Is Being Busy Worth It?

I spent my freshman year of college busy studying and working. I prided myself on how busyness helped me achieve a perfect grade point average, yet it also brought me to my lowest point because I was constantly on the verge of breakdown, swamped with assignments, with no time for myself.

Undergraduate college students, like me, are at the forefront of “busyness culture,” where we over-schedule our days with various aspects of our lives, like academics and work. According to the Journal of Consumer Research, being busy is viewed as a “status symbol” and shows one has the necessary skills, such as the drive to achieve success in whatever they desire.

Although constantly working helps us achieve our desired goals, it is not worth the stress and burnout that harms one’s mental health in the process.

Students’ obsession with busyness begins in high school, where they are preoccupied with various tasks, such as classes and extracurriculars. This preoccupation follows them into adulthood because according to a 2018 study by Gallup, 70 percent of millennials experience burnout at work.

Emiria Henry, a second-year Psychological and Brain Sciences major at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), grew up in a family that valued productivity and emphasized success is achieved through endless work. “You don’t wanna be stuck somewhere you don’t want to be,” she said. Therefore, she is heavily involved in academics and extracurriculars.

Students’ dedication to school, work, and their personal lives causes increased stress levels leading to academic burnout, which includes a decrease in motivation for schoolwork and poor grades. According to a 2014 study by the Journal of Active Learning, anxiety about academics and future careers negatively impacts students the most and results in students feeling overwhelmed.

This feeling stems from being busy achieving success, while worrying about the future, getting a degree, managing extracurriculars, and working.

For instance, Henry learned early on that if she wanted “to be somebody,” she has to be productive to achieve a level of success in whatever she desires in the future.

During her first quarter at UCSB, she enrolled in three psychology courses, worked two jobs, and participated in extracurriculars, like dancing. However, her mental state was damaged from experiencing burnout from her schedule.

“I was completely exhausted all the time. Completely burned out. I never had time for myself,” Henry said.

She ultimately lost focus in her academics and received poor grades in her classes, which caused her to quit dancing.

Likewise, Selenia Segura-Verdin, a third-year Environmental Studies student at UCSB expressed similar sentiments of stress and academic burnout. Segura-Verdin feels pressure to be busy because she wants to build her resume for future careers in the environmental field. In addition to her classes and work, Segura-Verdin participates in weekly meetings for the Environmental Justice Alliance and Geography Club. However, stress from her busy schedule decreased her motivation in schoolwork and exhausted her.

“Stress inhibits my work,” Segura-Verdin said. “A lot of the times, I will lose my concentration. I will sit in front of my work for hours and not get anything done.”

Because Segura-Verdin is worried about the future and wants to achieve a satisfactory grade point average to participate in an environmental internship next year, she is currently learning ways to cope with stress from her psychologist at the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to prevent academic burnout.

Busyness, especially for students like Henry and Segura-Verdin, helps people feel like they are doing the most and the best they can to achieve success. For Henry, this success means “to be somebody,” while for Segura-Verdin, it is to have a career in the environmental field.

Busyness makes us believe we possess the willpower to endlessly work towards our aspired goals, so we can attain our desired level of achievement. Yet, when we reach success, what else do we have left besides it and ourselves?

We can be productive and obtain a perfect grade point average, or an internship that will benefit our career, but this strive for success harms our mental health in the process, resulting in stress and burnout.

In the process of obtaining our goals, as seen in Henry and Segura-Verdin’s cases, we become so focused on maintaining our schedules that we end up hurting our well-being. We are left feeling overwhelmed and we cannot go back in time to change our busy schedules to relieve stress.

Being productive towards something we want to achieve, whether it be for our personal well-being or coursework is not bad. The key is to be busy, but not let it overwhelm us to the point of burnout. So, next time you plan out your schedule, accomplish the most important tasks of the day and then leave time for yourself to relax and recharge for the day ahead.