A pervasive yet foolish way of looking at other people is to judge their productiveness by how “busy” they are.
We do it to other people. Other people do it to us. So we even do it to ourselves.
There’s always something to do, sure. But that “something” is often “recharge and be ready so that you’re most effective when the real stuff happens.” Ever observe firefighters on duty in a fire house? They might be playing cards, watching TV. They’re usually not hip-deep in some other minor task, some busy work, around the fire house. Why? Because when that alarm bell rings, we want them ready – undistracted, fully charged, ready to go.
Don’t do tasks just to fill time, and don’t expect it of others. If you can’t identify whether someone is doing a good job by anything other than how busy they look, then you shouldn’t be evaluating others at all.
The Opportunity Machine 