Time anxiety is a very real thing. The feeling that you don't have enough time to do the things you want to can be so overwhelming that you don't even get to finish the things you wanted to because you're too busy worrying if you have enough time to get them done! (What a mouthful!). It's something that everyone goes through and it really sucks!
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I've been trying to combat this personally, and ever since I started taking conscious steps towards changing this mindset I've been able to actually get things done and stop feeling like I'm always on a deadline. It's such a strange feeling; knowing that you can take steps towards achieving something but feeling like your efforts are futile. Today I'm going to share the steps I've been taking to stop feeling like I'm running out of time.
I think this can be broken down into two sub-categories; what you can do day-to-day and what you can do in the long-term to make yourself have more time. Let's get started!
DAY-TO-DAY
The first thing you want to do is plan your days out accordingly. Every evening, take out just 10 minutes before you go to bed or while you're sitting in the sheets to make a to-do list. I have a whole post written about how to write effective to-do lists right here, which you should definitely check out! Only add the important tasks and events you absolutely must get done. If you want to be extremely detailed (and slightly anal about it), you can also add the times you want to get your tasks done. For example, at 6am you'll wake up, at 6:05am you'll head into the shower, and so on.
Planning out your day makes sure you know exactly what you want to do and it leaves no time for you to begin panicking over what to do next because it's all written down. I write these tasks in my bullet journal (a post is definitely coming soon!) and it helps me know what I have to do that day.
Planning out your day makes sure you know exactly what you want to do and it leaves no time for you to begin panicking over what to do next because it's all written down. I write these tasks in my bullet journal (a post is definitely coming soon!) and it helps me know what I have to do that day.
The next thing to do is to wake up early. Waking up early gives you so much more time to get things done and you'll feel like you have all the time in the world if you get up one or two hours earlier than you need to! MuchelleB has a great video on the reasons why you should wake up early here, as well as steps you can take towards this here! By waking up early, you can get some studying done, get a blog post written, fit in your exercise, clean your house - the list is so endless!
Another way to stop feeling like time is slipping away is to stay off social media! Scrolling through your phone can feel like it's quick and effortless but before you know it, you've wasted 20 minutes or 30 minutes or even an hour! I have a blog post right here with ideas of what to do when you feel like you have nothing to do! Not only is social media a drain on your emotions, it can also eat away precious time, so be sure to limit your usage of this!
Another way to stop feeling like time is slipping away is to stay off social media! Scrolling through your phone can feel like it's quick and effortless but before you know it, you've wasted 20 minutes or 30 minutes or even an hour! I have a blog post right here with ideas of what to do when you feel like you have nothing to do! Not only is social media a drain on your emotions, it can also eat away precious time, so be sure to limit your usage of this!
LONG-TERM
Another important aspect of not feeling like you're running out of time is the long-term side of things. Ideally you want this feeling to not be a one-off thing, but rather something that you carry on with in the long-term.
The first thing to keep in mind is that you must change your mindset and your approach to time itself. Time is always constant, so theoretically, you will never really run out of time! How comforting is it to know that time is infinite and won't suddenly come to an end. Once you understand that you really do have all the time in the world, it makes it easier to not feel so panicked and rushed all the time.
To really get you to understand how much time you have at your disposal, I would recommend to you the book I've Decided to Live 120 Years by Ilchi Lee. In the book, the author describes how we as a society are conditioned to only plan for our lives up to age 60, even though we now live up to age 100 in many cases! He talks about how we have those 20 or 30 years to do anything we want to!
My time anxiety manifests itself like this: if I'm not 'successful' by age 25, then what's the point? I'm already 20, so I don't have enough time to make myself 'successful'; I'm out of time, so I may as well not do anything at all. This book basically slaps that notion out of my head and tells me that that simply isn't true! It's a book I'm really looking forward to reading!
Finally, being present and not thinking too much about the future or the past will really help you in the long-term. The past can bring sadness, the future can bring anxiety, but when you remember that the moment right now is the only thing that is guaranteed, you can really feel like time is infinite!
I hope this post gave you some inspiration and motivation. Like I said, time anxiety is real and facing it can be so difficult! This is what I've been doing and what has been working for me to realise that I do have a lot of time!
Do you have time anxiety? How do you deal with it?
The first thing to keep in mind is that you must change your mindset and your approach to time itself. Time is always constant, so theoretically, you will never really run out of time! How comforting is it to know that time is infinite and won't suddenly come to an end. Once you understand that you really do have all the time in the world, it makes it easier to not feel so panicked and rushed all the time.
To really get you to understand how much time you have at your disposal, I would recommend to you the book I've Decided to Live 120 Years by Ilchi Lee. In the book, the author describes how we as a society are conditioned to only plan for our lives up to age 60, even though we now live up to age 100 in many cases! He talks about how we have those 20 or 30 years to do anything we want to!
My time anxiety manifests itself like this: if I'm not 'successful' by age 25, then what's the point? I'm already 20, so I don't have enough time to make myself 'successful'; I'm out of time, so I may as well not do anything at all. This book basically slaps that notion out of my head and tells me that that simply isn't true! It's a book I'm really looking forward to reading!
Finally, being present and not thinking too much about the future or the past will really help you in the long-term. The past can bring sadness, the future can bring anxiety, but when you remember that the moment right now is the only thing that is guaranteed, you can really feel like time is infinite!
I hope this post gave you some inspiration and motivation. Like I said, time anxiety is real and facing it can be so difficult! This is what I've been doing and what has been working for me to realise that I do have a lot of time!
Do you have time anxiety? How do you deal with it?