Most of us routinely answer the question “How are you?” with a single word: “Busy.” Long hours, back-to-back meetings, late-night emails – it’s all become a weird badge of honour.
But this fascination with busyness is nothing new. Almost 100 years ago, Bertrand Russell wrote an essay called In Praise of Idleness where he basically said: this obsession with work is making us miserable and misses the point of what it means to be human. In a more recent publication, Australian author and humourist Bradley Trevor Greive brings Russell’s ideas to life with a dash of humour, witty commentary and illustrated versions of some of Bertrand Russell’s best quotes.
Maybe the “work ethic” needs a rethink
Russell’s big claim is provocative: a lot of what we call “work ethic” is an old moral story designed for a world of scarcity – and it mainly served the people who benefited from everyone else’s hard labour. Today, that story shows up as hustle culture, 60+ hour weeks, and leaders who confuse being exhausted with being important. We’re still clinging to the idea that the more we grind, the more virtuous we are. It feels about time we asked different questions:
- What if constant busyness is a design flaw, not a badge of honour?
- What if real leadership is measured by how much humanity we protect, not how much work we squeeze in?
Leisure isn’t lazy; it’s creative fuel
Russell doesn’t define idleness as lying on the couch all day and checking out of life. He’s talking about real leisure – the kind of time where you actually think, create, connect with people, and recharge properly. Historically, most art, science, and big ideas came from people who had the luxury of this kind of time. Russell’s argument: instead of a small “leisure class,” we should be giving everyone a fair slice of that space. We need to flip the script:
- Time to think is not a perk; it’s part of the job.
- Rest isn’t what you get after you’ve proven yourself – it’s what makes good work possible in the first place.
- Protecting people’s energy and attention is a core leadership responsibility, not a “nice to have.”
The trap of “work-about-work”
Russell talks about two kinds of work:
- Actually making or doing things.
- Telling other people what to make or do.
These days, the second kind has exploded: endless meetings, decks, reports, dashboards, and status updates. A lot of leaders I talk to are exhausted but rarely satisfied – because they’re spending more time talking about work than doing work that matters. The antidote could be as simple as a willingness to ask:
- How much of our week is “real work” versus “work-about-work”?
- Which meetings and reports genuinely help, and which are just habit or fear?
- Where can we simplify, remove, or say “no” so people can get back to the craft they’re actually paid for?
The four-hour day as a thought experiment
Long before Tim Ferris touted the 4-hour everything, Russell famously suggested that with modern technology and a fair distribution of labour, we could probably get by on a four-hour workday for everyone. Whether or not you buy into that literally, it’s a great thought experiment. Imagine your team only had four hours a day:
- What would you stop doing immediately?
- What would you fight to protect?
- How would you treat your people’s time differently?
Those answers reveal what you actually value – and where your systems are out of alignment with the people-centred culture you say you want.
What this means for leaders
Bringing an In Praise of Idleness philosophy into leadership conversations can unlock new ways for our people to think about what matters.
Redefine success: Move from “How much did I do?” to “What did I create, and who did I become while doing it?”
Treat boundaries as a skill, not a personal weakness: Saying no, ending the day on time, and simplifying processes become acts of responsible leadership, not signs of slacking.
Design more humane systems: Audit meetings, workloads, and rituals through one lens: does this support people’s dignity, energy, and meaning – or drain it?
Normalise real downtime: Thinking time, reflection, and proper breaks become part of the work, not something we need to feel guilty about.
“Praising idleness” isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about refusing to waste precious time and energy on an unnecessary grind so the time we do spend working is thoughtful, creative, and genuinely worthwhile. If your team never has time to be “idle,” they may never have time to be at their best.
Give people permission to do less so they have time to do better.
[Note: If Bertrand Russell’s style is a bit too olde-worlde for you, you’ll find the same calming message in Alex Pang’s insightful and profoundly practical Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, and Oliver Burkeman’s wonderfully uplifting Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It, or his most recent work, Meditations for Mortals: A Four Week Guide to Doing What Counts.]