Have you ever noticed how people love to take the time to tell everyone that’ll listen about how busy they are? We all know it’s a douche move, yet it happens to the best of us.

I remember meeting a pretty cool founder when we went to Startup Festival in Montreal this summer. Turns out we had a few mutual connections and we realized we were both working in Toronto. During one of the festival parties, we decided to get together for a coffee back in Hogtown.

A week or so later I sent the founder an email asking when he wanted to get together. It went something like this:

Me: Hey Joe, I’m super heads down this week getting some shit done but I’d really love to get together with you next week.

Joe: Yeah man we’re super heads down too man, getting this release out the door soon. We should probably push it back for a bit, how’s about three weeks from now?

Me: Wait. Are you going to Zak’s thing tonight?

Joe: Lol. See you there.

Look, I know we’re all busy people. But I also felt like a total D telling Joe how “heads down” I was. I think we should all do ourselves a favour, get over ourselves, and stop trying to impress our peers.

It’s taken me a while to kick myself out of the habit of telling anyone how busy I am. Now, when someone asks how things are going, I just say, “They’re going great.” Which is a whole other lie.

- Max Cameron

You’re Not That Busy