does this busy trap come from a lack of focus or a lack of meaning?

This reminds me a lot of ZenHabits' 38 Life Lessons posted yesterday: http://pandawhale.com/convo/2875/38-life-lessons

Being busy is a choice:

"The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it."

"Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day."

Speaking of which, sorry I was so busy shuffling from one place to another yesterday that I mumbled my hello, Jared! Sometimes I'm way too in my own head, and it's not a good thing!

It reminded me of that post, too. I think there will certainly be a push back toward Zen in the coming years.

never fear. it was great to see a Panda sighting. Joe was with me, so I got to point Joyce and you out and talk about this awesome little site.

Cool.

As for zen coming back, the 60 second meditation is something everyone can do: http://pandawhale.com/convo/1124/60-second-meditation

I think from lack of balance...

Being a developer, it takes me a lot of mental effort to "get in the mode" and dive into coding. Once I'm "plugged in", I'm very productive and trying not to loose focus. Work interruptions come at high cost for me.

Yet, I found such interruptions very important. Balancing act here is know when to stop. I noticed that if I can't make it work for some time, it is much better to get a break (workout is the best). Things magically start getting in order after productive break.

Forgive me for re-stating the obvious, but balance between hard work and breaks decreases the overall level of effort, which needs to go get something done.

It's hard to know when to stop. Really.

Another discussion of this topic focuses on time vs money...