Business and having no time is quite a common tendency in the capitalist world. Being short on time seems to be almost fashionable, it boosts our mood and plays well with our FOMO and some forms of narcissism. Simultaneously, prolonged exposure to stress has serious health-related consequences. It is hard not to notice something went wrong.
Children have a shorter attention span. They learn plenty of new things every day and are less skilled so some challenges may require more effort. They have less “time pressure”. The dopamine release drops as we get older, as we challenge ourselves less and focus more on things we are already good at. Then we have factors related to health and our vices that mess with our dopamine system.
We make a lot of effort to keep ourselves occupied. Whether it is peer pressure or our tendency to run away from uncomfortable thoughts or emotions, we are constantly striving to fit more things into our schedules. We complete more tasks, undertake more projects, read more articles, watch more movies and TV shows. Our productivity falls as we reach our limits.
Get your priorities straight.
I like the idea of detaching from limiting beliefs. Sometimes we undertake to do something that we don’t really want. Some things are just tasks delegated from others. And some tasks are related to what we want to do, but may be just beating about the bush. It may be good to cut through complexity and get to the point.
“If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.” – T. Harv Eker
Better time management has one more advantage. 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of time. If we start with less time-consuming activities, we get a dopamine boost early on and more motivation to carry on with the rest.
Make an active effort to do less.
Yes, that means letting go of some things. That means having less done. So you can identify yourself with less things or ideas. Drop the concept of omnipotence and learn to say no, without feeling guilty. Of course you could run an extra errand to the shop/office/your friends house, but that would mean you would go to sleep one hour later and either not do your meditation or sports in the morning or have to drink more coffee. There is a price. We get away with some things for some time, but honest consideration of some risks might unveal we cannot afford getting caught.
Say “no” to rumination.
Many a false step was made by standing still.
We waste a lot of time on hesitating and trying to decide what is good for us. It wears us out while most of the time we end up going with our first impulse. Rumination is a factor in anxiety, fatigue, depression, insomnia. The list goes on. Sometimes we may prolong our hesitation before jumping into something outside of our comfort zone. The thing is, in many cases we won’t know unless we try. As soon as we “get the car going”, we give our maximum effort, we can see if things are working out. And even if we make a mistake, breaking out of our comfort zone is good for us. It boosts our confidence and dopamine, and makes us richer by experience.
Taking time to pause.
If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour everyday, you should meditate for two hours.
Information overload impairs our brains cognitive functions. Not only we don’t provide ourselves with the incubation period for ideas, but we don’t allow for our brains to regain their chemical balance and regenerate. This unappreciated time off is critical to our functioning. Like in the tale of two lumberjacks, taking time off is an opportunity to “sharpen your axe”: realign with your purpose, revise your plan, regain your perspective and balance.
Are you trying to cut corners and sneak in some usefulness into our relaxing activities? Or do you fall into the “low activation energy” trap? It’s easy to assume watching television is relaxing as it requires low activation energy. You just turn it on and let it play. TV shows are designed to keep our brains occupied and excited. While reading a book has much more benefits to your brain – don’t, if it is anything more than relaxed and purposeless. What should you do?
Try meditation or mindfulness. Do some light activities: relaxed sport, light hobbies, sleep, bond with people or pets, fantasize, create art, listen to music – just let yourself go.
I hope this gave you some food for thought, something to chew on. In the end, if we avoid undertaking active effort to balance our lives, the world will send us opportunities that will force us to do so.
