Being Busy is High Status -- Internal Dizziness Bias

The busier we are, the more we have to do, the more complex and layered priorities that pull at our time must be.  Therefore, when we say that we're busy to other people, even when it is simply our preference not to engage in a certain way with that person or group of people, we're really, in essence, trying to signal to them that we maintain a certain status. I.e. that we have high demands on our time and they haven't really met a price point to satisfy us supplying them. The trick is that we do this even when we're not busy at all, and, further, that we often do so convinced of our own high octane schedules.