The crazily busy and the ideal idlist.

One of our favorite question on meeting someone is, "How's your work?" The favorite answer is, "Oh... so busy." Being busy is a fashionable label anyone pursuing success should try to attain. This is nonetheless crazy from any humane standpoint. What has being busy anything to do with success?

I came across a very successful person's blog, it was a case of a crazily busy:

"When we started our vacation last week, I was pretty sure that vacations are generally not a good idea.
... I use the term "we" with some caution. We - that is, my husband and I - have never really been a "we" in the sense of those old stories, movies, TV shows. ... We argue too much, sleep too much, eat too much, and worry about what's going wrong at home, what's going wrong with our kids and our jobs, what's going wrong with our vacation. We have unrealistic hopes and unreasonable desires. We can't talk about work. We can't talk about the kids. We can't talk about "someday" - that occupied us well in our forties, but no longer - it's just too scary. I find myself secretly wishing we were at home, tending the flowers and getting work done.
... Lately two daughters and I went to see Kate Mullgrew as Katharine Hepburn in "Tea at Five." In the play, Kate comes to the realization that work was the way she always survived her difficulties. I ponder what work means to me. True, work can make a person happy - when one loves one's work; when one knows what one's work is; when one has measurable outcomes - even if only in the coin of personal pleasure. But work does not necessarily make life meaningful. When the time needed to get one's work done exceeds the time available, meaningfulness slips appallingly away.
... after a week of vacation, it's going to be even harder to climb back into my working shoes. I am cynical about the possibility of experiencing "renewal" in seven days and dreading the moment when I have to climb the mountain of email that will pile up in my short absence.
... This is my last rant for a while. I've got to get some work done so I can take another vacation."

While working in America, I am suspicious that life of all successful are not so successful. Meaning that behind their job success, their life were somehow affected. Some 'wise' consultant said, "If you put in 10% more effort than your peers, you will rip 50% more returns." But these 10% efforts come from time you would spend with your bare consciousness, so that at the end of the day, we remember who we are, where we come from, and for what purpose we are here? I am not talking about deep philosophies. I am saying that when shopping with a friend, we know we come from our house, came shopping with this person, and pay attention to her ranting. In the end, we learn more about her and she felt satisfied having a friend like us.

An ideal idlist would work in a different way. In order to keep our consciousness clear, open, and sharp, we need to keep it happy. She would work when she likes to work, take a sip when she likes, walk when she likes, rest when she likes, and return to work when she likes. There is no burden in her mind when she works, because that is what she wants to do.

However the problem an ideal idlist faced was the 8 hours work day and 40 hours work week. Following an ideal lifestyle, the idlist may wake up at 10am, worked until 4pm, and felt the need to take a walk to find out what everyone else were up to. He walked down the shopping strip and explore the surrounding. People ranting along the street, cars engine, discount posters along the malls' windows, and a long queue formed up from a bank teller machine. He is happily observing the business of others and it becomes much more important than the work he is doing. Such idlist may return to work at 8pm when he remembered an important email that he needs to write, or upon having a creative idea while bathing.

In a world of fixed-time working schedule, this idlist works when she's tired of work, unable to work when she needs to work, and unable to do more important things when she needs to. Life becomes upside down and priorities get abandoned. Soon, working hard becomes the only thing she can boast about. When there is no creative ideas or new responsibilities, the best one can do is the respond to old tasks on time on target, and make sure there is no mistakes. Respond to emails, respond to questions, update databases, etc. The next time someone comes by the ask, "How are you doing?"
"Great! Sorry about not responding to you. I am SO busy and flooded with emails."
"How's your work?"
"Oh its great! Enough to keep me busy."