Do we really not have time to do enough everyday?

A few days ago, I was talking to my partner about how we complain that we don’t have time to do most things during the day, and before we know it, the week passes by, the month passes by, a WHOLE YEAR passes by. As we started talking, I wondered what we even do with our time everyday that we’re unable to keep track of. And then, some answers that I’d been living in denial of for a long time, emerged.

We all know it, but I’m going to say it anyway…

…we spend (read: waste) an awful lot of time scrolling through our phone or browsing on the laptop. We don’t realize the magnitude of time we wastefully spend doom scrolling through Instagram videos or binge-watching series’ on Netflix, Hotstar, Prime, Hulu and what not.

The irony of device-addiction is instead of turning to non-device alternatives, we resort to downloading more apps that help us cut down screen time, apps that track the number of times we unlock our phone everyday, or give us great to-do list features. It’s ironic because we take that time we otherwise spend on social media, and spend it on tracking electronic to-do lists and screen-time management apps.

So, as a first experiment, I did a couple of things that are seemingly silly.

I bought a clock and wall calendar. That’s right. I bought a clock and wall calendar because I realized that we unlock our phones at least 20 times a day to look at the time and date. And under the pretext of doing that, we subconsciously drift towards reading the news online or scrolling through Instagram.

As a second step, I deleted Instagram and Netflix, the only so-called ‘entertainment’ apps I had on my phone. (Frankly, sometimes I wonder how utterly disappointed someone would be if they managed to unlock my phone and see what I do).

Did doing both these steps help? Definitely.

1. I had time that I didn’t know what to do with. So, it felt unreal when simply deleting two apps from my phone took me from — I’m permanently lagging behind at work — to I’m nearly done. Now what?
2. It wasn’t easy, also because I didn’t realize how accustomed my brain was to a two-dimensional screen (world). Simply going out and getting used to a three-dimensional world took a few days. I wondered if I was living in an alternate reality.
3. I could feel my shoulders and spine wail in relief. We probably don’t realize how much strain we’re putting on our body by doing seemingly unharmful things like holding the phone in our hands or in front of us for hours together, lying down and watching the screen, or not moving our neck enough in a way that it becomes stiff (or frozen). Drop those devices and trust me, your body will thank you in a million ways.

So, when all this seemed to work, I took the next step.

Compartmentalizing work and home. Read that again. Compartmentalizing work and home.

You know those Hollywood movies we see where the perpetrator tries to take over our planet by controlling our minds, by making us surrender? And, his logic invariably is that we are anyway slaves to the rules of the society, why not be slaves to an authoritarian ruler? Sometimes, I wonder if that’s really true.

How many times have we questioned why we do what we do in life? Most of the time, our life runs on auto-drive because a generation of people before us have lived a certain way and we simply assume it’s the only way to do it. In this case, I’m talking about questioning why we work, why we go for a job.

We have bills to pay, mouths to feed, houses to buy, vacations to take, sure. But, are we able to recognize a job or a career for what it is — a mere means to earn income to survive, to educate ourselves, to create a lifestyle that we want? Let me rephrase that. A job is ONLY a means to earn income. It is NOT life itself.

There are organizations today that, in the name of building a work culture, design their offices in a way that people gravitate towards spending more time at work — be it keeping sleeping pods, a pool table, a game room or providing elaborate three meals a day. They offer incredible salaries, benefits and growth opportunities for employees to stick to their organizations for a longer period. We spend 50 years of our life reaping all these benefits they offer. At 50, when we finally retire, we look back and realize that we missed critical moments in our personal life. We didn’t even spend time with ourselves to introspect over the purpose of our life, because (philosophically), we assumed that we are going to live forever. We spend half (or more than half) a lifetime earning something we’re not even going to be able to take with us when we pass over.

If we are able to recognize this, we start compartmentalizing work and home. For a start, we plan our day in a way that we define how many hours we are going to spend at work. In my case, I gave myself time from 10AM to 6PM to finish work, and not sit in front of the laptop for a minute before or after. It helped a great deal because on days when I had to submit something by the end of day, I had no choice but to be productive and complete it. It increased my sense of accountability, it helped set and communicate realistic goals, and it helped me segment work and personal life. Somewhere, my body and mind thanked me too.

When I followed this for some time, I suddenly had ample time before and after work hours to do literally whatever I felt like doing. Some days, I did NOTHING and THAT’S OKAY TOO.

We read and think a lot about what it is to have me-time and personal space. But, we also expect instant change in ourselves. Reality is far from that. I’ve been following Ayurvedic principles for a few years now (to the best of my efforts), and one of the most essential things the texts say is; when we want to bring about any change in our diet or lifestyle, we need to do it gradually, not abruptly. We need to respect our body and mind and allow it the time and space to get accustomed to a new diet or a new way of life. In not doing so, we put the body and mind through stress and pressure, something we can avoid if we only allow things to unfold in time, rather than looking for instant solutions.