One thing is for sure nowadays, we all seem to be extremely busy. Our work, school and home schedules are full to the brim as we all complain about our level of commitments and daily activities on our “to-do” list.

Americans begrudge how fast the days seem to go by. How quickly the hours pass from day into night as the rhythm of our daily routine doesn’t seem to let up. The night brings about the dreaded racing mind chatter that won’t quiet down and robs us of our sleep that is desperately needed to replenish our energy reserves needed to continue this never ending cycle of modern life.

Sure, there is a down side to always being on the clock. But, according to some research there are some benefits that come from staying busy.

In recent years, the idea of busyness has been getting a good degree of attention from a fair amount of academic studies.

Researcher Jonathan Gershuny of the Institute for Social & Economic Research began documenting busyness in 2005. He used 50 years of time data collected from the UK between 1961and 2001. He found that being busy in our modern world is looked at as a “badge of honor”. “The proposition that the assertion of busyness now reflects an aspiration to high social status.” The idea of feeling busy can be explained, but not the construct of this newer group of busyness which places a “sign of importance” on the person whom is busy.

Being busy is actually good for you!

Meeting new people, having and making appointments and being more fully involved in your daily activities is viewed as a positive thing, according to this new generation of scholars. For instance:

Denise Park of the University of Texas at Dallas, Jennifer Lodi-smith of Canisius and four other colleagues, are part of the Synapse Project. They looked at how individuals that learned digital photography or quilting demonstrated improvements in episodic memory.

In another study, Michelle Carlson at the Center for Aging and Health at John Hopkins, along with nine other colleagues, showed results that being part of an Experience Corps program who mentored elementary school children, had improved memory and executive function scores.

The largest study called “ The Busier the Better: Greater Busyness is Associated with Better Cognition”, was done by Sara Festini of the University of Texas at Dallas, with Ian McDonough and Denise Parks. They concluded that “ sustained engagement on mentally challenging activities results in increased effortful engagement at work, home and in leisure activities, which can have advantageous consequences on neural health and cognition.”

The team of researchers from this study, led by Dr. Festini, went on to identify four significant health outcomes that are a result of busyness. They include:

• Busyness increases “the opportunity for new learning”, a busy person is more likely to be exposed to more situations to gather new information on a daily basis.

• Busyness facilitates cognition growth and executive function networks by “the development of neural scaffolding.”

• Busyness requires a person to face the daily challenges head on in real time which involve creative strategies that promote “more efficient cognitive processing ability”.

• Busyness increases activity levels in people which prioritizing and scheduling play an important part. So, the reliance on memory strategies that aid this process may assist performance.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Even though being busy has its advantages, at least cognitively. Becoming too busy carries with it added stress, anxiety, mental acuity burdens, lack of energy and can limit the amount of meaningful time spent with loved ones.

For every upside of busyness there is of course a downside. Stress, mental health issues, anxiety related high blood pressure and lack of clarity, oftentimes are the signals your body gives when it’s reached its limits. Finding our perfect balance is personal yet everyone’s challenge.

The Journal of Consumer Research published a series of seven studies. Jeehye Christine Kim of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, with two other researches, found that what they refer to as a busy mindset,” bolsters people’s sense of self-importance, which, in turn, can increase self-control.”

So it appears that the feeling of busyness can give one a greater sense of responsibility which leads to actions of leadership and responsible behaviors.

There is no escape from the fact that our modern world is moving quickly and our ability to keep up requires us to be willing to stay engaged, active and busy in order to survive and thrive in our work place, school and at home. Staying busy is a sign of good health! Knowing your limits and listening to your body, by pacing yourself with daily “time-outs” even for just a few minutes can be a life-saver.

Living a full, productive and happy life means, in part, to become and remain busy.

The art becomes in knowing when to take a vacation.

-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain-