How to Look Busy Without Doing More Work

I am overwhelmed by my workload, but my coworkers always look busy without seeming stressed. How do I learn to look constantly occupied without actually taking on more work?

Empty Inbox Endless Rejection Dread,
Clipboard Mirage Artist

---

You are overwhelmed by your workload, watching coworkers who look busy without seeming stressed, and thinking the missing ingredient is effort. It isn’t.

You are not trying to do work. You are trying to radiate workload. There is a difference, and the difference is what separates the living from the spreadsheets.

Not messy like you are careless, messy like you are important.

First, your desk needs to look like a crime scene where paperwork fought back. Keep one folder visible at all times and make sure it is slightly open, like it contains secrets that could ruin a man.

Next, master the urgent phone call that says nothing. Pick up the phone, pause, sigh once, and say you will circle back with an update. Nobody knows what you mean, which is perfect, because clarity is how they trap you into delivering results.

Then you weaponize motion. Walk fast with a pen in your hand and your eyes aimed just past people, like you are chasing a deadline that has teeth. If anyone tries to stop you, give them the kind of nod that says you are listening, but your soul is already in the next meeting.

Finally, become an office enigma. Be constantly “in the middle of something” and never define the something. In time, they will stop asking what you do and start assuming you are carrying the whole operation on your back, like Atlas with a lanyard.

– Uncle Bobby