Why you never seem to have enough time

Why you never seem to have enough timeWhy you never seem to have enough timeRight now, I can feel the tight squeeze of stress in my stomach. This morning, I got a call from a close friend needing support, which prevented me from starting this article. At any moment, I expect one of my coworkers to email me asking for help with a last-minute assignment. And Im tischset to leave my desk early for a dentist appointment, after which Ill rush home to cook a late dinner.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraIm under time pressure- and I know Im not alone. If youre awoman, or asingle parent, or practically anyone living in todays go-go-go American society, you probably are, too. When researcherssurveyedAmericans before 2011, about half said they almost never had time on their hands and two-thirds said they sometimes or always felt rushed (though a mora recent study suggests things may beimpr ovinga bit).As researcher Cassie Mogilner and her colleagueswritein a 2012 paper, With waking hours largely consumed by work, precious minutes remain for the daily list of to-dos, including exercise, cleaning, and socializing with friends and family.At first glance, the issue seems straightforward. Time pressure comes down to a lack of time, right? Well, partly. Its the feeling that we dont have enough time to do what we want to do- but it turns out thatfeelingsandenoughandwantsare somewhat subjective.From 1965 to 2003, theaverage American workweekactually declined by three hours, whileleisure timeincreased. And in many places in the developed world, the workweek has gotten even shorter since then. Inone studyof more than 7,000 working Australians, researchers declared that time pressure is an illusion. They estimated how much time is necessary for basic living- hours of paid work, housework, and personal care- and compared it to how much free time people had in their actual schedul es. It turns out there welches a big discrepancy, which was most extreme for households without children and the smallest for single parents.Those who feel most overworked- those who have least free time- largely do it to themselves, the researchers wrote. In other words, we could theoretically spend fewer hours making money, vacuuming and washing dishes, or cooking and eating, and wed get by without getting overwhelmed.Although you may not want to subsist just above the poverty line or give your kids as little attention as possible, the broader point is important Tight-squeezy time stress has to do with the things we value and the time we devote to them. And, other research suggests, it also relates to our attitudes and mindsets about time. Rather than always blaming the clock, we can find some roots of the time crunch deep in our own psychology. Here are some scientific insights to help you make a distinction between real stopwatch pressure and the unnecessary pressure you might b e putting on yourself.1. Enjoyment and passionIn a2004 studyof nearly 800 working people in Ohio, researchers were confronted with a puzzle.When women did more than 10 hours of housework a week, they felt more pressed for time and in turn more depressed. But when men did the same amount of housework, they didnt. A similar pattern appeared for volunteering Men who volunteered more were less depressed, but women got time stressed and didnt seem to experience as much benefit.The explanation that the researchers came up with, bolstered by peoples accounts of how they spent their time, was that men tend to do more enjoyable housework and volunteering. They cut the grass and coach soccer teams they get into flow and feel a sense of accomplishment. Women, on the other hand, are often occupied with small, repetitive daily chores and service work less cheering and high-fiving and more trying not to fall asleep at school meetings.Unsurprisingly, a day packed with somewhat engaging activities feels less busy and stressful than a day of drudgery. If time flies (in a good way) when youre having fun, it also seems to fly (in a bad way) when youre not. This subjective element might have created more of a sense of time pressure in women who participated in the study, even if mens activities equaled or exceeded theirs in hours.A similar effect takes place at work. Inone study, researchers surveyed more than 2,500 employees at a technology company and a financial services company. They found that people who are more passionate, who aspire to do things that matter to them at work, arent as rushed and harried as others.If you feel short on time, you might simply not be enjoying the activities that fill up your schedule. Life can be like that sometimes, but if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it might help to add one more thing to your day- something that keeps you engaged.2. Inner conflictWhy does passion seem to free up our time? The researchers who observed this phenomeno n wanted to discover what was really going on.They found a clue when they asked employees about how conflicted or aligned their goals were. Employees lacking in passion said that their goals were competing with each other, fighting for time and attention for example, the drive to do well at work might make it hard to get home for dinner with the family. But passionate employees were different They saw their goals as supporting each other. After all, healthy home cooking and family bonding might give them more energy and motivation tomorrow.So, time pressure isnt just about how enjoyable our activities are, but also how well they fit together in our heads.One studyfound that people who simply think about conflicting goals- like saving money vs. buying nice things, or being healthy vs. eating tasty foods- feel more stressed and anxious, and in turn shorter on time.Knox College professorTim Kasser, an expert on materialism who coauthored a seminalpaperon time scarcity, once joked, If e very research project that Im currently working on right now was a cat living in my house, it would be very clear that I had a problem. If your to-do list feels like a herd of hungry felines, all in competition for your one can of food, its no wonder youre overwhelmed.While we may freely choose some tasks on our plate, others are largely the product of our society or culture, says Australian National University professorLyndall Strazdins, who has spent the last decade trying to show how time scarcity matters for individual and public health. For example, being a good suburban mom today seems to include chauffeuring your kids around the neighborhood to countless sports and hobbies.If you dont do that, then you feel youre not living up to one set of norms, but if you dont do something else, youre also not living up to another set of norms, says Strazdins. Youve got 24 hoursand you get to a point where you just cant expand your day. If you feel a lot of inner conflict about a task, the n you might consider just letting it go.3. A sense of controlOften when were caught in a time conflict, its because of some external obligation Daycare pickup runs up against an important meeting your work shift starts at 9, but the bus is late. Time pressure goes hand in hand with feeling youre not in control of your own schedule.In one2007 study, researchers interviewed 35 low-income working mothers who were caring for at least one child. They asked the moms to talk about how they spent the previous day, and how they manage to feed their families when its hectic.The researchers were able to pinpoint different ways of managing time- some of which were more successful than others.The least successful was the reactive style, where mothers didnt feel in control of their days. All those mothers felt time-scarce, beholden to the clock, unable to accomplish everything they wanted to. In contrast, mothers who had an active time-style had some success at scheduling, managing, and structuri ng their days. They felt slightly more in control of their own time and a bit less time-stressed than the reactive group.People often complain of being in a time bind not only because they are objectively busy, but also because they perceive a lack of control over their time, researcher Ashley V. Whillans and her colleagueswrite. That perception may be based on our life circumstances- because we havenon-negotiable work hoursor babies who arent fond of sleeping through the night- but it can also be part of our psychology.According to research, rather than experiencing life as masters of their own fate, some people tend to feel like theyre at the mercy of external forces (and thusless resilient to stressandmore depressed). If this describes you, it may be harder for you to seize back a sense of control over your schedule.In that case, try to keep your eyes on the prize and do what you can to gain a sense of control over your time. Take little steps, likeoptimizing your to-do listorpra cticing saying noto people who ask for favors.4. The value of your timeOne last piece of the time-pressure puzzle is money, and that one is complicated. If you work multiple jobs or cant pay for a babysitter, youre bound to feel short on time. Butsomeresearchhasfoundthat people with high incomes feel particularly short on time- and people who get richer becomeeven more harriedthan they were before. Even justfeelingrich- when your savings is on the higher end of the scale on a form youre filling out- can make you feel more rushed.In a society like ours, the go-to answer for happiness is make more money, buy more stuff, says Kasser. What were trying to say is, well, no what people actually need is more time.Why would an abundance ofmoneyfeel like a scarcity oftime? One possibility is that rich people have so much they could do with their money but only a handful of hours outside work to do it,suggestresearchers Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee. So many expensive hobbies to pursue, so little timeBut another possibility is that they simply put more value on their time. If each hour theyre not working is $100 they could have earned, they better use that hour well.As economists would remind us, when something is scarce, its value goes up- but the opposite is also true. When something is valuable (like time), we perceive it to be scarcer. Inone experiment, researchers asked 67 students to engage in some mock consulting work, for which they would charge $1.50 or $0.15 per minute. The students who were charging $1.50 felt more pressed for time- even though they werent actually going to earn that money In another experiment, when people were asked to calculate their hourly wage, high earners felt even more time-starved.Feelings of time pressure are not just a function of individual differences, the quantitative amount of time spent working, or even peoples working conditions, although these factors are obviously important,writeresearchers Sanford E. DeVoe and Jeffrey Pf effer. Time pressure is at least partly a result of psychological processes and the perception of times value.This is all good news and bad news. It means that our efforts to optimize and schedule, plan and streamline, might not be getting to the heart of the problem. But it also means that we may have more leverage than we think, even if we cant manufacture spare hours to call a friend or get to the dentist. Time pressure is the uncomfortable gap between how we wish we spent our time- and how we think that would make us feel- and how were spending it and feeling now. With that in mind, we just might be able to find some room to breathe.This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your pro ductivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people