Note: This article is by Ashley Whillans, who shares her experience identifying the time-wasting obstacles to investing.
Here, we're talking about the poverty of time. That is the chronic feeling of having too many things to do, but not having enough time to do them. Time poverty affects all cultures and transcends all economic classes, and most of us are poor in terms of time.
In 2012, 50% of American workers said they were leading a rushed life, while 70% said they never had enough time. However, in 2015, more than 80% of them expressed frustration with a lack of time.
If you perceive this as a trivial problem, then you’re totally wrong. Time poverty is a serious issue that has severe effects on individuals and society as a whole. A survey conducted demonstrates a correlation between time poverty and misery. People who always lack time are less happy, less productive, and more stressed. Additionally, they occasionally experience severe health issues.
Time poverty forces us to compromise. For example, we settle for some chips and salsa instead of cooking a nutritious dinner.
The most obvious explanation is that we spend more time at work than in previous generations, but insufficient evidence supports this theory. Daily work logs reveal that, for example, in the United States, men's leisure time has increased from 4 to 8 hours per week to 6 to 9 hours per week over the past 50 years. So, why are we feeling more pressed than ever?
The poverty of time doesn't arise from a mismatch between the hours we have and the hours we need. Instead, it is about the way we think about and value those hours. It is a psychological issue more than a structural one. As we're always online, and when we have some free time, we simply waste it. Even worse, we keep working in our leisure time.
6 Steps to Become Smart in Using Time
To use your time effectively, you must first recognize the time constraints that are holding you back:
1. Technology-based distractions
Although it can sometimes save us time, technology can also take up a lot of our time. This is called the Autonomy Paradox. We depend on our electronic devices to tell us how long we should work, but paradoxically, we end up working constantly. Electronic devices constantly interrupt our priceless downtime, which strains our cognitive abilities and disperses our free time in a way that makes it challenging to take advantage of it.
The phenomenon is referred to as "time scraps," which refers to the insignificant fractions of seconds and minutes lost as a result of ineffective multitasking. While each component is not harmful on its own, when combined, they cause harm.
For instance, if you only have one free hour at 7 p.m. and you only have time to respond to one of two emails you receive, you might receive four Twitter notifications and only read the responses to one of those. You then receive three more Slack notifications from coworkers asking for favors, but you only reply to one of them. Then an alarm sounds, reminding you to call your mother on her birthday the following day. Following that, your friend sent you four texts in an effort to coordinate plans for the weekend the following week.
Each of these events takes only seconds, but together they have two negative effects. The first is the sheer amount of time you steal from your rest hour. A few seemingly harmless distractions can take up 10% of your free time. However, research shows that we are conservative in our appreciation of distractions. So, their effect can usually be worse than this.
The second, and even worse, the effect of time scraps is how they divide your free time. Most likely, these distractions are randomly distributed throughout your one-hour break so that they break up into many smaller chunks, sometimes only 5 or 6 minutes long.
Distraction lowers the value of those periods of free time by reminding you of everything you need to do, even if you are disciplined about not responding or delaying responding.
Our minds also take time to recover from stressful activities, which reduces how much we enjoy our downtime. When asked to think about it, we estimate that we have less free time than we actually do. So, our fragmentation of time makes us feel that we are poorer than we really are.
2. Obsession over money
Another trap is the cultural obsession with working hard and making money. We have been misled into believing that having more money will make us happier than having more time.
Research shows that money prevents sadness but doesn't guarantee happiness. Once we make enough money to pay our bills, save a little for the future, and have some fun, the extra work doesn't do us any good and adds nothing to our happiness.
In a survey conducted on 1.7 million people in 165 countries, researchers discovered more money doesn't lead to more happiness. After making about 65,000$ a year, material possessions have little influence on our level of happiness. However, after making 105,000 a year, money won't have an impact on our decisions in life.
Once people earn a decent amount of money (105,000 a year in the United States), they start to have a negative point of view on life, and the wealthier we get, the more we start comparing our lives to people who are wealthier than us.
Having money indeed prevents unnecessary stress. For example, when your car breaks down, money provides a solution. Having cash on hand provides peace of mind. However, avoiding negative outcomes is different from creating happier ones.
Important note: Money can't buy happiness.
A culture obsessed with making more money mistakenly believes that the way to get richer in terms of time is to get richer financially. The majority of people hold the mistaken belief that if they work hard and earn more money, they will have more free time in the future. Focusing on the pursuit of wealth will only increase your desire for cash.
3. Underestimating our time value
Many people protect their money in ways that work against time affluence due to the culture's obsession with money.
52% of people who were financially stable but lacked time –working parents with young children- stated that they would rather have more money than time. However, when asked how they would spend a fake $100 prize to increase their happiness, only 2% of employed parents said they would spend it in ways that save them some time, such as having their groceries delivered to their homes.
Clearly, people who can afford to buy some time –people with an average of 3$ million in their accounts- still believe that they don't have enough money.
It's hard for us to measure the value of time. Even if we make a bad trade-off between time and money—like driving two miles out of our way to save 10 cents a gallon on gas—we won't feel like it's a bad choice because we aren’t aware of the value of our time.
You get caught in a time trap when you book back-to-back flights because they are slightly less expensive. Assuming you save $300 on that flight, keep in mind that it will take up a total of 8 hours of your vacation time, increase your stress levels, and require you to get up early to change planes. Would you be willing to spend $300 in exchange for an additional eight hours of vacation time, which equates to a full working day, as well as less stress and fatigue?
We instinctively choose the least expensive when we shouldn't. Let's revisit the gasoline example. To save 15 cents per gallon, let's say you frequently travel six additional minutes to a different station, where you fill up your car with 15 gallons four times a month. It initially appears to be worthwhile. Six minutes is not much, and you will save more money.
- If we multiply 15 cents by the number of gallons, 15 gallons, the result will be $2.25 in savings per trip.
- $25 times 4 visits per month equal a saving of $9.00 per month.
- $9.00 per month over 12 months saves $108 per year.
But anyone familiar with the barriers of time will see it in a different light:
- 6 minutes per trip multiplied by 4 which is the number of visits per month = 24 minutes lost per month.
- 24 minutes multiplied by 12, the number of months in a year equals 4.8 wasted hours per year.
Looking at it this way, I spent nearly five hours saving $108; It doesn't even take into account the cost of what you could have done with those five hours instead of driving out of your way to saving money.
You may still feel that the trade-off is worth it, but doing the math makes you see the time value you're underestimating.
4. Confusing busyness with productivity
Our jobs shape our identities more than before. Data shows that people living in the US increasingly look to work, rather than friends, family, or hobbies for purpose. In a survey conducted in 2017, 95% of young people said that having an interesting and meaningful career was very important to them.
Being busy with work has a high status, given the importance we place on it. Even when those hours are wasted, we see it as a badge of honor and we want to be seen as the employees who work longer hours. When there is less equality in society, people feel insecure about their financial future regardless of their current situation, which increases employment as well as financial insecurity. Conversely, those who have held successful jobs worry about failing and the financial cost of doing so, and those who are already having trouble making ends meet fear falling even further.
The majority of us deal with this by working harder and trying to make more money, and we feel guilty about spending money on things that make us happy, like eating out or vacations.
The social aspect of busyness boosts our self-esteem because work and productivity are central to our sense of self. On the other hand, focusing on something other than work can endanger our position and means of support. We worry that we won't be respected.
It turns out that entrepreneurs are often rewarded for being busier. Research shows that employees who brag about working non-stop and being extremely busy are seen by others as better workers, as having more money and prestige, even if this is not true, and they are also thought to be more physically attractive.
Even if it feels good right now for someone to check your email right on the evening of the holiday, this behavior leads to an unhealthy and unhappy life.
5. Idleness aversion
Even if we lived in a completely equal society, we would still create time constraints for ourselves because humans are not used to being idle.
This "idleness aversion," as researchers refer to it, causes us to act strangely. Dan Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard University gave some college students nothing to do while they were in an empty room. As a result, many of them started feeling anxious because they didn't want to be left alone with their thoughts.
Another study showed that employed parents felt "upset" and "stressed out" during recreational activities, which suggests that even the poorest among us in terms of time don't know how to relax.
Technology may help us avoid being alone with our thoughts, but it is also a trap that contributes to stress and time poverty. Being constantly connected to our devices prevents the brain from recovering, keeps stress levels high, and distances us from the present.
In fact, it has been shown that idleness is a valuable form of entertainment and can add to the richness of time. The physical and psychological advantages of giving the brain a break are far superior to the stress that comes with keeping the mind active constantly.
6. Believing we have more time than we actually do
Most of us are overly optimistic about our future. We mistakenly believe that we will have more time tomorrow than we do today, and this is sometimes referred to as the planning fallacy.
I agreed to help a friend move out of her home on Saturday when she asked me to do so on Monday. On Tuesday, I also agreed to a co-worker's request to review her report by Saturday. Additionally, I accepted a dinner invitation on Saturday at a brand-new restaurant. I scheduled all of this until Saturday morning when I awoke and questioned my actions.
In fact, as a happiness-seeker, I know what I've been thinking: "Although I am very busy right now, Saturday is far away, and I will have time to do these things."
Our minds frequently overlook this crucial fact and lead us to believe that we will have more time later than we actually do, despite the fact that statistically speaking, how busy we are right now is the best predictor of how busy we will be next week. Due to our excessive optimism, we like to agree with everything and flaunt our positivity, even when it comes to little things. We see this as a means of overcoming idleness and a means of feeling successful, connected, valued, respected, and loved.
But how will we find the time to finish everything we had planned? Ironically, being constantly busy undermines the objectives we set and hoped to accomplish by being busy in the first place.
In conclusion
Although there are many other reasons why we don't prioritize our time, these six are the most prevalent ones. For the time being, your objective should be to identify and record the time traps you fall into most frequently.
Remember that your time hurdles will not be the same as others, and this is what makes you unhappy and steals your time.
Everybody can get past their own time barriers, like getting in shape, increasing your time wealth necessitates taking small, deliberate steps each day to increase your free time. It won't be simple at first, just like getting fit.
While exercising, for example, you shouldn't punish yourself for not being fully committed to your routine. Never beat yourself up if you're bad at prioritizing time. several things make it difficult.
We do not naturally respond to time poverty in a controlled way. In fact, studies show that when we feel busy, we take on small tasks that are easy to complete. This is because they help us feel more in control of our time, and in this case, we get a false sense of control that does not mitigate the root cause of our busyness.
Although time poverty is a problem facing everyone, its richness seems different to them. This could mean spending another 15 minutes playing guitar instead of checking your phone, 10 minutes meditating or spending your Saturday morning learning how to invest in your savings instead of gossiping with co-workers.
Regardless of what time richness means to you, the happiest and most time-rich people are meticulous with their spare time. Time enrichment work is about recognizing and overcoming the temporal obstacles in our lives and intentionally capturing happier and more meaningful moments each day.
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