So Many Tasks So Little Time

Why do most feel like there’s never enough time?

An Article by Smarnika Nicole

So you don’t have time eh? So you look at the clock, blink, and its suddenly the next day eh? So you’re working on a task and it seems like its taking forever to finish eh?

Well looks like you’ve come in the PERFECTLY wrong place lol. See I don’t know anything about time management to start with. I’m an artist so its laissez-faire workstyle #forlife you know. Like I seriously have terrible time management for most things. The list of tasks keeping getting larger and longer but I never seem to be past the 4th task ever! Let’s figure this out together then I guess.

If you’re stuck in this cycle of having so many tasks but so little time to complete them all, I encourage you to STOP whatever you’re doing, take a long deep breath, let out an exaggerated sigh in the process (it helps trust me), and look at the situation at hand. Pause for a moment and think “WHERE am I?” (you can answer this question literally or figuratively or both, the choice is really up to you).

Once you’re done with that ask yourself “WHAT am I trying to achieve in this moment?”, take some time with this question because its important for the next one. Finally, ask yourself, I mean like TRULY ask yourself “WHY am I taking the effort to do XYZ (insert previous question’s answers)?”, this one takes a while to answer for most but it’s essential for the purpose of this article.

Now back to the question in the subheading - ‘Why do most feel like there’s never enough time?’ - Well my dear reader, it has something to do with what Jory Mackay (writer & editor) likes to call ‘TIME ANXIETY’.

We’ve all heard of anxiety; the most overused (often misused) word in recent years (thanks a lot Tiktok!). But in all seriousness, this is an actual diagnosed medical disorder wherein an individual constantly feels a sense of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome; which more so requires them to take medication in order to treat the condition (better think twice next time before using it as a gag to describe a rather insignificant or small concern).

TIME-anxiety on the other hand is “..when you feel you never have enough time to meet your goals or that you’re not maximizing the time you do have.” Now this is not a one-day thing which you feel and get over within few minutes but actually a gradual everyday feeling that keeps building and building until you find yourself procrastinating on major tasks day after day, eventually leading to burnout. So what can we do about this?

Remember those 3 prompts I asked earlier? Time to put your answers on the table and find out the true meaning behind this article’s big question. TIME is uncontrollable. We have established that no matter how hard or best one tries YOU. JUST. CANNOT. CONTROL. TIME. Got it? What we can control is: our wheres, our whats and our whys. Our ‘wheres’ can refer to the literal or figurative stance of our mind and body, helping us ground ourselves and take into consideration the materials around us. Our ‘whats’ represent the tasks or to-dos we have, allowing for a conscious acknowledgement of the same. Our ‘whys’ reflect the dreams, goals, or simply the satisfaction we recieve by completing certain undertakings which aids our decision to carry forth the ‘whats’.

For example, you’re situated on your bed or desk right now; you could continue sitting there or get up and move somewhere else. Your mind might be going over math formulas for the finals or you might be anticipating Greta Gerwig's Barbie live-action movie starring the one-and-only Margot Robbie (shush it’s fine, I’m guilty too); this can be controlled as well. How about the whats? if you’re going over math formulas (given its a task) then you’re probably trying to memorise it using whatever method you can remember or doing some practice sums on a piece of paper; all these are controllable and changeable factors you can choose to do anything that would help you achieve the task. Now all this comes down to the why, it could be any and everything to be honest, a common why for our proposed situation would be to score good for the upcoming exam so you could receive ABC that you really wanted.

Bring this scenario into the business aspect, if you’re an entrepreneur (like I am oof) you’ll know that the list of tasks never gets over so we tend to think that there’s little time as well. Rather than focusing on the tasks and time, think about the why. Why are you doing all these tasks? If you already have a vision for your company or brand, you’ll have to take small steps - in the form of aims - to reach that vision over time. You want to see your brand grow and flourish into something beautiful which would be useful for others, and in turn help yourself. Remember your vision when you find yourself going through time-anxiety. Sometimes all you need to do is take a deep breath, and look at things from a giant’s perspective.

Next time you are facing a huge pile of tasks, remind yourself that you are a being of infinite light and energy with innumerable ideas and creations; so what do momentary-existing tasks have against you eh? Nothing because YOU are the boss of your life.

Hope you enjoyed this article! Read you later ~

Smarnika Nicole

Media Direction Lead & Editorial Writer

Sources:

https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-anxiety/