The Modern Day Challenges of Not Having Enough Time

They say we should all just blame it on social media. All the structure of a society that is constantly on the run, searching for something better, bigger, dreamier. The fact that we cannot seem to create a balance out of our work and professional lives has become an exhausting issue.

I often wake up in the morning, with a tight pressure upon my chest, and my first thought is anxiety related to work tasks I have left unfinished the day before. And it’s not even bad time management, it is simply the fact that the task load was overwhelming these couple of months, and as soon as I would cross one thing off my list, three other activities would come up, increasing the burden and stress upon my shoulders (I literally felt the stress in my shoulders).

Where Does the Time Go?

In our post (post) modern society, it has become a norm that we come home from work tired, and we go to work tired. We’re too tired to cook, eat healthy, meet our friends, go out for a walk or simply stop a little and have a 15-minute mediation session. Last week I added a catch-up meeting with one of my best friends to my work calendar. The problem was made clear to me, to us all in this capitalist society: we don’t seem to have time! That’s when I realized I am in trouble and I really need to become more mindful about my schedule.

Life has become so hard these days, that we seem to have forgotten about the concept of just sitting still with nothing to do, without doing absolutely anything productive at all. Personally, I am guilty of bringing my work laptop home and mixing work life with private life, leaving little room for rituals of self-care and awareness. However, I am trying to improve. I think the first step is always becoming aware of bad patterns you are catching, and then fighting them comes along the way.

I don’t think I was always like this, though. I don’t remember any of my friends being like this either, especially before COVID-19 happened. Instead of slowing down our pace, and becoming more compassionate with ourselves after having gone through a global lockdown and pandemic, seems we only got worse and even pressured ourselves to look and be more productive than the average norm of productiveness. We even demanded productiveness from ourselves in the most unusual times, when we were losing loved ones and experiencing uncertain states of being.

Yet, again, we can all reflect a little on what is REALLY wrapping our time, so to not feel burned out and to avoid any sort of accumulation.

Ways to Cope With All-Over-The-Place Feelings

Here are a few things I would recommend to try when dealing with lack of time management:

• Be mindful of your tasks & chores
• Notice how, when and which tasks you are procrastinating
• Notice what you prioritize throughout the day
• Notice if you are at any time able to say NO to new tasks or activities
• See if you can delegate your work to fellow colleagues
• Assess if you can divide your work and create a schedule for two-three days
• Become more mindful about the time you spend on social media
• Become more mindful about the rituals you have early in the morning, and late at night
• Think of what you usually do before bed
• Think of what you do first thing in the morning, upon waking up
• When you feel drained out of too much work/activities, see how you are reacting physically and emotionally
• Notice how much time you spend around your friends, family, and loved ones

These are only a few things I have started checking up on every once in a while, about myself. This was after I read an article somewhere saying that people who complain that they don’t have time and they are exhausted often exhaust their own self from the inability to say no to certain things, and simply expect less of themselves.

I am currently trying to expect the very least of myself, in the best possible sense, and I learned it the hard way. Good luck to the fellow reader benefiting from the advice written down on this piece. That is of course if the reader has time to get to the end of this article.

Photo: StoryTime Studio/shutterstock

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