What Would Marcus Do Week 2: Seneca on Busyness and the Poverty of Distracted Time

“Nothing will ever please you if you start looking for what you have lost.” — Seneca

Seneca wrote extensively about time’s true value, arguing that we aren’t given a short life—we waste the life we’re given. His insights in “On the Shortness of Life” read like a diagnosis of our contemporary condition, where the average person spends several hours daily fragmenting their attention across multiple platforms.

Research reveals that media multitasking interferes with attention and working memory, negatively affecting academic performance, recall, and reading comprehension. Seneca would recognise this as the natural consequence of what he called vita occupata—the occupied life that mistakes motion for progress.

The Illusion of Productive Busyness

Seneca distinguished between being busy and being engaged in meaningful work. Modern studies confirm that when students pursue goals that truly matter to them, they’re better able to resist distractions. This validates Seneca’s observation that clear purpose creates natural resistance to trivial diversions.

The Latin otium (leisure) didn’t mean idleness—it meant time free from obligation, available for reflection and genuine productivity. Contemporary research shows that stressed individuals often use social media excessively as a coping mechanism, creating cycles where technology use increases stress rather than relieving it. Seneca warned against this exact pattern: seeking relief from discomfort through activities that ultimately compound our problems.

The Economics of Attention

Seneca approached time with the rigour of a businessman evaluating investments. He would be appalled by our casual squandering of attention on platforms designed to generate advertising revenue rather than human flourishing. Social media addiction particularly affects teenagers, with prevalence rates between 5-20%, driven by low self-esteem and the seeking of external validation.

This mirrors Seneca’s warnings about depending on external sources for our sense of worth. True wealth, he argued, comes from needing less, not having more. Applied to attention, this means finding satisfaction in fewer, deeper engagements rather than constant stimulation.

I can concur based on my own experience. It turns out that busyness is bad for business.

The Temporal Audit

Seneca recommended regular examination of how we spend our days. He would likely advocate for what we now call “time tracking,” but with a philosophical rather than merely productive intent.

What would Marcus Do?

Try this for a week.

Weekly Time Audit: Track your attention patterns for one week without judgement. Note when you feel genuinely engaged versus when you’re simply passing time. Seneca wrote, “Every new thing excites the mind, but a mind that seeks the truth turns from the new to the eternal.”

The Seneca Buffer: Before engaging with any potentially distracting technology, ask: “Will this activity contribute to my philosophical development, my relationships, or my meaningful work?” If not, consciously choose to defer it.

Evening Wealth Assessment: Each night, review the day not by what you accomplished, but by how present you were during your activities. Seneca measured wealth by independence; measure your day by moments of undivided attention.

The Deep Work Hour: Dedicate one hour daily to what Seneca would call “genuine leisure”—sustained focus on something valuable without external interruption. This isn’t productivity for its own sake, but cultivation of the mind’s capacity for sustained thought.

Seneca’s wisdom transforms time management from mere efficiency into a philosophical practice. In an age of artificial scarcity created by endless demands on our attention, his insights offer a path to genuine abundance. 

My Experience

I tried doing a time audit - it was quite instructive. https://beautyscientist.github.io/GSDIANOZAS/#did-i-do-well-or-badly I am definitely going to try to build this into a habit.