October 26, 2026 · Carolyn Charest, MC, R.Psych · 7 minute read
The calendar is full
Ask senior leaders what they did last weekend, and many will answer with a list of tasks. I’ve watched this play out for years, both inside organizations and in my practice. What often concerns me is what happens when the schedule empties. A cancelled meeting gets treated like a small emergency, and an open hour gets filled before anyone has a chance to notice how it feels.
That pattern has an everyday name: compulsive busyness. It describes people who need to feel productive in order to feel okay. Rest doesn’t often feel restful to them because it feels like falling behind.
This is a common pattern. A 2023 meta analysis of 53 studies and more than 71,000 workers estimated that around 15% show signs of workaholism, or roughly one in seven (Andersen et al., 2023). Nationally representative samples came in closer to 10% (Vandenberghe et al., 2025). If you run a leadership team of ten, at least one person at the table probably struggles with this. If you have trouble spotting them, then it may be helpful to look in the mirror.
A pattern worth noticing
Compulsive busyness isn’t a diagnosis, and neither is workaholism. Neither appears in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11), the two main manuals clinicians use to diagnose health conditions (Aziz & Covington, 2024; Matone et al., 2022). Burnout appears in the ICD 11 as an occupational phenomenon, and the World Health Organization is clear that it isn’t a medical condition (WHO, 2019).
Researchers describe workaholism as an inner pressure to work, persistent thoughts about work, negative feelings when not working, and working beyond what is required or expected (Clark, Smith, & Haynes, 2020). Compulsive busyness shows the same four features, and it extends beyond work into home and leisure. For example, a person who can’t log off their computer at the end of the day may also be turning a weekend hike into a race against last week’s time.
The distinction matters because constant doing can mask anxiety, low mood, grief, or patterns seen in ADHD or obsessive compulsive conditions. However, its important to note that weeks of low mood, worry you can’t switch off, broken sleep, or thoughts of not wanting to be here require an assessment from a physician or psychologist. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988 in Canada.
Where it tends to come from
Nobody wants to feel guilty while languishing on the couch. The habit usually grows from three roots.
Early lessons about worth. Many adults with this pattern learned young that approval followed achievement. Perfectionism among students in Canada, the US, and the UK has risen steadily since 1989 (Curran & Hill, 2019), alongside rising perceived parental expectations (Curran & Hill, 2022). The latest update found that since the early 2000s, fear of failure and fear of being judged have risen much faster than the drive to set high standards (Curran, Pose, & Hill, 2026). Many people grew up believing rest had to be earned.
A culture that rewards being slammed. In a series of experiments, Americans rated busy, overworked individuals as higher in status because busyness signalled competence and demand (Bellezza, Paharia, & Keinan, 2017). Italians showed the reverse effect and are clearly onto something. In Harvard Business Review, Adam Waytz argues that organizations routinely mistake activity for achievement (Waytz, 2023).
Doing as a way to manage feelings. A full schedule can keep grief, a strained marriage, or impostor worries out of the room. When a newly promoted vice president answers every “How are you?” with “Slammed,” they may be protecting their reputation. They may also be avoiding a more honest answer about how they feel.
How the habit keeps itself running
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) offers a clear way to see the loop. A situation, like a free afternoon, sparks an automatic thought such as “I’m falling behind” or “I should be doing something useful.” That thought brings guilt or restlessness, and the behaviour that follows is a task. The task eases the feeling, which makes the original thought seem true. Repeat this often enough, and a core belief settles in that your worth depends on your output. Psychologists call the relief piece of this negative reinforcement.
Who tends to get caught
Anyone can fall into this pattern, and a few profiles show up often in leadership circles. These examples are composites.
The high standards achiever rewrites a team member’s deck at midnight, then wonders why nobody takes initiative.
The newly promoted executive treats every evening as a chance to prove the board chose well.
The founder treats a quiet afternoon as negligence because the company carries their name and savings.
The double shift carrier balances a senior role with kids or aging parents until busyness becomes identity.
The person outrunning something, like a divorce or a loss, finds a packed calendar safer than an empty one.
Hard work alone doesn’t qualify. In the same three wave study, work engagement, the energized effort people enjoy, lowered depression and exhaustion risk over time, while workaholism raised depression risk (Afota et al., 2024). Engaged people work because they want to. Compulsively busy people work because stopping feels unbearable.
what busyness gives and takes
People stay busy because busyness has real payoffs. The gains tend to land early and at work, while the costs build slowly and often land at home.
| Area | What it gives | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Output | More gets done, and one meta analysis linked workaholism with going beyond the job description (Cheng & Gu, 2022) | Overload cuts efficiency and drives burnout and turnover (Waytz, 2023) |
| Reputation | Busy people read as competent (Bellezza et al., 2017) | Activity starts to stand in for results |
| Mood | Fast relief from guilt or worry | Less enjoyable leisure and higher depression risk (Tonietto et al., 2021; Afota et al., 2024) |
| Health | A sense of control | Poor sleep, stress, burnout, and cardiovascular risk markers (Aziz & Covington, 2024) |
| Home | Income and a very organized garage | Work spills into family life (Shimazu et al., 2020) |
An informal self check
This list is a conversation starter. This isn’t a validated screening tool designed to provide a mental health assessment. Think about the past month and check what sounds like the most familiar for you.
Unplanned time makes me uneasy, guilty, or irritable.
I fill rest with “useful” tasks, even on vacation.
I have trouble shutting off thoughts about work in the evening.
I regularly do far more than my role requires.
People close to me have asked me to slow down, and I’ve waved it away.
I can only enjoy leisure when I can call it productive.
When someone asks how I am, I tell them how busy I am.
My mood drops on days when I don’t accomplish much.
If several seem true most weeks, the habit may be taking more from your health and relationships than it gives back. If they show up with ongoing low mood, anxiety that won’t settle, or an inability to stop even when you try, talk with your physician or a psychologist.
What to do about it
Only start with one or two steps below. Overhauling your life in one weekend would be a very common move, and it would also miss the point.
| Step | What to try | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Map your triggers | Note when the urge to “do something” hits and what you felt just before | You can't change a loop you can't see |
| 2. Practise short stillness | Schedule 5 to 10 task free minutes and stretch them as they get easier | Gradually staying with discomfort instead of escaping it is a core exposure technique in CBT |
| 3. Build a real off switch | Set an email cutoff and a short ritual that ends the workday, like a walk | Switching off after work has been linked to less exhaustion (Sonnentag et al., 2017) |
| 4. Buy back time | Pay for a chore you dislike, then protect the freed hour from work | Buying time reduced time stress and lifted mood in a field experiment (Whillans et al., 2017) |
| 5. Trade the critic for a coach | Answer your inner critic the way you'd speak to a valued colleague or friend | In a 2025 study of nurses, higher self compassion weakened the link between workaholism and working while sick (Zong et al., 2025) |
| 6. Lead the change at work | Reward outcomes over visible effort, and take your vacation in full view | Waytz recommends both to shift a busyness culture (Waytz, 2023) |
| 7. Ask your partner | Ask what they notice, then protect one block of family time each week | They see the pattern from the outside |
| 8. Get support | If the steps stall or the self check raised concerns, book an assessment with a psychologist | An assessment can clarify what drives the pattern and which approaches fit |
being is a skill
High performers often learn to read a balance sheet, run a board meeting, and deliver bad news with grace. Sitting still on a Saturday morning is a skill too. Your to do list will never be empty, and you don’t need it to be just to feel okay.
Carolyn Charest, MC, R.Psych
This article offers general information and isn’t a substitute for an individual assessment. Examples are composites.
Sources
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