"I lie to myself that i have freedom in my own schedule"

This paper examines the relationship between experiences of busyness in everyday life and the use of productivity tools, including planners, calendars and to-do lists. Field study findings demonstrate that American individuals across a demographic range have internalized a cultural emphasis of busyness as a moral value to construct positive identities as busy individuals. At the same time, they struggle with a sense of conflict around busyness, reflected in real-life experiences of clashing priorities, fantasies of downtime, and struggles with anxiety, guilt, and loss of control. Our findings also point to the ways digital and non-digital productivity tools are embedded in experiences and coping practices around busyness. Grounded in our observations we propose design principles for productivity tools that support users' identities as busy people but also address some of the perils of the American busyness ethic.