Thijs Launspach - Crazy Busy: Keeping Sane in a Stressful World

Thijs Launspach

This edition first published 2022

Copyright 2022 by Thijs Launspach. All rights reserved.

Originally published as Fokking druk: Het ultieme antistressboek by Uitgeverij Unieboek | Het Spectrum bv in 2018.

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data is Available:

ISBN 9780857089458 (Paperback)

ISBN 9780857089472 (ePub)

ISBN 9780857089465 (ePDF)

Translation: Danny Guinan

Cover design: Eric Huijsen / Moker Ontwerp

Photography: Nanda Hagenaars

Original illustrations: Elgraphic

Given the incredibly hectic lives we lead today, is it even possible to find enough time to relax and unwind? Can you reduce the amount of stress you experience without your life becoming boring? How can you avoid a burnout while staying productive at the same time?

Meetings, deadlines, breaking news, email notifications, social media updates, a thousand consumer choices per day, our free time filled to the brim with social activities the life we lead nowadays can be incredibly busy. And we seem to like it that way. We like to feel productive. We value hard work. We enjoy our leisure activities. All things considered, we regard a busy life as a good life.

There may not be a lot wrong with leading a busy life, if you're able to manage the excesses and find ways to recover from the busyness, that is. If you're not careful, however, being nicely busy can easily tip over into being crazy busy. And if you're crazy busy all of the time, this can lead to all kinds of trouble: exhaustion, anxiety and even burnout.

Burnout is a huge and growing problem. Approximately half of all employees in the US say they experience dangerously high levels of stress because of their work. In the UK, one in five employees complains of being on the verge of burning out because they are no longer able to handle the pressure of work. For certain groups (women, 25 to 35yearolds, people who work in the health care sector or in education) these numbers are even higher. In the UK, one in three of all cases of absenteeism are directly related to burnout.

While your body and mind are quite able to process normal daytoday stress, prolonged stress can result in you suffering a burnout. Up until quite recently, complaints related to stress and burnout were often dismissed as nonsense. We considered burnout to be something that only ever affected perfectionists who were unable to handle the normal pressure of work. People who suffered from stress were thought of as weak and labelled as drama queens. Fortunately, we now know better: given how busy our lives are these days, everyone is a potential victim of burnout. And that's all down to the way in which we live and work.

Not only are the people who burn out are feeling the heat. Even if you never reach the burnout stage, an excess of stress can easily diminish your quality of life. This everyday kind of stress can cause you to enjoy life less and pay too little attention to others. It can make you feel like you are a slave to the machine. It can give you the feeling that you are always playing catchup and are never on time with your work, a bit like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland who is always too late! Stress has a negative effect on how you interact with others and it makes you less outgoing. It prevents you from being fully present in the moment because your mind is always elsewhere. And in the long term, stress can lead to many negative health outcomes, such as heart problems. In other words, a high level of stress often comes at a very high price.

There is no need to let it come to that, however, and there are a number of basic principles you can use to prevent stress from ruling your life. Of course, it is impossible to avoid stress completely it's a simple fact of life but this does not mean you are condemned to suffer interminably from its slings and arrows. There are plenty of things you can do to minimise the effect busyness has on your life and to prevent excessive levels of stress. And you don't have to wait until the last moment, either, before intervening. You can take steps now that will prevent you from falling victim to stress. You don't have to be wealthy or privileged to be able to enjoy a more relaxed life and experience less stress. Nor does your life have to become boring. It is possible to be as productive as you have always been and to enjoy doing interesting things, but then with a much lower level of stress.