Better word than busy - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

Are you tired of being busy? Why not try a new word or an expression which describes your level of busyness a little more precisely. Here are some alternatives which allow you to better express exactly how busy you are and how soon you are likely to be available. There is, after all, a world of difference between being “a little tied up” and being “completely snowed under”.

10 alternative expressions

1. Tied up

Example: I’m a little tied up with this new project.
Nuance: Busy

2. Occupied
Example: She’s a bit occupied today dealing with new staff.
Nuance: Busy

3. Overstretched
Example: He’s slightly overstretched at the moment.
Nuance: Very busy

4. Over-extended
Example: She’s quite over-extended in this particular role.
Nuance: Very busy

5. Overloaded
Example: We’re rather overloaded with all these new cases.
Nuance: Very busy

6. Swamped
Example: They’ve been completely swamped with new customers this week.
Nuance: Extremely busy

7. Snowed under
Example: He’s been snowed under with complaints.
Nuance: Extremely busy

8. To have enough/rather a lot/too much on one’s plate at the moment
Nuance: Varies according to alternative selected

9. To have other/bigger fish to fry
Nuance: To have more important things to do

10. To have other priorities today/this week /this month
Nuance: To have more important things to do

Use qualifiers or modifiers for greater precision

The following qualifiers can be used interchangeably with expressions 1- 7 above
• A little
• A bit
• Slightly
• Quite
• Rather
• Completely

The London School of English offers high quality English language training for motivated adults from all professional backgrounds. We give you the tools and skills you need to communicate successfully in your field of expertise and to expand your business and career opportunities. Call us on +46 8 5999 4000 or email us at info@londonschool.se for more information about our tailored tuition or simply take our online test to check your English level

Posted: 13 May 2019

Categories: Workplace challenges

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Most of us consider our lives pretty active, though is it correct to use “busier” or “more busy” when comparing ourselves to others? Busy is a relative term because some people may have more to do each day than others around them.

Busier is the correct comparative adjective to use when expressing a degree of difference between two things. We generally add -er to short, single-syllable words to create the comparative form, and because busy is a two-syllable word ending in a -y, we replace it with -ier.

This article will explore comparative forms in general and the rules that govern them in English. We’ll also examine the word “busy” and its comparative form and explain why “busier” is a better choice than “more busy.”

Degrees of Comparison

We use degrees of comparison to compare one thing with another. In English, there are three degrees of comparison:

Positive form
Comparative form
Superlative form

When we use an adjective or adverb to describe just one thing, then we use the positive form. When we compare two things, we use the comparative form, and when comparing three or more things or describing an action performed to its highest degree, we use the superlative form.

Below is a table with some examples of these three forms:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Busy	Busier	Busiest
Small	Smaller	Smallest
Strong	Stronger	Strongest
Pretty	Prettier	Prettiest
Tall	Taller	Tallest

Consider the following examples that show how we use the degrees of comparison in sentences.

I am busy. (Positive Form)
Jack is busier than Emma. (Comparative Form)
Jack is the busiest he has ever been. (Superlative Form)
The ball is small. (Positive Form)
Jack’s ball is smaller than Emma’s. (Comparative Form)
That is the smallest ball I have ever seen (Superlative Form)
Jane is pretty. (Positive Form)
Sarah is prettier than Jane. (Comparative Form)
Katie is the prettiest of the three girls. (Superlative Form)

Spelling Rules

If the word has double vowels or ends in double consonants, then we simply add -er and -est.

Examples: weak – weaker – weakest; rich – richer – richest; pink – pinker – pinkest

If the word is a single-syllable and has a short vowel, then we double the last letter and add -er in the comparative form and -est in the superlative form.

Examples: hot – hotter – hottest; big – bigger – biggest; fit – fitter – fittest

If the word ends in an “e,” then we add -r and -st.

Examples: ripe – riper – ripest; wise – wiser – wisest; close – closer – closest

If the word ends in a “y,” then we replace the “y” with -ier and -iest.

Examples: busy – busier – busiest; lacy – lacier – laciest; nutty – nuttier – nuttiest

If the word is more than two syllables long and doesn’t end in “y,” then we use “more” and “most.” We also use these if the word ends in -ous, -ive, or -ful.

Examples: colorful – more colorful – most colorful; difficult – more difficult – most difficult; talented – more talented – most talented

Notable Exceptions

As with all English grammar and spelling rules, there are some notable exceptions. The most common of these appear in the table below.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Good She is good at math.	Better Jane is better at math than Jeff.	Best Anne is the best in the class at math.
Bad I am a bad cook.	Worse Jane is a worse cook than Jeff.	Worst Anne is the worst cook in her family.
Little She wants a little ice cream.	Less Jane wants less ice cream than Jeff does.	Least Anne ate the least ice cream of all the children.
Many She has many friends.	More Jane has more friends than Jeff.	Most Anne has the most friends of all the children.

We use the comparative form either to compare things or to show change. Comparative adjectives make comparisons between two nouns, and comparative adverbs describe relative actions or verbs (source).

“Busy” is an adjective, and the comparative form of busy is busier.

When we use it as a comparative adjective, “busier” compares the relation between two nouns — people, places, or things — as in the following examples:

Jack is the busier of the two managers.
Maple Mall is busier than Acorn Mall.
Traffic is busier on North St. than Jacob St.

Uses of Comparative Adjectives

When using comparative adjectives to make a direct comparison between two things, we use the word than to express this:

Jane is busier than Mark.
Ellen is taller than Ross.
Jack is kinder than Jennifer.

When describing change, we can repeat the comparative together with “and”:

That intersection has become busier and busier.
She never stopped eating and just grew bigger and bigger.
He became quieter and quieter as the bullying continued.

When expressing how one thing depends on another, we can use “the” together with comparative adjectives:

The more he gives me to do, the busier I become.
The faster you eat, the more likely you will be to get hiccups.
The more irritating he is, the quicker I react.

What Is the Meaning of Busier?

The root word of “busier” is the adjective “busy,” which we can define as follows (source):

Being occupied with a task
Being currently in use
Being full of activity, bustling
Having a lot of intricate detail

Consider the following sentences that illustrate these nuances in meaning:

She was busy doing her homework when he arrived — occupied with a task.
The changing stall was busy when I wanted to use it — currently in use.
That is a very busy part of the park — bustling, full of activity.
The fabric design was too busy for my simple tastes — intricate detail.

Origins

The word “busy” originated from Old English, where the Anglo-Saxons spelled it bisig and defined it as “anxious” or “careful” (source). We can link its origins to the Old Dutch word bezich and the Low German word besig, which came to mean “in constant action” and is consistent with today’s definition.

In the 15th century, the spelling shifted to the current form, and the word became more about being meddlesome than anxious. This definition is still retained in the term “busybody” which refers to a meddling, prying person.

The term “busier” first entered the records in the late 1700s. It steadily gained popularity over the next century, and its recorded usage since then has been fairly consistent (source).

Busier vs. More Busy

As discussed above, “busier” is the correct comparative form of “busy.” Mostly, we only use “more” for comparative adjectives when words are more than two syllables long and don’t end in “y.” There are always exceptions to this rule, and, as with all English exceptions, you’ll simply have to learn these.

Is “More Busy” Correct?

Almost always, the correct term is “busier.” However, there are also some specific examples where one might use “more busy” rather than “busier.” Consider the following examples, where “more busy” is the right choice rather than “busier.”

I have never been more busy in my life.
I continued to paint after my illness, but I was more busy than productive.
He is as busy as his brother — not less busy, and not more busy, but about the same.

In the first example, you could use “busier,” but using “more busy” places stress on the “more” element of the meaning and is better served by using “more busy.”

The second sentence needs to use “more” because that is the comparative form of “productive,” and the sentence would sound awkward if it read “…busier more than more productive.”

The final sentence qualifies the meaning of “as busy” and, again, although we could use “busier” in its place, the sentence makes its point best with “more busy.”

Other words that can be confusing when choosing whether to use “more” in the comparative form include “healthy” and “clear.” Click on the links to read more about these.

Is Busier the Correct Word?

The term “busier” is the correct word as it appropriately compares two objects, people, or places to one another. For example, we can contrast two people to see who has the most to do in a week. We can compare two patterns to see which has the more elaborate design, or we could evaluate two restaurants and discover which receives more trade.

Alternatives to Busier

Because these contexts all have slightly different meanings, we can use several alternatives in place of “busier.” Consider the following sentences and the alternatives offered.

You should rather ask Simon for help because Jeff is busier than him.
You should rather ask Simon for help because Jeff is more occupied than him.

Here, “busier” refers to being engaged in a task. In this context, we could also substitute it with “more involved” or “harder at work.”

That cubicle is busier than this one.
That cubicle is more used than this one.

Here, “busier” refers to being in use. In this context, we could also substitute it with “more popular.”

That intersection is always busier than this one.
That intersection is always more frantic than this one.

Here “busier” refers to being full of activity. In this context, we could also substitute it with “more bustling,” “more congested,” or “more hectic.”

The pattern on this paisley scarf is much busier than that one.
The pattern on this paisley scarf is much more intricate than that one.

Here “busier” means having lots of intricate detail. In this context, we could also substitute it with “more ornate” or “more embellished.”

Is More Busier Correct?

More busier is never correct. One person could be busier than someone else, but it would be grammatically incorrect to say you are “more busier” than someone. The term “busier” is already modified by the suffix -er and does not require the adverb “more.”

Grammarians refer to this grammatical error as a double comparative, which happens any time that someone uses a comparative ending together with “more” or “less” (source).

If you wanted to say you were more than just busier, then you are probably the busiest. “Busiest” is the superlative form of the adjective “busy.”

Understanding Superlatives

A superlative adjective describes something to its highest or lowest degree when comparing three or more things (source). This is evidenced in the following sentences, all of which use the superlative form of the adjective.

This is the busiest mall I have ever seen.
Jack is the tallest man in the group.
Jane was the most accomplished musician in the orchestra.

When we are talking about busyness or the degree of being busy, then busiest is the superlative form. This article was written for strategiesforparents.com.

A superlative form allows us to compare a person or thing with an entire group of similar things. In the examples above, the groups would be busy malls, tall men, and accomplished musicians. A comparative simply allows comparison with another person or thing (source).

Final Thoughts

We frequently use the word “busy” in the English language with a range of meanings. Understanding the nuances of these definitions helps to enrich our command of the language.

Likewise, making use of comparative and superlative forms allows us to compare various qualities in the people and things we describe, and it’s important to know when it’s correct to use “more” and “most” and when the word just gets the “er” or “est” suffixes.

In the case of “busy,” we now know that the correct comparative form is “busier.” Hopefully, your study of the English language will ensure that you are busier than your fellow students and perhaps even the busiest student around!

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Hi everyone. It’s Jenn DeWall, and on this week’s episode of The Leadership Habit Podcast, I sat down with Maureen Falvey to talk about how we can be better than busy. Because here’s the thing, many of us are likely running around in our days feeling extremely busy. There are so many items on our to-do list, but here’s the thing I want you to reflect on. Busyness does not mean fulfillment. Just because we’re busy, it doesn’t mean that we’re happy, that we’re feeling good about our choices, or that we’re even prioritizing what’s most important to us. And that’s what the conversation is today.

Meet Maureen Falvey, Executive Coach and Author

Jenn DeWall: But before we jump into it, let me tell you a little bit more about Maureen. Maureen comes with over 25 years of business leadership experience, partnering with clients such as Proctor and Gamble, general Mills, Burger King, and United Airlines at top advertising shops, including Grey, Saatchi and Saatchi and mcgarrybowen. Over the years, she has designed countless mentoring, training and leadership programs for her teams. Simply put, Maureen is an activator. She uses strategic questions and positivity to meet people where they’re at and then take them where they want to go. So let’s do it. Let’s be better than busy.

Maureen, I am so happy to be talking with you. I mean the notion of today’s topic, how to be better than busy, maximize your time for the greatest fulfillment, even the expression better than busy. I just feel like it empowers me when I hear those words. I’m so excited to be talking about this. Maureen, thank you so much for coming to The Leadership Habit today. It’s so great to have you.

Maureen Falvey: I’m thrilled to be with you today, Jenn.

What does Better than Busy Mean?

Jenn DeWall: Oh my gosh. So better than busy. That’s what, that’s what’s gonna be our focus. I know we’re gonna dive into it. We’re gonna talk about the tips and tricks because, obviously all of us are so used to just living our lives and autopilot busy as ever. We’ve got so much to do. But before we dive into that, Maureen, I would love to just introduce you to our audience. If you could go ahead and tell us about yourself, how it came to be, how you came to be, how you even became interested in this topic of being better than busy, even though I think, gosh, thank goodness you wrote a book on it because everyone actually needs to hear this

Maureen Falvey: Wonderful. Thank you. Yes. So I was I was in advertising for many, many years. It was a giant playground and I love the challenges we were solving. And my family, they’re all therapists by the way, would always ask me, when are you gonna join the family business? And I would laugh and Never say because your business model like you, what you’re doing take so long. And I don’t mean to make light of it, they save lives every day. It’s wonderful. But I’ve always been curious about what is the strategy that we could take on that would not only help us be better than busy, but just have great lives. Right? To never look back at the end of our, our week or our month or the year or God forbid our life and say what just happened? And so I’ve been on this journey in my ad career now as a coach and a trainer and a speaker as to really to wake people up and say, the best life happens when it happens on purpose. I have a strong belief that nothing great happens accidentally. So it happens by design. And so I’ve been on this mission in the work that I do and in the book that I co-authored to help people be better than busy.

Jenn DeWall: I just love your perspective on wanting to help people maximize to live life with intention. I don’t know, you know, I think sometimes all of us get caught up in o autopilot. And I hate to say it because I think sometimes the people that might have a greater awareness around the fragility of our time are the ones that might have gone through, you know, those life altering like earthquakes, right? Or I, I’ve heard someone call them life quakes, which I really like that term. And how do we help people realize that we’ve got to wake up and be more intentional with how we are actually using this beautiful gift of time? I love that message. Because that’s, that’s it, right? We get one short time here on this earth. How the heck do we wanna live it <laugh>, like, it’s so important. So let’s, let’s dive into it. So what does it even mean to be better than busy from your perspective? You wrote the book The 25th, or you co-wrote a chapter in the book, Peak Performance: Mindset Tools for Entrepreneurs, The 25th Hour. Maybe we should start there. So what was the purpose of writing the 25th hour chapter in your book?

Do You Wish You Had a 25^th Hour in the Day?

Maureen Falvey: Yeah, I guess it’s twofold. Listen, like what, what do we hear from people? You know, we say, say, how are you? How many times do you hear back? Someone says, I’m busy. And you know what? We all are like, I still haven’t met a human who doesn’t fill their 24 hours. <Laugh>. I haven’t met that person yet. If you’re a housewife or you’re a CEO or you’re a bank or a business, right? You feel your 24 hours so busy is just like, it’s kind of a four letter word. It’s just not, it’s not, it doesn’t vibrate at a high frequency and it kind of telegraphs to people that you don’t have your act together as if life is happening to you and not for you. And so part of it is just this response of how when I say to someone, how are you doing?

And they say, I’m busy. I know they don’t feel good saying it and I’m not particularly energized hearing it. And I also hear people say all the time, oh, if only I had a 25th hour, an extra hour in the day, I crush it. And I sort of, you know, warmly say, you wouldn’t right? You, you first of all, there is no 25th hour. But second of all, you probably just throw it away the same way you do the 24 you were given. Unless you get super intentional and you plan for it and you know what your values are, what do you wanna honor today? You know what your priorities are. Without that, how do I know what to say yes and no to? Right? Right. We have to, and then we design it and then it’s very easy. No gets really easy cuz it’s not a part of my plan.

No gets really easy because that was 30th and my list of priorities. So it’s very easy. It’s very easy to see what to say yes and no to. So that was it. And I, you know, in that 25th hour, I just I I would be far more interested in taking an hour away and telling someone they have 23 and seeing which hour they would fight to get back and then saying, how do we plan to have more of those? Right. Everybody you fight for every hour in your day. And so that’s where that came from. Yeah.

Jenn DeWall: Sorry to interrupt. I’m so sorry to interrupt you. What are some of the, like if, have you asked that question? So if I took away one hour, what one would you fight for? Have you asked that question to your clients and what did they say? What was the maybe were there themes that you noticed in terms of what they would fight for?

Which Part of Your Day Are You Willing to Fight For?

Maureen Falvey: It’s interesting, we’re social beings which is wonderful belonging Maslow’s hierarchy. It’s so important to us. And during the pandemic we realized how much we did or didn’t miss connecting. But the hour most people miss and it matters what matters to you. But the hour most people miss is the quiet time. The morning is usually what comes up. More so than evening. Right At the end of the day we seem to, as we go about the day, some of us are more so in reactive mode. We’ve lost control of the day. The time thieves have taken a bunch of things. We let it happen. But that silence, that quiet in the morning before we start reacting is the hour people want the most. And so I say as a coach, the first question I ask is, what is the benefit of that hour to you?

And they start to talk about the outcome and the ripple effect of having that time to breathe, whether it’s meditation or silence or a walk in nature, walking their dog. What is the ripple effect of that? And they talk about the joy and they talk about how they’re ready for the day and there’s a sense of preparedness, there’s a sense of confidence. So now they’re attracted to that hour cuz they’ve just thought, thought about all the great benefits. The next question I ask cuz I’d be crazy not to, is what, if it’s anything is in the way of having two hours like that? What, if anything, is in the way of ending your day the same way? And we talk about the obstacles and then we move them together and we put a plan together to have more of that wonderful part enjoy that they had at the beginning of the day. And it’s usually around, the thing that’s in the way is usually around not being mindful. Obviously not having a plan, but not being conscious of our yeses and nos. Right? We go about the rest of the day pleasing or we’ve just lost all of that sense. We don’t have a priority, there’s nothing to bring us back to center. So it just all kind of starts to fall apart.

Jenn DeWall: Oh my God, I, that was a beautiful response of, because I think most people do admire that thinking time, the quiet time. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, but we don’t realize how much that fills us and how it allows us to approach our day with just a different attitude. I think that’s beautiful and surprising. I’m surprised by that almost to hear that that’s the one. But it makes total sense because that’s when we get to quiet the noise. We’re not caught up in that, as you said, like the reactive mode. I love that. And so when we think about better than busy, it’s living our life with intention. What do you think, you know, gets in our way? So what are some of the obstacles that get in our way? Why do you feel like we’re not as fulfilled or we’re not able to do it?

How to be a Chief Editing Officer for Your Life

Maureen Falvey: Yeah. it’s surprisingly simple. We’re just, it’s like right in front of us and we’re just not grabbing it. There’s some external barriers and there’s one internal barrier. So the external barriers to being better than busy to being fulfilled, right? To is you could look to time management and you could block and tackle, right? So that’s an external barrier is I don’t have enough time, but you actually do. So Harvard Business Review did a study of the most effective Fortune 500 CEOs and how they spend their time and on Sunday night they look at their 168 hours for the week and they block and they tackle and they move. And they’re what Greg McKeown who wrote a book called Essentialism. He says, A CEO is actually a chief editing officer. And that what we cut is of supreme importance in staying aligned with our plan and our purpose.

So they do a lot of cutting and they move things around. And what’s interesting is about if you design your time that way, these Fortune 500 CEOs enjoy their weekends. They take their vacation, they have hobbies. When is the last time you know, all of you? What did we, did we net or bake bread Maybe during the pandemic we did, but they have hobbies. So when we get, when we master our time and we are in charge of it versus reacting, we get a whole lot. Right? A lot of time we might get that second hour of joy in there <laugh>, right? So they block it and it also makes it easier to say yes and no. So it’s the, the, the time management piece is super important. Being aligned with our values. Self-Awareness, I guess. I mean to say like what is it that you wanna honor today?

Be Better than Busy by Working in Sprints Instead of Marathons

Maureen Falvey: What works for you and what doesn’t? And so looking at time plans, designs, priorities, recovery is super important. So tell Ben Shahar says the problem’s, not that we’re working too hard, is that we’re not recovering enough. So we definitely wanna put time in there for that. We’re busy when we’re not recovering. If you’re constantly on, there isn’t a chance for us to nurture and restore. We’re not, the way we’re working is kind of broken, right? It’s a holdover from the industrial revolution of like four. It’s, I wish it were 40 hour. I know for many of us it’s, it’s far more. But the suggestion to be better than busy is to work like an athlete trains in sprints and bursts. So you go for 90 minutes hard, right? Master something, go for it. And then you recover. They suggest for 20 or 30 minutes, even if you don’t have that, sometimes three deep breaths, but the recovery has you better than busy. But the internal stuff can be a little harder.

Jenn DeWall: I’m definitely thinking of all the internal stuff that I have right now,

Maureen Falvey: <Laugh>, right? You have to know your worth in order to cut, don’t you? You have to know that you deserve to put your no’s and your yeses in the right place and have some detractors. Some people might not like that and that has to be okay. But what’s great is when you know what your values are and your priorities, when someone asks you to do something that’s in conflict with commitment, that’s important. You get to say, I’d love to, but I have a commitment. They don’t need to know what the commitment is. I don’t need any judgment around what that thing was. I have a commitment. And in doing so, interestingly enough, you increase your reputation with that person as someone who does what they say they’re gonna do next time. I have a commitment to you. You, you can bet I’m gonna keep it. But the internal stuff is harder. It is harder, right? It’s a lifelong journey of self-love and compassion and knowing we’re worth it.

Jenn DeWall: That’s, that is the hardest. I mean, I love talking about confidence probably because it’s something that still struggle with. Even though people would be like, oh, Jenn, she’s so extroverted. She’s naturally gotta be glowing with confidence. But on the other side of being better than busy, I find myself overscheduled because I never wanna let someone down. Mm-Hmm. I never want to say no to someone. I don’t want people to feel like I don’t care, I don’t want to jeopardize potential. But I would say business opportunities or opportunities for growth and maybe for a leader it might be feeling like if I say no, then they’re not gonna consider me for that promotion. And if I say no, then my team is gonna be mad at me. And I, I feel like I have that. And I, I feel like some of our listeners might also experience it that because it’s so easy to just say yes to everything, if you feel like it’s, you know, based on that external validation, like, I wanna make sure that you like me.

And we even just talked about that example prior, prior too, of what I’m going through of like, oh my gosh, I have to actually, now that I understand the scope of a project a lot differently, I have to go and have the difficult conversation. And this is one of the first times that I’m really gonna advocate for my worth because I can’t actually say yes to this with the in new information that I have. And sometimes that’s hard, right? I’m sure that there are some leaders that overcommit and they don’t realize the full scope of something. And then how do you come back from that? I mean, there’s so much there, Maureen!

Making a Commitment to Yourself

Maureen Falvey: There’s so much there, right? But imagine this, so I we’re creatures of habit and that can be really bad, but it can be really good. And so if we designed a contract with ourselves that very clearly on a page said, what’s in and out of scope? What am I gonna say yes to? What am I gonna say no to? What do I wanna honor? Then I can, even if I’m feeling what do I call it, wonky or squishy inside or not super confident, I go back to the contract and the promise I made to myself, I will only say yes to projects that are in line with my worth, my compensation. Right? Right. So you say it and it becomes very easy. So then what you get to do, and I think this is kinda cool, is you can, you can feel, I don’t know, insecure and make the bold move anyway because it’s in your contract.

It’s the promise you made to yourself. And then in doing so, in advocating for ourself and putting our yeses and nos in the right place, the confidence gets stronger and it gets easier and easier to build that habit of saying no when it doesn’t serve us. There’s a exercise that I do. Marie Kondo just came up again in the New York Times last week. She’s so fantastic. But she wrote that book, the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Yeah. And now she’s moved into– And so, and I love that she did this cuz I, I saw it was coming before I, years ago would say, let’s Marie Kondo our lives <laugh>. And now she’s doing that meaning what, let’s say I asked you can you co-author a book with me, right? It’s gonna take 50 hours and I can’t pay you anything.

But blah, blah blah, blah. What doesn’t matter. The invitation is to hold the request. Just like she suggests we go into the closet and you hold a sweater and you say, does it bring me joy? And give yourself time to say, does this bring me joy? Is writing that book with Maureen aligned with my values? Is it in the contract I made to myself? Right? So where do I look to see? But we say yes so quickly that we don’t even know if we’ve dishonored ourselves. We just don’t even know. It’s just hardwire. Especially unfortunately oftentimes as women we were raised to please and to smile and to serve. And as my wonderful mother says, if you’re not full, you have nothing to give. It is a self-care is a win-win. Everybody wins when we slow down our yeses, everybody wins. When we, when we Marie Kondo that stuff. <Laugh>

Jenn DeWall: Yes. You cannot fill from an empty cup. Yeah. And, but I mean, I know that that’s still, cause I think people might be listening to this and say like, oh, well I know that, but they’re still not doing it and you know, they’re still not doing it. Which means that they still have, and I know that you, I know you’ve got a point of view of this. I know you do. How do you work with your clients and helping them overcome the fear of the consequence of the No? Like how do you work with them to say like, it’s okay. Yeah. If you know, like, cause I think part of it, the research says that most of us assume that people will think bad on us, but they actually won’t unless maybe there’s unhealthy relationships or lack of boundaries, or they’re not necessarily thinking about our best interest, but yet we’re still gonna operate on the fact that people will think less of us. Yeah. And we’re afraid of the consequences. Any tips on how you might, you know, guide a client that’s experiencing that fear of like, but I can’t, I know my values. I know it’s important to me. But I just can’t.

What Does a Good Day Look Like to You?

Maureen Falvey: The first place we would start is building on the language you just used, what will people think of me? I wanna know what you think of you. The most important question is what do you, what are you most proud of? What does a good day look like for you? And the first question I want you to ask is, at the end of the day, am I proud of me? Right? And what do you actually, what is the benefit of having the whole world love you? Of pleasing all of these other people? So there was a book that was banned in my house, <laugh>, that everyone loves. So sometimes people get upset when I say this, but the giving tree <laugh>. And so we had four daughters in our house growing up. And if you remember the giving tree, there’s, it’s a relationship between a boy and a tree.

And the boy as he grows, continues to take more from the tree, builds a house with it. The, the whatever, and he gets a shade from the branches. And at the end of the book, the tree is a stump and the boy is now an old man and the tree says, what can I, what can I do for you now? And he tries to make itself big as it can, but it’s a stump. And the boy says, the old man says, I just wanna rest. And he sits down on the stump.

This infuriated my mother. She said, no daughter of mine will end up a stump. That story should ha the way love works is the tree would’ve flourished from the love from the boy and it would’ve had twice as many branches and twice as many leaves. So we’re not reading this book in this house. Now, someone since has rewritten that book, I think about a year or two years ago. So I love that with a different ending with the flourishing. So my mother was one step ahead, <laugh>.

Jenn DeWall: Oh my gosh, I love that.

Maureen Falvey: But like in this service, if you end up with nothing, who wins in that? I work with a lot of people who are people pleasers and they end up burnt out. And now you can’t please anybody. So a lot of people who are like hospice workers and helping professions, therapists burn out a lot cuz they didn’t fill their cup. So I interrogate a little bit, what is that wanting that pleasing to come from other people that report card to come from others. What is that costing you? And can you live with it? Yeah. If it’s a year from now and you’re still guided by what other people think of you, how is that working for you?

What’s happening in your life? What is the ripple effect of that? And 99.999% of the time, they say, I can’t live with that. Yeah. It’s actually the greatest deathbed regret. People think it’s. I wish I had spent less time in the office. The number one deathbed regret is I wish I would’ve lived my life according to my expectations. Not everyone else’s expectation of me. How about that? Oh my gosh. So it’s, and then people say, great, but then that gremlin inside that tells us we’re garbage is still gonna rear its ugly head. So we make a plan for that. What are we gonna do when it says you’re not good enough? You shouldn’t do this. You should say yes. People won’t love you. Right? What do we do then? And because, right, that’s just our brain. I wanna look at it like that’s our brain trying to keep us safe. Can we be grateful for it? Why are we fighting against this? Say thank you. Thank you for trying to keep me safe. Thank you for helping me be aware of other people. I’m gonna do just, but I’m in charge. I’m gonna take just as much as I need. So I have a little story about that. Would you like to hear it,

Jenn DeWall: Yes. Absolutely.

Be Afraid— But Do It Anyway

Maureen Falvey: We’re dealing with fear. So we’ve got some four little words of the busy and the fear. All right, so what do we do with this fear thing? The reality is it’s probably never going to go away. And I don’t necessarily want it to, like, what is on the other side of no fear, probably some recklessness, probably a lack of empathy, right? So our brain thinks like, it wants to make us say, we wanna get embarrassed. We don’t wanna fall into a hole or drink spoiled milk. So sometimes it’s actually quite helpful. But a friend of mine is a fear coach. That’s all she does. Jenn, is she coaches people around fear. And she, she was interviewing a bullfighter in Spain on the topic of fear. She happens to be Spanish. Whose father was gored to death in the ring.

Jenn DeWall: Wow.

Maureen Falvey: And she said, talk to us about fear. And he said, I don’t fight it. If I go into that ring and I have no fear, I’ll die. And if I go into that ring and I have too much fear, same thing. So I do the craziest thing. I just notice it. Sometimes I even talk to it. Hello, fear. I see you’re here to do your job. Thank you, thank you. I’m gonna take just as much as I need to go into that ring and do my job and say no thanks to the rest. Cause I just don’t need it. I just don’t need it. So one of my favorite things to put on a sticky note in front of beautiful humans is be scared and do it anyway. <Laugh>. Yeah. Go. If you can go back to the right, go back to the contract and the promise, I care less about how you feel. I always say to people, I didn’t ask you how you feel. I mean, I love you. I didn’t ask you how you feel. I asked you what you want. I asked you who you are. Be guided by that because you know, Ilia Capto, who’s the fastest runner in the world, he says, only the discipline ones in life are free. Otherwise, we’re swayed to our feelings and our moods and our, I don’t feel like it’s, I didn’t ask you how you feel. I asked you what you want. I asked you who you are.

Jenn DeWall: Yeah. I love that. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I feel like, again, that hits hard for me, right? Of like, just coming back to that fear and like, do it anyways. Like, advocate for yourself. Even if you’re afraid, you got to be the one. Because if you’re not your own cheerleader, who the heck is gonna stop in and say, no, no, no, Jenn, I’m sorry Jenn just made an agreement that actually does not align with her. Like, I don’t have an assistant or someone that will do that for me. And I have to learn to do that for myself. I’m saying, oh wait, wait, wait, wait. The, the excited Jenn got a little ahead of herself or maybe didn’t think about this. And I need to even give myself permission to come back and advocate for myself.

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How to Start Being Better Than Busy

Jenn DeWall: Okay, let’s dive into it. Thanks. I know that you have took some techniques on how to live your life to be better than busy. So let’s dive into those. What, so I know that you had talked about, you know, values. What, what’s the starting point? If we wanna live our lives better than easy. I love that. Like giving fear, you know, be afraid but do it anyway, I think that’s such a helpful, helpful quote. But where do you start to live your life more on purpose and better than busy?

Maureen Falvey: I think the first thing you need is an accountability partner. We’re not great at humans. It holding ourselves accountable, it feels really good when we do, I know we wanna do more of it, but we let ourselves off the hook or we fall prey to fear or I don’t know the moods that I mentioned before. So I think in accountability, I know accountable. That’s what I am as a coach. I’m your accountability partner. You’re gonna tell me what your goal is, what you want, and then we’re gonna make it happen. We’re gonna move anything that’s in the way, and we’re gonna put the plan together with such specificity that it can’t not happen.

So I would find an accountability partner or a coach, someone who cares about you deeply, to put that plan together so that you don’t let yourself off the hook. So that’s the first thing I would say. And I, some of it we’ve mentioned, start with the outer stuff cuz it’s a tiny bit easier, right? Just block into look at your 168 hours, right? For, for actually, you know, where you could start. I love, so when we ask people how they’re doing and they say busy plan for a different answer, a starting point is, how are you Jenn?

Jenn DeWall: I am great today. I’m feeling happy. <Laugh> I’m busy.

Maureen Falvey: Right now, by the way, just neuroscience your, your insights just right. You just got a little dopamine hit. So we, so language matters, neurolinguistics programming, this stuff matters. So what is a, what is an answer that you, so we’re practicing this on my team right now at Strong Training and Coaching. What? Because we’re all busy, we don’t let ourselves use that word. I’m really excited. I’ve got a wonderful full plate. Oh, I have so many challenges ahead today. Can’t wait to jump into them. Right? So what is a better answer? We can’t know what to say yes and no to until again. First step is what are my values, right? It was an example would be freedom. An example would be creativity, collaboration, prestige could be one. So my, my strongest value is freedom. So it helps me figure out what to say yes and no to. Cuz if something is gonna conflict with my ability to feel free to design my day, I don’t like that. Right? And so I already am like someone asked me for something and I think about my values, right? Someone ask me for something and I think about my priorities. If I don’t have somewhere listed out what my greatest priority is for the day, how would I know whether I can or can’t do this thing for someone,

Jenn DeWall: Right!

Don’t Live Your Life Accidentally

Maureen Falvey: I’m living accidentally when I’m just saying yes to stuff just keeps coming in because I don’t have a plan, I don’t have. So we’ve gotta have that in and out of scope. What am I gonna say yes to? You can do it overall for your life. Do it every day, beginning of the day. What do I want? What’s my most important priority? What am I gonna say yes to? What am I gonna say no to? How will I hold myself accountable? Oh that’s right. I told Jenn I wasn’t gonna do that or I was gonna do this. Right? So we get real specific and granular on some of that. We pop it in the calendar, we move things around. We may need to enroll some people in our plan of being better than busy. So we train people how to use our time, don’t we?

Right? Somebody, I can’t believe this is still happening, but I work with a lot of business leaders who will say, God, I’m constantly double and triple booked. What? <laugh>. So there may be some people you need to enroll in your new plan, which is I noticed you have a habit of double booking me. Right? The consequence of that is that I cannot be fully present when you or anyone else needs me and my work suffers and therefore the company will fall apart and loses money. La la la. So let people know the consequence, they aren’t just bad people, right? But why you’re saying no. So going forward, if you see a block in my calendar, you are welcome to call me. I’ll see if I, if yours is a greater need, but I’m busy, I have a commitment. So there may be some people you need to re-enroll in your new plan to be better than busy because you’ve trained some people just take your, to take your time when they want it.

Jenn DeWall: And I think a lot of organizations, at least I heard from it and I was more surprised hearing from some leaders talking about how I am busy on my calendar. Yet people keep scheduling meetings over that and you know, common sense would say if you see that someone is busy, then they’re busy. But yet I think you’re right. People have, organizations have trained to not necessarily even respect calendars even when they have those times blocked out. And so, coming back to having an establishing group norms, if someone is busy, they’re busy and not doing that. And it’s, it’s interesting because I saw this even with my husband and I were traveling. He had the day off and someone looked at his calendar, saw that he had a day off and they were like, but can you still just can you just still like jump on later?

Jenn DeWall: Yeah. And it’s, I I just, what do we have to do? Because there’s this piece where we’ve all been conditioned to be available at any point in time. And so it’s treated this, or I guess it’s created this expectation that we all have to be turned on all the time and mental health is suffering. We’ve, we’re seeing this everywhere, but yet who is responsible for that? Is it our own advocacy of starting to push back? Is it integrating that and within our executive leadership team so they can push down? Like, you know, we all have to take accountability for the fact that things aren’t right right now and we’re not respecting people’s time. Yeah. Because there’s that flip side of you can do all the things, but then tthere has to be a culture of respecting that as well. Yeah. Like where it’s not just on you to be like, Hey, please can I focus on what I committed to to do a great job? Like you’ve gotta respect that. I wanna do a good job.

Maureen Falvey: Yeah.

Jenn DeWall: We’re gonna have time off <laugh>.

The Way We Work is Broken

Maureen Falvey: Yeah. The, the way, so this will be our next book that we do, Jenn, but the way we work is broken. It is severely broken. Shoving more into the day the speed at which we work, the lack of any recovery whatsoever. The way that it’s perceived as a weakness when we need a break, it’s just so broken. That is called recovery, right? This go speak to any Olympic athlete. They build recovery into their training sessions. Of course they do. Why aren’t we doing the same with work with our brain, with our sleep, with our rest? Ariana Huffington, right? She has a whole organization called Thrive now because she woke up in a pool of her own blood from passing out from sheer exhaustion. And she woke up. I hope it doesn’t take that for us to wake up. Oftentimes, unfortunately, I see that it does.

What did you call it– life quakes–before something interrupts our life in illness or a sadness or a grief or a loss and we say I’m gonna do things differently. Now what if you started now without some horrible provocation <laugh>, right? What if you started this business of life and living it well, according to your values and your priorities now? And guess what? Everybody wins when you do that. Everybody wins. And so I love that you brought in the corporation and the culture and I’ll, I’ll, I will speak to that. But the first thing is, first of all, there may be a better word to put in the calendar than busy. Maybe commitment is better. I don’t want any judgment about it. I just want the word in there. I am a committed person to whatever I’m doing. That’s none of your business during this hour. <Laugh>, right?

Jenn DeWall: I love that. I love that. Yeah. Committed.

Maureen Falvey: I’m committed during this time. Yeah. I’m committed. And so as far as the the organization and the culture I don’t know that we have to worry too much about hierarchy. I had a boss who was 24 at one point and she, we were working on something in her office and our boss came in and he said Melissa, I need you to do this thing. I don’t remember what it was. And she said, I’d love to, but I am committed to the priority you gave me yesterday. So what do you want me to do with this one? So she didn’t walk away saying, Ooh, the boss asked me to do this. I’ll just shove it all in and work 16 hours. She said, what do you want me to do with this other thing? <Laugh>? I thought that was so cool. We can also, when we’re practicing honoring our commitments and it’s going well, knock, knock, knock on boss person’s door or zoom.

Hey, I’ve been trying something different. I’m working like an athlete trains. It’s been amazing. I’ve never been so energized. I’m sure you’ve noticed too, I’ve gotten twice as much done in fewer hours. La la la la la. What do you think would need to be true for more of us to do that? Is this something I could speak to the company about? What are your best practices? So you’re saying it respectfully, right? I’m just noticing I did this thing. You’re not making the person wrong, but we can build a better culture. One choice and one conversation at a time. Don’t give up. We’re broken. And because we’re not leading our life by design, the whole reason I do this work is I want people to live and work on purpose instead of by accident. Right? Is that we’re just allowing everything to keep happening accidentally. Right. Start the process right now of one inspired action and then PR it and tell everybody what worked.

Jenn DeWall: I love That.

Be Better than Busy One Choice and One Conversation at a Time

Maureen Falvey: And build it. One choice and one conversation at a time.

Jenn DeWall: Yeah. One small step in having that. But also, I mean I think people respect your boundaries when you have them. I think sometimes people are like, I wish I did that. Yeah. So maybe even taking that consideration that someone else is likely struggling with it too. And they are admiring you for your boundaries and you’re giving them permission and power to live their life with intention and purpose. I know that every time someone does that for me, my two best friends are the best people at setting boundaries. They do not care if it is not for them. They’re not doing it. I am terrible cause I have a people pleaser and I feel like those two are my counsels all the time. Like Jenn, who cares? Like, I would not do that. Like don’t do that. That sounds like it doesn’t bring you joy, it doesn’t make you happy. They might be sad, but who cares? And you know, understanding that I appreciate my friends that have boundaries so much more because they’re like showing me and they’re giving courage over time to say, wait, I’m not gonna do that. Why am I doing this? Or I just sit there envious of them because they made that conscious choice not to do something that I’m at that I don’t wanna be at that I’m like, gosh, why did I not do that? Yeah,

Maureen Falvey: You walk away so someone’s upset, okay, you don’t, maybe you don’t like me, right? I like me <laugh>.

Jenn DeWall: Yes. And that’s the hardest lesson in life. I think we’re just so conditioned to like, because of going back to how we started with that belonging and wanting to feel connected mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and wanting to be liked that it’s so easy. And I do this all the time. I work on confidence every day with people and I still struggle with confidence. It is never going to be this point of mastery because so long as I’m growing and dying, I’m going to be expanding and I’m gonna be a new territory and I’m gonna have to work through my stuff again. Yeah. But you know, living that life on purpose and just continuing to like advocate for yourself, like I wholeheartedly agree with you Maureen, of like li helping empowering people to realize that because we have one special gift and, and one special gift of life. And if people want it now, again, I was 25 when my dad had a life altering stroke that put him in a nursing home at 54 and my mom had a mental breakdown that put her outta the workforce out of I would say even reality. Mm-Hmm. At 54. And I sat there as a 25 year old being like, wow, if I have 30 good years left before my health is gone, what do I wanna do? And too often again, it’s that tragedy that people that makes people move when we all have the choice every single day to be moving in that direction to maximize our happiness.

Maureen Falvey: That’s so great. Like when, when is it a good time to wake up?

Jenn DeWall: Right now!

Maureen Falvey: When do you wanna start? You know, it sounds very Oprah-like when do you wanna start the rest of your life and what is actually in the way? Because the good news is– it’s you! Which means you can change it, right? It means you can change it. Yay. What a wonderful epiphany.

Jenn DeWall: Yeah. You don’t need a million dollars. You don’t need like blank. You can actually just shift it yourself with your mindset in your choices and everything that Maureen has been saying, getting in touch with your values and what’s important to you in prioritizing your life, in accordance with your values and what’s important to you and who you want to be and what brings you joy. Maureen, I just have loved this conversation, but I want to give you an opportunity to help our audience find how they can get in touch with you. So how can they connect with you if they wanted to learn more about you, the book that you co-wrote, with a chapter about the 25th Hour or even invest in your services, how can they get to know more about you?

Where to Find More from Maureen Falvey

Maureen Falvey: Yeah, so as I mentioned upfront, thank you for asking, I’m the lead coach and trainer at Strong Training and Coaching, and we love what we do, and we’re always looking for opportunities to do more of it. Most of us have, well, all of us have had at least 20 years of leadership experience. We’re coaches, and we’re trainers. So we can pull, if we’re in a coaching session, we can pull the training module off the shelf to move you through that block even more quickly. And the coaching serves the training as well. So it’s at markstrongcoaching.com. The book that you mentioned as well, it’s okay, I co-authored it with some of the coolest people but it’s called Peak Performance Mindset Tools for Entrepreneurs by Eric Seversen and 24 Other world-class experts in their fields. And there’s some really good stuff in there.

So my chapter is on the 25th hour, Better Than Busy. So you’re welcome to look for that. It’s a quick, what would it take you time-wise, putting your calendar 15 minutes to read that chapter all around having a better answer than busy. Right? So MarkStrongCoaching.com. We are here for you. If I can serve as your accountability partner, I would love that. And I am just over here wishing all, all of you all the joy that comes from being in charge of your day, your week, your month, your year, your life through your time, your choices, your values, your priorities, and your plan.

Jenn DeWall: Yes, I love that. And this is gonna be airing right at the start of 2023. So I hope that to all of our audience that you take this message today and use it as motivation, as just, you know, just that extra push that you need to really create and live your life by design this year. Maureen, thank you so much for coming on the show. It was a great conversation, and I’m so grateful to have had you.

Maureen Falvey: It’s my pleasure, Jenn. So wonderful to have this time together.

Jenn DeWall: Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode. I hope that you reflected in your thinking on how you can create and design a different life to be better than busy. Now, as Maureen shared with us, if you want to connect with her, you can head on over to markstrongcoaching.com to find additional information about Maureen as well as additional resources. And if you know someone that could benefit from hearing this podcast episode because maybe they’re suffering from chronic busyness, share this with them. And, of course, don’t forget to leave us a review on your favorite podcast streaming platform. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.

Источник

The other day on a local TV station, an air conditioner repair man was quoted as saying «I am more busy than ever due to the heat wave». I realize that most people would probably say «I am busier than ever», but I was wanting to know if «more busy» is gramatically correct, also. My wife says it is incorrect, but my thinking is that if ‘less busy’ is gramatically correct, shouldn’t ‘more busy’ be ok, too? We all realize that ‘more busier’ is gramatically incorrect. Thanks in advance for your assistance in clarifying this issue for me.

More busy or busier, either will do.

tomas no mas said:

The other day on a local TV station, an air conditioner repair man was quoted as saying «I am more busy than ever due to the heat wave». I realize that most people would probably say «I am busier than ever», but I was wanting to know if «more busy» is gramatically correct, also. My wife says it is incorrect, but my thinking is that if ‘less busy’ is gramatically correct, shouldn’t ‘more busy’ be ok, too? We all realize that ‘more busier’ is gramatically incorrect. Thanks in advance for your assistance in clarifying this issue for me.

I believe that «more» in place of «-er» is always correct [though often not used with the shorter words]. It is from the other direction that we need to pay attention. Generally, longer adjectives take «more».

There may be some no-no’s included in textual explanations.

In this case, both sound o.k. to me, «busier & busiest» sounding better [not more good, irregular] than the other choice.

panjandrum said:

More busy or busier, either will do.

Why either? Are you not meant to use the -er -est form when possible?

The OED states the general principle this way:

With most adjs. and advs. of more than one syllable, and with all of more than two syllables, [more ___] is the normal mode of forming the comparative. A few monosyllables (e.g. right, just) normally form their comparatives in this way instead of taking the suffix -er.

Then adds:

[More is o]ften prefixed to monosyllabic and disyllabic adjs. and advs. which have otherwise a regular comparative in -er; as more true, more busy, more often = truer, busier, oftener. Esp. in phr. «I (or you, etc.) couldn’t be more ______ = I, etc., am extremely ________.
By mod. writers this alternative form is used (1) for special emphasis or clearness; (2) to preserve a balance of phrase when other comparatives with ‘more’ occur in the context; (3) to qualify the whole predicate rather than the single adj. or adv.

Kelly B

There are many cases where either form works equally well, and this is one of them. On the other hand, -er sounds really strange with some adjectives. Those ending in -ed won’t work with -er, for example:
I am

~~interesteder~~

more interested.
Edit: these would violate the rule mgarizona noted, anyway.

Kelly B said:

There are many cases where either form works equally well, and this is one of them. On the other hand, -er sounds really strange with some adjectives. Those ending in -ed won’t work with -er, for example:
I am

~~interesteder~~

more interested.
Edit: these would violate the rule mgarizona noted, anyway.

So why dictionaries just report the busier/busiest form? doesn’t that mean it’s the correct one?

Paulfromitaly said:

Why either? Are you not meant to use the -er -est form when possible?

Good question.
I have never come across that as a «rule» — but then I have never come across most of the rules that non-natives know

This time I am sure that the only real «rule» is that some words are so clumsy with -er and -est that we must use more … and most …. I mean, could you imagine describing something as voluminouser. There is another thread that sets out the recommendations for this.

It does not follow that we must not use more … and most … with the more simple words — like simple (that was an accident).
For these it is entirely a matter of which sounds best in the context. I used more simple in that sentence without giving it any thought.

panjandrum said:

Good question.
I have never come across that as a «rule» — but then I have never come across most of the rules that non-natives know

This time I am sure that the only real «rule» is that some words are so clumsy with -er and -est that we must use more … and most …. I mean, could you imagine describing something as voluminouser. There is another thread that sets out the recommendations for this.

It does not follow that we must not use more … and most … with the more simple words — like simple (that was an accident).
For these it is entirely a matter of which sounds best in the context. I used more simple in that sentence without giving it any thought.

That’s fair enough..would the use of more/most be considered correct also with monosyllable words like «fat» ? more fat instead of fatter?

Paulfromitaly said:

That’s fair enough..would the use of more/most be considered correct also with monosyllable words like «fat» ? more fat instead of fatter?

See the second part of my previous posting. (#5)

Obviously you can write anything you like anytime as long as you have a reason to do so. There’s a scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice remarks, «Curiouser and curiouser.» While it would be more gramatically correct to say «more and more curious,» I’ve always felt that her surroundings make Alice’s choice of phrase entirely appropriate.

Paulfromitaly said:

That’s fair enough..would the use of more/most be considered correct also with monosyllable words like «fat» ? more fat instead of fatter?

Another good question
My feeling, now that you have asked that good question, is that there is most flexibility of use with two-syllable words. I would be unlikely to write more fat, but I would be entirely comfortable with more funny, more happy …..

The general rule for using -er and -est was mentioned in
the comparative and superlative of «often» (Elroy — post #8.)

The general rule is that you add -er and -est if the adjective/adverb consists of one syllable (faster, fastest; quicker, quickest; bigger, biggest; fatter, fattest) or is a two-syllable adjective ending in y (happier, happiest; funnier, funniest; rowdier, rowdiest). For other two-syllable adjectives/adverbs and adjectives/adverbs with three or more syllables, you use «more» and «most.»

There are a few exceptions, of course. You mentioned «fun,» which takes «more» and «most,» and apparently «often» can take —er and -est (although I was personally only familiar with the «more/most» versions). And of course, there are ones that are completely irregular, like «good, better, best.»

I guess that dictionaries include the -er -est versions because that marks out which words definitely take that form, not intending to suggest that more xxx and most xxx are NOT possible.

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback on my question. I’ve learned a great deal from your answers.

One style guide’s opinion:
«If a word ordinarily takes either the -er or the -est suffix — and that formation sounds more natural — it’s poor style to use the two-word form with more or most.»

Busier, simpler, duller sound more natural to me.

river said:

[…]Busier, simpler, duller sound more natural to me.

I’m not disagreeing, but wondering if I’m the only one who would feel that more simple sometimes sounds more natural than simpler? For example in:

It does not follow that we must not use more … and most … with the more simple words — like simple (that was an accident).

You’re right. «The more simple» sounds more natural in your sentence.

river said:

One style guide’s opinion:
«If a word ordinarily takes either the -er or the -est suffix — and that formation sounds more natural — it’s poor style to use the two-word form with more or most.»

Busier, simpler, duller sound more natural to me.

Somehow, duller never works for me, even though I try to make it sound correct by lingering on the double l in the middle.

So instead of saying «I had a duller day than I expected.», I say «My day was more dull than I expected.»

There must be something deep in my subconscious causing this !

river said:

One style guide’s opinion:
«If a word ordinarily takes either the -er or the -est suffix — and that formation sounds more natural — it’s poor style to use the two-word form with more or most.»

Busier, simpler, duller sound more natural to me.

Unfortunately for non-natives, I think for the one and two syllable words it is all down to how they sound, although some constructions would sound quite odd with the er/ier/est/iest endings, and some can’t take them at all:

Which is more likely, the use of more likely or likelier at the beginning of this sentence? I think it most likely that forer@ would agree that likelier and likeliest would sound strange in these two sentences.

Of all the children involved in the accident, she is the most upset.

I can’t think of anything more strange.

Which is more common, most kind-hearted or kindest-hearted.

John is very outspoken, and no one is more frank.

All of these sound good to me.

The other day on a local TV station, an air conditioner repair man was quoted as saying «I am more busy than ever due to the heat wave». I realize that most people would probably say «I am busier than ever», but I was wanting to know if «more busy» is gramatically correct, also. My wife says it is incorrect, but my thinking is that if ‘less busy’ is gramatically correct, shouldn’t ‘more busy’ be ok, too? We all realize that ‘more busier’ is gramatically incorrect. Thanks in advance for your assistance in clarifying this issue for me.

The two form of comparative are correct with adjectives of two syllables ending in «Y» ie; busy, happy, noisy, lazy…

cheers

My understanding is if the word is one syllable, you add -er and -est, rather than more or most.
ex. big, bigger, biggest
hard, harder, hardest
small, smaller, smallest

The exception to the rule is words that end in y, in a two syllable word, you add -er and -est, rather than more or most.
ex. busy, busier, busiest
tiny, tinier, tiniest,
pretty, prettier, prettiest
ugly, uglier, ugliest

All other words that are more than one syllable use more or most.
ex. beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
terrific, more terrific, most terrific
intelligent, more intelligent, most intelligent

Try teaching this to 9 and 10 year olds whose first language is something other than English….difficult!!
Good luck!

Источник

I’m busy. You’re busy. We’re all busy. Everybody’s “busy,” but what are we really communicating to those around us when we use that word?

Somewhere along the line, “busy” has become synonymous with “success.” A status symbol that indicates that we are a valuable commodity, sought after in the world.

I’m just as guilty as you are of overusing the word “busy” to describe my state. A few weeks ago, I was sitting in Atlanta traffic when I had an epiphany – using the word “busy” doesn’t help my cause at all – if anything I think it hurts me.

If I simply say that I’m “busy” or “too busy”, what am I really saying? There is no purpose in busy, no onward direction, no value. Busy is simply a cheap, filler word that conveys that I’m doing “stuff,” but offers no forward momentum. The image that comes to mind is of someone just running around in circles taking up time and space, with no real result or intention.

Right then and there, amongst the hustle and bustle of cars carrying their owners to their next appointment, I made a choice to change my vocabulary and I’m inviting you to do the same.

Here are two ways to be better than busy:

1. Use more purposeful words that convey positivity. Here at Riverbend, we are going to be more than busy, we are “in demand” or “in high season.” We will say “no” to things not because we’re too busy, but because we are “already committed elsewhere.”

Those simple phrase changes evoke a more positive and inspiring work environment internally AND better articulates reality. Additionally, those phrases have positive impact externally – they further attract others. People want to work with people who are in demand and who value their commitments.

2. Evaluate and refine how time is spent. It’s not enough to be busy …. The question is, what are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau. Perhaps you really are just “busy” and wasting minutes that could be used to propel you forward. Get out a journal or sign-up for Toggl and track your hours for 2 weeks – honestly. Then compare where and what you are spending your time on with your purpose, goals, and priorities. My guess is there are activities contributing to your “busy-ness” that need to go. Eliminating items that are not contributing to your goals and priorities will help you feel “productive” instead of merely “busy.”

Changing the “busy” habit takes practice (and accountability). I catch myself sometimes as the “b” word is rolling off my tongue – but the awareness and the mindset shift is already working. Just by being mindful of how and why I use this word, I am making better choices on how to spend my time and feel more inspired about where my time is being spent.

I encourage you to also rethink how and why you use this word; perhaps even eliminate it out of your lexicon altogether. The reward might just be more time back in your busy fulfilled life!

Источник

Of course, at any time of year, we can feel busy or overwhelmed. An unexpected deadline at work. A last-minute meeting. A sick family member who needs extra help. A flat tire that holds up everything else in our day.

But as we get toward the end of the year, that feeling of being busy only increases. There are holiday gifts to shop for and meals to prepare. End of year deadlines and projects to finish. Right now, many of my students are using the word ‘busy.’ But there are better ways to say I’m busy in English.

My goal is always to help you express yourself precisely and effortlessly in English.

The best way to do that is to build your vocabulary strategically with powerful adjectives, collocations, idioms, and phrasal verbs in English.

In today’s lesson, you’ll learn 14 better ways to say “I’m busy” in English plus have the opportunity to practice.

14 Better Ways to Say “I’m Busy” in English

Lesson Summary

Powerful Adjectives & Collocations to Say “I’m Busy” in English

To be slammed (at work) – extremely busy/overwhelmed

This week we’re slammed trying to meet the deadline.

To be swamped/snowed under – extremely busy/overwhelmed

I’m really swamped at work right now.
Our office is snowed under with a mountain of paperwork during tax season.

To keep someone/oneself busy – to keep someone (or yourself) occupied

If you have some extra time, let me know. I’ve got plenty of tasks to keep you busy

Idioms to Say “I’m Busy” in English

to burn the candle at both ends – to work extremely or excessively hard; to work too hard for good health or peace of mind

I’ll be burning the candle at both ends this weekend to get this project finished.

to have a full plate/to have a lot on one’s plate/to have one’s hands full – too much to do or a lot to deal with right now, which leads to feeling stressed; unable to take on more responsibility

She’s got her hands full right now with 3 kids under the age of 5 and a sick husband at home.

To be at maximum capacity – to be unable to take on more responsibilities
- I’m at maximum capacity at work. I can’t handle one more to do request.
To be at full bandwidth – to have no more mental or emotional energy
- Lara’s at full bandwidth right now so why don’t we ask Suzanne to do this.
to be up to one’s eyeballs/neck in something – to have an excessive amount of work or too much of something

Accountants are usually up to their eyeballs in paperwork during tax season.

To bite off more than you can chew – to take on more work/responsibilities than you are capable of doing
- I said ‘yes’ to too many things this month and now I’m overwhelmed. I think I bit off more than I can chew.
To have a lot of irons in the fire – to have multiple projects or multiple, unrelated tasks

We have 3 major projects with deadlines coming soon, so I have a lot of irons in the fire at work right now. I have very little time to concentrate on just one thing.

Phrasal Verbs to Say “I’m Busy” in English

To be tied up (at the moment) – to be too busy at the moment and unavailable or unable to do something else

I’m sorry, I’m going to be late coming home because I’m tied up at work.

As always, the best way to learn and remember new vocabulary is to get consistent, repeated practice. And here’s your chance!

Choose 2-3 of your favorite new expressions from today’s lesson.

Then use them in your own example sentences. Think of your life right now. What makes you feel busy? What is making you feel overwhelmed or stressed?

As always, you can share with me in the comments below. It’s the best way to practice, get feedback, and learn from others in the Confident English Community.

~ Annemarie

You’ll also get my Confident English lessons delivered by email every Wednesday and occasional information about available courses. You can unsubscribe any time.

Источник

In this English speaking lesson you will learn how to describe being busy.We all live a very busy life these days, no time for fun , no time for family. In English how do we express that we are very busy? In this lesson you will learn to use different ways of telling someone that you are extremely busy.

Firstly let’s learn how to use the word busy in English.

1) When you talk about being busy in the past – I was busy followed by the verb in the -ing form
Example – I was busy cleaning.
Example – I was busy doing the chores.

2) When you talk about being busy in the present – I am busy followed by the verb in the ing form.
Example – I am busy working.
Example – I am busy doing the chores.

Below are some expressions and slang terms that talk about being busy:

Busy as a beaver –

If you are busy as a beaver it means you are very busy indeed.
Example – I am busy as a beaver these days, trying to finish my paintings before the exhibition dates.

A lot on one’s plate –

It means that you have a lot of work to do.
Example – I am sorry I can’t really help you out with your work this week as I already have a lot on my plate.

Slammed –

This is a slang term used for being overloaded with work.
Example – I will have to skip this trip as i am slammed with a lot of work.

Biz –

a shorter and slang term for the word busy.
Example – Hey girl look like you really biz these days.

To be snowed under –

If you are snowed under you have so much to do that you’re having trouble doing it all
Example – I was so snowed under with work today that I didn’t even have time for lunch.

Swamped –

This is a slang term used for describing yourself as being overworked.
Example – I can’t really take this new project, I am swamped with too much of work.

Complete Lesson Transcript : –

Hello, hey can I call you back? I am extremely busy write now, yeah I will do that ..bye..
Hi friends..Niharika..Welcome back.
You know these days we all lead such a busy life and and it just seems that will never be able to get off that treadmill. We don’t have time to rest, we hardly get any time to spend with friends and family so how do you really describe being busy? In English we have lot of expressions and slang terms that can be used to talk about being busy and that’s what we are gonna learn in today’s lesson. So let’s get started.
Now firstly we are gonna learn how to use the word busy. Many at times when people ask you – hey what you doing? and you end up saying, I am busy cleaning or I am busy working. So how you end up using the word busy? It’s very simple – If you are talking about being busy in the past then you are gonna say -I was busy and then followed by the verb in the -’ing’ form, so like “Hey what were you doing last evening”? Oh, I was busy working or I was busy cleaning. Okay, so this sentence will only be used to talk about being busy in the past. And if you are busy right now, that’s in present, so how do you use the word busy? Well it’s simple -I am busy cleaning or I am busy working. Al right, so that’s how you would end up using the word in the present form. Al right, that’s simple.
Now let’s get to see some expressions that you use to talk about being busy.
The very first one that I have for you is -Busy as a beaver. So what’s a beaver? Beaver is an animal, who is known to be very hard working and is extremely industrious. So if you end up using the expression busy as a beaver it means that you are extremely busy just like the animal beaver. So it’s like you are comparing yourself with the animal beaver. Now beaver as I said is known for their hard work and it is extremely industrious and they are known to build their own habitat. So when you end up saying, like someone will ask you Hey Niharika how you been? and I would say I am busy as a beaver. So why am I saying that, because maybe I have too much of work, I have been working late nights, too much of overtime, so it means that I am working hard, probably I am working on a project and I am spending a lot of time doing that. So I have no extra time, hence I am very busy and therefore I am using the phrase I am busy as a beaver. Okay, so when you are extremely busy, you can use this phrase.

Let’s get to the next phrase here -A lot of on one’s plate. Now here we are not talking about our dinner plate where we have too much of food. now it’s just talking about being busy. SO again, when you are extremely busy, when you have too much of work, you probably multitasking it means that you have a lot on your plate. So my colleague comes to me and says -hey Niharika, could you please help me with this? And, I am like – ahh, I don’t think so because I already have too much of work to do. Therefore, rather than just saying I am very busy – I am sorry I can’t help you with this, I would use this phrase. I am sorry pal, I have a lot on my plate right now, so I would be unable to help you out. Okay, that sounds better, Isn’t it? So a lot of on one’s plate it means that you are very busy. It means that you have too much of work to do already, right!

Let’s have a look at another term here which is slammed. Now slammed is a slang term so please you it only with your friends and family, do not use it with your boss or your clients. Now slammed is again, well it has two meanings, have you heard , she slammed the door at me. So it means that she shut the door on me. Shut it very hard. But here, I am slammed with too much of work so it means that i am very busy. Again you can use it with your colleagues if you want, so you are upset about so much of work to do, you are discussing it with your colleagues and you end up saying, don’t ask i am slammed with work so no weekend for me. SO it means that you are gonna be very busy this weekend because you have too much of work to do. So that’s how you can use this slang term. Or for example your mom says, hey could you please get some groceries from the market and you are like oh no mom, I am slammed with too much of work, I can’t get the groceries right now. Okay, so these are few examples about how you can use these terms.

Another one – Biz. well apparently she is biz so she’s not answering my call. Well what does this term really mean? Well again it’s a slang term used for being busy. Well the word busy itself is such a short word but hey a shorter word than the word busy is biz. So it’s nice to use, it sounds really nice – so you can say, John has really been biz with his work these days so it just means that he’s been very busy these days. Okay!

Let’s have a look at another term here which is to be snowed under. Now imagine that you are maybe in a park and it starts snowing and you just get snowed under. There is snow on top of you. it means you are snowed under. Right? But then what’s the point of using this phrase if you busy. Well, here actually it means that you are snowed under with work .SO you are so busy and that’s because you have too much of workload on you. So when you are….So if you are overloaded with work it means that you are snowed under a lot of work. For example -again it can be used in the corporate world because yes, as I said, at work these days we are so busy because there’s too much of work to do so you can use it with your colleagues like this project is coming up and we have to meet our targets as well so it means that I am extremely busy, so use this phrase rather than saying I am extremely busy you can say “OH I am snowed under this project” So which means that you have lot of things to do and you have no free time.

Now let’s have a look at the last word over here – again swamped which is a slang term and it is used similarly as the word slammed. So this is swamped and this is slammed, they are pretty easy words. So swamped is again when you are very busy. That’s simple right? SO when you are swamped with work or probably let’s say that you don’t want to attend a party and someone is inviting you over and is pestering you that hey you should come to the party and you want to nicely say a no. So you wanna show that you are busy with work hence you can use this term. Oh you know what, I am afraid I won’t be able to make it to the party because I am swamped with too much of work or I am swamped with too much of office work. So that’s how you can use this term. So these are very simple terms that you can use for your daily conversations because as I said that these days we all lead a very busy life. So rather than just saying I am busy use these expressions. And also we learned how to use the word busy, when you use it in the past you say I was busy plus the verb in the ‘ing’ form and if you are using it in the present then you will say I am busy followed by the verb in the ‘ing’ form. Alright? I will be back with a new lesson till then you take care.

Источник

имя прилагательное:

занятой, занятый
деятельный

глагол:

заниматься
занимать, давать работу

Busy

Are you busy? Do you lead a busy life? It seems we get busier and busier in our lives.

А вы – заняты? Насыщенна ли ваша жизнь? Кажется, что у нас становится всё больше и больше дел.

I hate being busy. I’d much rather have nothing to do. Being busy makes me stressed and I end up making mistakes or forgetting something.

Я терпеть не могу быть занятым. Я бы предпочёл ничего не делать. Занятость вызывает у меня стресс, и, в конце концов, я начинаю делать ошибки или что-то забывать.

Who’s the busiest person you know? I bet he or she is really stressed.

Кто из ваших знакомых больше всех занят? Могу поспорить, у него или неё постоянный стресс.

The busy people I know are always looking ahead to their next holiday… and then in their holiday they are busy doing other things.

Те занятые люди, которых я знаю, живут от отпуска до отпуска… а во время отпуска они заняты чем-то ещё.

I think we busy ourselves with too many things. We need to learn to relax and take things slowly.

Я считаю, что мы загружаем себя слишком многими вещами. Нам нужно научиться расслабляться и действовать не спеша.

Even at work we have to look busy, even if we’re not. When the boss comes, we tell our friends, «Look busy!» That’s silly.

Даже на работе мы должны выглядеть занятыми, в том числе и когда это не так. Завидев начальника, мы говорим нашим друзьям: «Сделай вид, что очень занят!» Это глупо.

It would be great if the word «busy» disappeared from the English language.

Было бы прекрасно, если бы слово «busy» исчезло бы из английского языка.

Sean Banville

Примечание

Об очень занятых людях, которые всюду поспевают и делают множество дел, в английском языке говорят, что они «busy as a bee» – трудятся как пчёлы. Подробнее об этом выражении, а также о других идиоматических выражениях, в которых упоминаются названия животных, вы можете узнать в разделе «Английские идиомы с названиями животных».

Страницы:

Указатель изучаемых английских слов и словосочетаний:

A, B
C, D
E, F
G, H
I, J
K, L
M, N
O, P
Q, R
S, T
U, V
W, X
Y, Z

Источник

“Busy” is a popular English word — but not in the way that many learners think.

For example, “busy” has become a common response to “How are you?” (“I’m doing well! Just busy studying for my exams”). Research has even found telling people about what keeps you busy has been common in Christmas greeting cards.

But if you use this word to tell a coworker why you can’t take their call or your boss why you can’t attend a meeting, what you’re really saying, according to the BBC, is “‘I’m not very good at prioritising my time and, at the moment, you’re not a priority at all.”

So it’s safer to avoid using the word “busy.” It’s blunt and often just not the right word. Below are 10 English expressions that’ll do the job much better.

1. I’m preoccupied.

Imagine someone knocking on your office door while you’re having a meeting. Or imagine getting a call while you’re driving to work. In either case, you can say you were “preoccupied,” because you were already (“pre-”) occupied (busy doing something).

Sorry, I’m a little preoccupied at the moment. Can I call you back later?
No worries about the late reply. I understand you’re preoccupied with more pressing matters at the moment.

2. I’m tied up.

Think of each task you need to work on as a rope. Each time you take on a new task, another rope is tied around you until you’re all “tied up” and not free to work on anything else.

“I’m all tied up with this project. Try asking Janet for help.”
“Sorry I was unable to return your call today. I was tied up in meetings all day.”

3. I have a lot on my plate.

If your plate is full, there’s no room for you to put more food on it. In the context of life, this means you can’t take any more work.

A plate with a traditional English breakfast with sausages, bacon, eggs, beans, tomatoes and hash browns.

I’d love to help, but I’ve got too much on my plate right now.
That’s a nice idea, but our team already has so much on our plate right now, I don’t think we’ll be able to work on it until at least next year.

4. I’m juggling a lot right now.

“Juggling” takes a lot of energy and focus and it’s easy to make mistakes. So if you’re busy with a lot of things, it can feel like you’re “juggling” them.

A street performer juggling three balls.

I’d love to help, but I’m juggling two jobs on top of taking care of my newborn son right now. Sorry!
No matter how much stuff I’m juggling, I always have time for online English lessons, because I can take them anytime and anywhere.

5. I don’t have the bandwidth.

“Bandwidth” is a technical term that has become a popular way to tell someone you don’t have the time for something.

“Tim, I don’t have the bandwidth right now, sorry!”
“I don’t have the bandwidth to handle that right now. You could try asking me about that again in October though.”

6. I’m spread pretty thin.

If you only have a little butter to spread on a piece of toast, it’ll become a very thin layer of butter. So if you’re “spread thin,” it means you’re spreading your limited time and energy among a lot of tasks.

A piece of toast with a thin layer of butter spread on it.

I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t take on another commitment this semester. I’ve already spread myself too thin with two part-time jobs on top of my extra courses.
I realize that your resources on your team are spread thin at the moment, but please do keep this initiative in mind.

7. I’m swamped.

It’s easy to get stuck in a swamp or even sink into one! If you’re “swamped” with work, it’s like you’re stuck in a pile of work or sinking into it.

A swamp with trees growing from the water.

We’re launching our marketing campaign this week, so I’m really really swamped. But starting on Sunday, I’ll be quite free.
It’s my first day back at work, so I’m swamped. Can I get back to you on this next week?

8. I’m buried in work.

Imagine you’re buried in piles and piles of work and you can’t escape.

A hand of a person that is buried under different clock faces.

Our team is low on manpower, so we’re constantly buried in work.
There’s no way I can take a vacation right now. I’m buried in deadlines.

People also say “I’m drowning (in work)” or “I’m snowed under (with work).”

9. I’m up to my ears.

Think of a pile of work that is stacked all the way up to your ears and giving you anxiety.

As a secretary, I’m always up to my ears in paperwork.
We’re up to our ears in work before the holiday season.

You can use this one for many situations. For example, you can be up to your ears in laundry (if you haven’t washed your clothes in a while) or debt (if there’s a lot you need to pay off).

10. Things are really hectic.

“Hectic” means that there are a lot of things going on that are difficult to control. Imagine all your tasks frantically flying around you, and you have the right idea.

My schedule is quite hectic these days, but let’s catch up next time you’re here.
I realize things are really hectic on your end with the PR scandal, but I must remind you that your payments are weeks overdue.

Keep in mind you can’t say “I’m hectic.” “Hectic” describes a schedule, your life, and things in your life. It can also describe periods of time, such as a day (“it’s been a hectic day”) and a week (“this week has been hectic”). But hectic never describes people.

Too busy to sit down and study?

We hear you. Studying takes a lot of time, and not all of us have that. That’s why our English lessons are just 25 minutes, and you can take them any time of day no matter where you are.

Plus, our English tutors aren’t just experts in the language. They’re also experienced in many different fields, from sales and graphic design to medicine and music. So you’ll definitely learn English that’s most relevant to you.

Your first lesson is free, so why not give us a try?

Источник

Degrees of Comparison

Spelling Rules

Notable Exceptions

Uses of Comparative Adjectives

What Is the Meaning of Busier?

Origins

Busier vs. More Busy

Is “More Busy” Correct?

Is Busier the Correct Word?

Alternatives to Busier

Is More Busier Correct?

Understanding Superlatives

Final Thoughts

Meet Maureen Falvey, Executive Coach and Author

What does Better than Busy Mean?

Do You Wish You Had a 25th Hour in the Day?

Which Part of Your Day Are You Willing to Fight For?

How to be a Chief Editing Officer for Your Life

Be Better than Busy by Working in Sprints Instead of Marathons

Making a Commitment to Yourself

What Does a Good Day Look Like to You?

Be Afraid— But Do It Anyway

A Message from Crestcom

How to Start Being Better Than Busy

Don’t Live Your Life Accidentally

The Way We Work is Broken

Be Better than Busy One Choice and One Conversation at a Time

Where to Find More from Maureen Falvey

14 Better Ways to Say “I’m Busy” in English

Lesson Summary

Powerful Adjectives & Collocations to Say “I’m Busy” in English

Idioms to Say “I’m Busy” in English

Phrasal Verbs to Say “I’m Busy” in English

Firstly let’s learn how to use the word busy in English.

Below are some expressions and slang terms that talk about being busy:

Busy as a beaver –

A lot on one’s plate –

Slammed –

Biz –

To be snowed under –

Swamped –

Complete Lesson Transcript : –

Busy

1. I’m preoccupied.

2. I’m tied up.

3. I have a lot on my plate.

4. I’m juggling a lot right now.

5. I don’t have the bandwidth.

6. I’m spread pretty thin.

7. I’m swamped.

8. I’m buried in work.

9. I’m up to my ears.

10. Things are really hectic.

Too busy to sit down and study?

Do You Wish You Had a 25^th Hour in the Day?