The Truth About Time Pressure (Why You Always Feel Rushed)
The unsettling truth about time pressure (and why it's not your fault)
The meaning of time pressure
How often do you feel pressed for time or catch yourself rushing through the day?
Often? You’re not alone. According to Gallup Poll in 2015, 48% of Americans said they don't have enough time.
That right there is time pressure.
The Conversation defines time pressure as “…how rushed or pressed for time people feel on a daily basis”. It also relates to whether individuals perceive they have sufficient time to do what they need or want to do (including time for work, family, leisure, travel, study, volunteering or exercise).”
Time pressure can also be known as time scarcity, time poverty, or time anxiety.
The impacts of living with time scarcity
If you’re an entrepreneur or a self-development fan, I am sure that you have read about, taken courses, or done some healing work around a scarcity mindset when it comes to money.
Time poverty is no different.
According to the American Psychological Association, a scarcity of resources, including financial resources, shapes everyone’s decisions and behaviors. Living with scarcity drains mental resources and increases negative emotions, which narrows our focus and impacts our day-to-day decisions.
When you’re focused on a resource(s) being limited or running out, it takes you out of the present moment and prevents you from living the life you want to live.
Scarcity creates additional stress and anxiety, which we know now the massive impacts of stress on our bodies and minds.
Time pressure has a significant and negative impact on your ability to effectively manage your time, grow your business, and live your life.
I do also have to mention that some folks feel more motivated and work well under deadlines which is an acute form of time pressure. However, when you have a chronic feeling that there are simply too few hours in the day, that’s when the negative impacts start to set in.
Why time anxiety is not your fault
I do an exercise with my holistic time coaching clients to get a gauge on any time pressure or anxiety they have.
Often, they're shocked about how many negative thoughts they have around time that adds to felt time pressure.
Some common thoughts are:
“I'm always late”
“I'm so behind”
“I can’t believe it’s already (insert month/year)”
“I'm way too slow”
“I'm so busy”
“I don't have the time”
“I never have enough time”
“I don't have time to relax” or “I'll relax when I'm done”
“I'm not productive”
“I waste so much time”
(Notice any over-generalizations or all-or-nothing thinking?)
Once my clients start noticing their time scarcity mindset in their lives and business, it’s a lot easier to make decisions and create sustainable time management strategies to mitigate other time pressures.
The three biggest questions that I asked myself when I started healing my time scarcity mindset were:
What did I see and learn from my parents, caregivers, and those around me as a kid, growing up around time?
What do I currently think and feel about time?
Why do I believe them? Why do I think they're true?
Personally, I realized that I had adopted a scarcity worldview from my childhood, education system, and previous wage-labor jobs. My clients are frequently in the same situation.
Time anxiety is not limited to just your or my personal experiences though. We also need to investigate who or what taught so many people that what we get done is insufficient or that there is never enough time.
Time poverty is a societal (and systemic) issue
Mindset work can feel gaslight-ey.
Thoughts are hard to catch. Especially when you don’t or you feel like you don’t have enough time.
Not enough time is 100% real, nor are all 24 hours the same for everyone.
I appreciate that the APA states that any negative actions connected to scarcity are not the fault of individuals experiencing a form of poverty; scarcity research indicates that these are universal processes.
I mean…if in 2015, 154 million Americans said they felt time scarcity, it makes sense to me that it's a systemic issue just as any other large-scale issue is.
This is where I always come back to the negative impacts of capitalism.
Redflag shares, “The competitive drive to accumulate wealth through the exploitation of human labour is the starting point for understanding capitalism and oppression.”
Human lives (aka our time!) are the most important resource to profit on the planet.
There will never be enough time to get everything done. It’s literally impossible.
This is why the traditional time management and productivity advice encouraging us to get more work done, faster leaves us exhausted and confused.
Time abundance and liberation are possible
Feeling a lack of time is one of the things that is easy to revert back to. It’s normalized and engrained to think, say, and communicate to the people in our lives about how busy we are and how little time we feel we have.
I want to make sure I share with you that there is hope.
Time abundance (feeling like you have more than enough time) and time liberation (feeling free around how you spend it) are possible for you. I believe they are possible for everyone.
Both require individual AND systemic shifts, that are equally important.
Individually, if you want more time, or at least to feel like you have more time, in your life TODAY, I suggest starting with your thoughts rather than anywhere else.
Why?
Because if you have a time scarcity mindset, you will never have enough time no matter what planner, calendar, hack, or tool you try.
Addressing your time beliefs can make a huge difference in your relationship with time and really support you in managing your time more aligned with your values.
What’s coming up for you after reading the unsettling truth about time scarcity? Feel free to comment below. I’d love to support your investigation, healing, and thriving.