Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Busy Is the New Lazy

There was a time when being busy meant you were important. You held up your packed calendar like a trophy, bragged about your lack of sleep, and answered every “How are you?” with “Crazy busy!” as if it proved your worth. But somewhere along the way, “busy” stopped meaning “productive” and started meaning “distracted.”

Busyness is the new laziness—not where you sit around doing nothing but the more dangerous version, where you fill every moment with noise, motion, and meetings so you don’t face what matters. Being busy is easy; being focused is hard. Busyness is a lack of clarity, courage, and discipline disguised as work. Ask the average executive how they’re doing, and they’ll say, “I’m swamped,” “It’s nonstop,” or “I’m buried,” as if it’s a medal of valor.

But being overwhelmed isn’t something to brag about; it’s something to fix. When you’re constantly overwhelmed, you lose sight of what matters. You say yes to too many things, fill your day with noise, and trade clarity for chaos. True leaders don’t celebrate being overwhelmed; they eliminate it. Think about the best leaders you know. They don’t rush, panic, or fill their schedules with junk. They move with purpose and protect their focus like oxygen. Being busy shows you’re reacting to everything. Being productive shows you’re choosing what deserves your energy. That’s clarity, which can only happen when you slow down enough to think.

We live in a culture addicted to motion. People run from meeting to meeting, check their inboxes every two minutes, and measure their worth by how full their day looks, but motion is not progress. A hamster on a wheel is busy, but it’s not going anywhere.

Are you moving because it matters, or because it’s expected? Are your people producing outcomes, or performing busyness to look good? True productivity is about doing the right things well. A focused hour of meaningful work beats a scattered day of frantic multitasking. Here’s the test: If you can’t point to an obvious outcome from your activity, it’s not work, it’s motion. 

Leaders often fall into this trap. They think activity shows engagement, but without direction, it’s noise. Most organizations say they value results, but watch who receives a promotion, praise, or protection, and you’ll see what they really value. Too often, it’s visibility. The person who stays late receives the applause, the one who talks the most in meetings gets the credit, and the manager who fills out every spreadsheet and sends hourly updates looks “on top of things.” Meanwhile, the quiet performer who delivers results without drama is overlooked.

When you reward effort over effectiveness, you build a culture of chaos. People learn to look busy instead of being effective. They fill their calendars to prove commitment, not outcomes, and before long, you have a company full of motion but no momentum. Leaders create this problem when they mistake presence for performance. They want to see effort, so they build systems that demand visibility. That’s not leadership; that’s surveillance.

Reward the Results
In a high-performing culture, clarity, impact, and execution are rewarded, not hours, emails, and appearances. We admire people who take on more, who say, “Sure, I’ll handle that,” and those who volunteer for every task, but that’s not discipline; it’s fear of disappointing, missing out, or being seen as less committed. The most successful people I know say “no” to: 

• Meetings without agendas
• Projects that don’t move the mission
• Customers who don’t fit
• Distractions that drain them

Every “no” is a declaration of clarity. It’s the discipline that separates achievers from reactors. If you want to lead with impact, ruthlessly prune your priorities. Every “yes” has a cost. It’s a “no” to excellence.

Busyness scatters energy. Focus multiplies it. The more you concentrate your energy, the more powerful your results. When you stop spreading yourself across 50 half-done things and commit to a few that matter, everything changes. Focus isn’t about narrowing ambition; it’s about maximizing impact. Companies that dominate their industries do a few things extraordinarily. Apple didn’t succeed by making every product. They picked a few categories and obsessed over them. The same applies to leadership. A focused leader provides clarity for everyone. A distracted leader creates a ripple of confusion that slows the organization.

To perform at a higher level, do less but do it well. Build systems that protect focus, block time for deep work, cut meetings in half, delegate anything that doesn’t require your skill, and make time to think. Thinking is not a luxury; it’s the highest form of work.

We’ve all been guilty of confusing busyness with importance. It feels good to be needed and productive to be in motion. But leadership that changes companies and lives happens when you step back, slow down, and think about where you’re going. You can’t lead if you’re always reacting, innovate if you’re always rushing, or grow if you never pause. The world doesn’t need more busy people; it needs more people who think, decide, and execute with intention.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.