I have no time

“The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.” William Hazlitt

It often feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything we want or need to do. We rush from one task to the next, constantly aware of the ticking clock, and yet, at the end of the day, we find ourselves lamenting the lack of time. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The pervasive feeling that our time is scarce is something many of us wrestle with daily.

But what if I told you that our perception of time scarcity is just that—a perception! The notion that more time is inherently better is a hallmark of what psychologists call the “scarcity mindset.” When operating from this mindset, we resign ourselves to the belief that there isn’t enough time and say things like, “That’s just the way it is.” But how is this mindset working out for you? Has it helped you find more time in your day?

Research indicates that a scarcity mindset around time fails to alleviate our sense of shortage and exacerbates it. When we believe that time is scarce, our ways of thinking and using time reinforce this belief. This creates a vicious cycle, where the experience of time shortage becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A twelve-hour journey has now shrunk to four hours, yet the man says – no time. A family of twelve is now just two, yet the man says – no time. A message that once took four weeks, now takes four seconds, yet the man says – no time.

Once it took years to see the face of a distant person, Now it appears in seconds –yet the man says – no time. The time and effort it took to move around the house, now ends in seconds with a lift, yet the man says – no time. The man who once stood in bank queues for hours, now completes transactions in seconds on his mobile, yet the man says – no time.

Medical tests that once took weeks, now happen in a few hours, yet the man says – no time. While riding an Activa, one hand on the handle, the other on the phone – because he doesn’t have time to stop and talk. While driving a car, one hand on the steering, the other on WhatsApp – because he has no time. When in traffic jams, he jumps lanes to create a new one, because he has no time.

Among company, his fingers are busy on his phone, because he has somewhere to be – no time. He has: No time to read books, No time to call parents, No time to meet a friend, no time to enjoy nature. But – he has time for IPL, time for Netflix, time for pointless reels, time to debate irrelevant or unimportant things on social media but he has no time for himself…

The world became simpler, faster, technology came closer, distances disappeared, comforts increased, opportunities multiplied, yet man kept saying no time, and drifted away from himself. To sit silently, to speak with oneself, to understand oneself, or to simply laugh for a few pure moments – he says no time.

There is a better way to approach our relationship with time, known as the “sufficiency mindset.” This approach hinges on the belief that there is always enough time—right now, in this moment. By shifting to a sufficiency mindset, we acknowledge the time we have and express gratitude for it. Saying “I’m grateful” or “Thank you” can be powerful affirmations that help realign our perspective. This “attitude of gratitude” is more than just a feel-good mantra. It’s a practical tool that can help us transition from a scarcity mindset to one of sufficiency.

You might not be able to get more than 24 hours in a day, but you can maximize that limited time to prevent time scarcity from constantly creeping in. Not by trying to do more, but by being more intentional with where those hours are spent. When you are confident in your priorities, defend your time according to your capacity, and focus your energy on the things that are most important, both at work and in your personal life – you’re bound to see a shift towards a mindset of abundance. Maybe that’s what Beyoncé is all about too…

Do you feel like you’re continually racing against a ticking clock – and that no matter how hard you work, or how early you get up, there just isn’t enough time to get everything done? Do you use the phrase “I don’t have time” a lot? If yes, you’re probably familiar with the concept of time scarcity, even if you’ve never heard of the term before.

Time scarcity is essentially a mindset, but it can be harmful to our wellbeing, as well as to the ways we work. But if we view it in the right way, we can use time scarcity to work smarter—and get more value from our time. Here’s everything you need to know about time scarcity.

What is time scarcity? Time scarcity has its roots in the economic concept of scarcity, which is the gap between limited resources and theoretically limitless wants. Scarcity is when the resources to achieve your objectives are limited and expensive—meaning that you have to make carefully considered decisions about how to allocate these resources.

Time scarcity simply applies that concept specifically to time. Time scarcity is an awareness that time is one of the “scarce” human resources—one that can’t be restored, unlike money. Time scarcity is often experienced negatively. It’s the anxiety behind the constant, low-level sense of dread that we’ll never finish all our tasks. It leads us to believe that there just aren’t enough hours in the day, leaving us stressed and overwhelmed. Yet time scarcity can also give us a sense of agency—applied well, it can help us engage with the value of our time and feel more in control of it.

There are dangers inherent in time scarcity mindset. The problem with this mindset is that even just feeling as though you’re behind can make your work suffer—even if in reality you do have enough time to get it done. It breeds a sense of urgency where we decide we must prioritize the tasks that shout the loudest—but prioritizing tasks that are urgent yet not important is an ineffective way of working, and can make us feel unfulfilled. Time scarcity can cause us to have a short-sighted approach to our personal lives.

We all have things we want to do in our leisure time, whether it’s exercising, cooking, reading, travelling, seeing friends, or simply being able to enjoy some quiet solitude. But how can we even think of doing these things when we can barely finish our work? As a result, we don’t do these things. We say we “don’t have time”, and we feel perpetually harried, or like we’re not really achieving anything meaningful. We spend our days racing against a ticking clock, unable to enjoy being in the present moment. But what if we’re thinking about time scarcity in the wrong way? What if it isn’t really the case that we don’t have enough time, but that we don’t know how to use it in the right way—or that we’re simply trying to do too much in the time we have?

If we try to view time scarcity as a tool to give us agency, we can see that it can actually have many benefits. There’s nothing wrong with viewing time as a limited resource; it is a limited resource. Our time is precious, and because it’s precious, we need to learn how to protect it. Learning to treat our time as a scarce resource can be one of the most beneficial things we can do when it comes to work/life balance. Once we become aware that we need to protect our time, we can start prioritizing the things that really matter. We can start saying “no” to things we don’t really want to do, and start protecting space to see our loved ones or follow our passions. We can begin managing our time better, so we’re not always checking our phones or feeling like we have to be “always on”.

He has all the time, but no time to pray. Despite having more leisure time than ever before, he struggles to find time for prayer or spiritual practice. This seeming paradox suggests a disconnect between our perception of time and our priorities. And then one day, time itself slips away. In that final moment, he realizes – there was time… but he kept saying no time, and in the process, he forgot to live.

So today, decide – keep a little time for yourself. Give a little time to relationships, live a little for your heart, your peace, the essence of life; because “no time” is not a truth – It’s just a habit… and it needs to change. Make time for more fun! Having fun creates a happier and more positive mindset, which actually improves productivity. Read more good books, maybe try out a new hobby, or go on a well-deserved vacation. You can time block rest and fun in your calendar too!

The human experience of life requires the consumption of both time and resources. This fact is so intrinsic to human existence that it is often overlooked, or at least not subjected to close scrutiny. As we have seen here, time and resources are both scarce. It follows that the act of living is an economic act, implicitly or explicitly involving consumption decisions and generating opportunity costs.

Bhushan Lal Razdan, formerly of the Indian Revenue Service, retired as Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Chandigarh. Post-retirement, he is actively associated with medical, educational, cultural and heritage issues and joined various societies and trusts to promote these objectives. Occasionally he contributes articles of contemporary relevance in Newspapers and Magazines. He is also the Chairman of Vitasta Health Care Trust.