Too much time vs too little time
It is amazing how life seems to never be as you want it to be.
People with curly hair want to have straight hair, if you have black hair you change to blond and so on…
Time is no exception.
Too much time…
Time is a precious commodity that we receive every day.
A full 24 hours for us to do what we want, or have to do with it.
What happens when we have too much time?
Personally this one is a little bit of a challenge because of where I am in my life cycle… so you might have to bare a little for good examples apart from the obvious one.
When I retire…..
I will travel the world. | will do more gardening and grow my own vegetables.
It seems that we run all our adult life towards that golden time when we will retire and we will have the time to do everything we never had the time to do.
And then you actually retire and you realise you have all that time ahead of you and no restrictions…of time.
So you start by trying to be structured and you get up early and plan your day, same way as when you were working.
But soon you realised you put yourself under pressure and for what?
Why not wait tomorrow to get the gate painted, let’s just have the afternoon to do what you want to do, read a book, watch a little TV, do your cross words.
Tomorrow comes and well the gate still need painting and the house need hoovering but you have all that time…so well why get to work straight away….NO. I’ll meet a friend for coffee first, then do a little reading, more cross word and a little TV.
The days go on and on about delaying the items that let’s face it are not the most exiting items to be done and before you know it, the reading, cross word, TV and catching up with friends are what you do and all the other activities are cumulating.
The holidays…
So much energy going into preparing for the holidays.
During the holidays you will catch up on all those tasks you had not had time to get too during the working weeks.
Think about it, you have full 5 days additional to the weekends to get all of those chores you need to have done.
But you will definitely take the time to catch up with friends as well, and you will watch those series you have been adding to your watch lists, and those books that have been accumulating on your side table…
Soon you realise that one specific task you thought would take you 2 hours actually took you 2 days of stress and painful concentration, you got frustrated and because of this the other nicer activities planned went out of the window.
Now you try to rush through all the other items you know you will not have time to do once the holiday is over and you realise that you are much more tired at the end of that week off that you are and you are actually happy to go back to work so you can rest….at last.
The week-end…
That reliable 2 days that come after every 5 days of work….that famous 48 hours where you will do all the things.
Clean the house, declutter the attic, go for dinner, have a romantic night in, quality time with the kids, quiet time for a bath, early night to get cozy with a book….
Oh wait did we say 48 hours….following a stressful week where you had no time for the house….so it is instead catch up time so that you do no live in a pigsty 3 days out of 7….
Summer barbecues with friend which means the bath and the book can be forgotten because cleaning and preparation for the great night take priorities.
Following day is catch up on sleep and maybe a little hangover but the dogs still need to be walked early so you have to get up even though you would love to stay in bed and because you are tired everything takes twice as much.
That decluttering will wait next week end or maybe the precious holidays to come.
The early night…
You made it and you finish work early, and you have an extra 2 hours to do what you need to do in the house before the routine evening activities need to be done…or you can get it all done and get in a luxurious bath with a glass a wine and a book…..
Great ok so out of the 10 thousands items you have on your to do list, which one will be the lucky winner…
So much choice, so little time to choose….and suddenly “Procrastination” shows up…that false friend that makes you loose that precious few hours.
Those 2 hours are reducing by the minutes, you decided to walk the dog early so that it is done, even though he normally goes out at 6pm….by doing this you bump onto your neighbour and you have time so you stop and catch up on the street gossip.
Walking the dog normally take 30 minutes but this time it took 40 but it is only an extra 10 minutes and tonight you have time so no need to worry.
You come home and well let’s have a little coffee before doing that decluttering, and with the coffee you switch on the T.V just for a background noise…what have you done!!! Only one episode of 20 minutes with the coffee…after all you have time today to do a little more.
So you took 30 minutes out of those extra 2 hours that is ok…and so on and so on.
Now it is 11pm and you realise you have done even less than usual, How is this possible, you finished work earlier than planned….
It seems that you can never win, now we see what happens when you have too much time on your hand, let’s review what happens when you have too little time
Too little time…
It seems to be most of our lives we run after that precious currency that is the “an extra hour”
An extra hour in bed before the hectic day ahead…
An extra hour before to go to bed, so that you can relax from the stressful day passed….
An extra hour before the guest arrive for the party and the house is still a kip….
You get the idea right…you run out of time all the time!
Working….
It feels like working is what you do…you have to work to pay the bills.
Work represents 8 hours of your day and that does not include commuting that can take between 30 and 2 hours for some…
24 hours is split between
Sleep - 6 to 8 hours
Work - 8 to 10 hours
so 24-18= 6 hours left
That is a lot right 6 to 8 hours a day for yourself!
How is that time divided
Between 1 to 2 hours in the morning to get ready for work and help the kids if needed to get ready, walking the dog and whatever needs to be done in the morning
Between 4 to 6 hours at night, walking the dog, dinner time, cleaning, kids time.
It does seem like a lot but then it feels like you always chasing your tail? Why?
Priorities need to be set up and depending on your family size and time of life children need more or less time.
Energy level, after a full day of work you do not have the energy to do what needs to be done.
Demotivation can play a role as when the tasks accumulate it is hard to keep on top and then the amount of work can be overwhelming.
Work can take over, you suppose to work 8 hours a day but this becomes 10/12 hours a day and then you cannot complete the minimum which again becomes a mountain.
You think you will have time at the weekend but the weekend is for kids birthday parties and extra-curriculum activities….
So for those few years you have sleep deprivation, over stressed at work and at home and burn the candles by both ends.
Teenagers…
Adults with teenagers
Suddenly you have teenagers and they do not need to be dressed in the morning.
They spend their time in their bedrooms, out with their friends or on the phone with their friends, or watching TV.
You have time back on your hands and you realise you do not know what to do with it as an adult.
You do not know if you should feel happy or guilty or should you try to spend time with that growing up person?
Whatever you do, it is wrong.
If you decide to spend a day cleaning, going to the gym, going for a night out…list can go on, then in the back of your head you are a bad parent who is not looking after their child
If you decide to spend the day with your teenager then you feel guilty of all the work needing to be done in the house, not looking after your health, living your life through your child…
The teenager
The teenager spend its time in bed, watching tablets or phone or TV.
They get up at 2 in the afternoon at the weekend, spend their time with friends virtually or together, complain that they only spent 6/8 hours with their friends.
Have to do homework which is stopping them from watching TV and seeing their friends but if they were to do the homework first thing they would have time but ….”Procrastination” is coming into their lives.
They have time for homework so watch TV…if only they could read…or on the phone with their friends and come 10pm they realise they have 2 hours homework, they are tired and they want to go to bed but those homework need to be done….they do not have the time for that.
It is not fair why do they have homework that takes up all their time.
Oh wait we are back at priorities but as adult we know about it and ignore knowing the consequences but teenagers do not want to admit that they could have an easier life if they were organised….no it is the school fault and the parents fault for asking them at 21h30 if the homework is done and they realise they have not started.
They meant to but there were other distractions…not distractions as teenagers but necessities so massive argument happens stressing both parents and teenagers and this repeats every day.
We cannot win when it comes to time, but we can try to enjoy it while we have some ahead of us.
