Despite our best efforts to manage our time efficiently, and despite the many time-saving devices designed to make life easier, our lives often seem filled to the brim. We cram our days with activities, thinking that each one of them is important and absolutely necessary. We schedule virtually every minute of every day. We say we want free time, but few of us can sit still, even for a moment.
For most people our smart phones, wireless computing, the availability of auto-ship so you don’t have to constantly shop for the same products, same day or over-night delivery and the endless streaming of information actually create more stress than they eliminate. We may save time by making a ten-minute call while driving in our car instead of waiting until we get home. But then, after dinner, you make another call, losing the time we worked so hard to save. Instead of accomplishing the same goals more quickly, we set higher goals, constantly pushing ourselves to do more and do it faster, thus getting further and further behind. Where is all the time that we saved? When do we get it back? When do we get to enjoy life? Isn’t that allegedly why we are doing all these things?
Unfortunately, the problem reaches far deeper than the misuse of time-saving gadgets. The feeling of being rushed saturates our entire way of life. We measure our success in life by our level of efficiency and our ability to stay on top of it all.
We measure the health of the economy in terms of increasing productivity. Parents seem to indoctrinate their children into this “squeeze it all in” mentality. Besides school they’re involved in soccer, swimming, music lessons, gymnastics – often all at the same time, back to back, hour to hour...
