Replacing Human Connection with a Self-Inflicted ‘Busy Schedule’

Even if you’re an introvert the truth remains that people need meaningful human connection in their lives. Family, partners, close friends and colleagues. We all value being known. Walking into a room where people know your name, or story, or accomplishments. They know what happened to you last week and the flavor of ice cream that you hate. 

When life gets inevitably hectic or ‘busy’ (which has become the most common response to ‘How are you?’), we begin to replace the meaningful human connections in our lives, with a top-notch, color-coded planner. You know what will never let you down? Your perfectly organized calendar. 

You could go through an entire week and check every box on your schedule–– you attended all the meetings, went to all the trainings, you did all your laundry and cooked every meal. But did you take the time to actually connect with anyone you were with? Did the passersby you saw even know you? Or were you just another person dressed in work clothes waiting in line for coffee.  

Schedules will be busy, that’s just part of life, but at times we may overcomplicate them and add even more responsibilities just because that’s what we’re supposed to do, right?  We inflict an insanely busy day-to-day schedule on ourselves, not because we enjoy it, but because it seems to be the cultural norm or allows us to avoid other things.  Unfortunately, these unreasonable schedules exist often at the expense of meaningful human connections in our lives.