impact on your body and brain, affecting memory and mood, weakening your immune system, increasing inflammation, and increasing appetite (and belly fat).
We all have full plates, but our attitude and approach to our plates matter. If you constantly tell yourself, “I just gotta get through this meeting or make it through this list,” we’re working in a stressful mindset. Even if we think we’re good, our nervous system knows otherwise.
Next, ask yourself what actually moves the needle in your work, your relationships, and your well-being. Schedule those things first. Block out time for deep work—not just inbox triage. Build in a margin. Let white space back into your calendar.
I encourage all my leaders to look at their calendars and eliminate 10 percent of their meetings and replace them with white space. That’s thinking or balcony time. They always say they can’t until they look. When we really question what our calendar is filled with, we can be mindful of where our energy, talent, time, and attention are best served.
Practice presence. Even when your to-do list stretches a mile long, the moment you’re in deserves your full attention. Productivity thrives in focus, not frenzy.
Let’s reframe the grind.
There’s no trophy for being the most overwhelmed and no badge for burnout. But there’s something deeply rewarding about living in alignment with your values, your goals, and your energy.
So, the next time someone asks how you’ve been, maybe skip “crazy busy” and try something different. “Focused.” “Grounded.” “Making space for what matters.”
Your worth isn’t measured in checked boxes; it’s reflected in the impact you create when you’re truly present.
