Glorifying Being Busy and The Guilt of Doing Nothing

Have you ever caught yourself feeling guilty for simply doing nothing, even when you actually have nothing important to do anyway? Instead of enjoying your free time without any responsibility or deadline, a negative voice in your head kept whispering that you needed to do something productive? You are neither the reason for those thoughts nor are you alone. This is a social mindset that glorifies being constantly occupied and makes us feel like rest is a waste of time. As a result of being exposed to society's expectations, we start making being constantly busy a badge of honor, as if the more exhausted we are, the more valuable we must be.

Nobody knows exactly where, but being busy became a measurement of success somewhere along the way. Society began putting constant work in the same equation with ambition, discipline, and worthiness. The busiest people suddenly became the ones we admired, regardless of how sleep-deprived or unhappy they were.

These ideas are everywhere, from workplaces that reward long working hours regardless of actual efficiency, to social media where hustle culture influencers preach "no days off" as if it's a religion. People started to compete over who's the most busy even in casual conversations. It’s like busyness has become an identity feature that makes us feel needed, validated, and worthy of respect. Because of this mindset, resting started to feel like failing to most.

For a long while, even when we do take breaks, we try to make them productive. We try to turn hobbies into side hustles, read self-improvement books, or use our downtime to network instead of truly unplugging. The idea of genuinely doing nothing feels wrong to most of us. But the truth is that you don’t have to “deserve” rest. Just like food, sleep, and human connection, you basically need it.

This obsession with staying busy doesn’t always mean we’re productive anyway. Many of us fill our schedules with endless to-do lists, and unnecessary tasks just to feel like we’re accomplishing something, even when we don't need to do anything. Ironically, research shows that overworking leads to burnout, decreased creativity, and lower efficiency. An example to show that working smarter, not harder actually works is cultures that prioritize rest and work-life balance and do not promote being busy -as much as others- like Denmark or the Netherlands. They consistently rank among the happiest and most productive countries in the world. So, at the end of the day, your worth is not measured by how much you get done. You are not a machine. You do not exist to be efficient. Sometimes, the most revolutionary thing you can do can be just rest. So the next time you feel guilty for doing nothing, remind yourself that being busy is not an identity feature and you do deserve that rest.