What is time poverty? I’m sure we’ve almost all experienced it. It’s the desperate lack of enough time to resolve all of the demands, and wants, in our lives. It is the problem that causes incessantly buzzing electronics, purple smears under our eyelids and results in the car getting incrementally messier each day. For a mother, it might be getting one child’s hair done in the morning and letting the other’s wild mane roam free. It is working hard to make sure the living room is picked up each night but never quite managing to keep the kitchen spotless. For a college student, it’s realizing that friends, sufficient sleep and enough study time can’t all be perfectly maintained…
Our lives move so fast these days. This week, I was thinking about how time starved I felt! I have the same 24 hours a day and 365 days a year that all the people of the earth have experienced, but it just isn’t nearly enough…and I was getting frustrated at myself. A little part of me wanted to pray my heart out and see if God would hold the sunset (and the time) a few hours longer as he had for Joshua just so I could accomplish everything! I was attempting to answer every email, run every errand, check off every wedding planning step, finish work, reach out to each friend, dutifully read my scriptures, take time with family, jog 6 miles and spend time with my soon-to-be husband…. every day.
whoooa.
The interesting thing is… almost none of these things would have been possible without time saving technology. A car, internet, washing machines and dish washers, a smart phone, and the occasional take-out meal significantly opened my time to other things. But, in my mind, it still wasn’t enough. I had more time-saving devices than almost any generation in the history of the world, and I still felt deep in time debt. ….why? What expectations do we create for ourselves in this generation that are so different than those that have come before? It seems that with greater capacities and technologies come greater demands on our time and energies. So, how do we keep the right perspective? How do we pull ourselves out of time poverty? Or, at least, how do we keep it manageable?
As I progress in life, I know the demands on my time will increase… so what can I do to stay afloat and swim strong in the tide of expectations and everyday to-dos? I’ve come up with two simple ideas. Many of you are experts at this. I know this because I’ve watched you and admired you from afar. I know you are still working on it too…but you’ve been an inspiration to me as the interest on my time debt seems to climb week to week.
1) Cultivate a spirit of contentment
This doesn’t mean I don’t desire to do better in many areas of my life - because I do! I want to grow and improve. It does mean that I could be kinder to myself when a job is done 90% well instead of 100% well. It does mean that I remind my self that I am doing better than I think I am and that I have time to do better tomorrow. I means that I am grateful and that I express thanks often. It means that I prioritize and recognize that the essential things in my life are all going well… and that I am actually rich in time and blessings.
2) Don’t be afraid to say No.
I love to serve others and I love to do a million things at once. But, we have all been counselled to not “run faster” than we “are able”. A simple, rich life is a beautiful thing. Too often, I complicate my life with many fun “goods” when I could have been really developing a precious few “bests”. I want to do better at being thoughtful about my time choices and allocating hours and minutes to the things that will nourish me and those dearest to me. I need to be willing to say no to a few “good” things.
In a world of time poverty, I believe there is opportunity to be rich in joy and blessings. Our days are numbered to God, it’s just up to us to use them well.
