How “I Don’t Have enough time” Messes with Your Brain

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that “I don’t have enough time” is a frequent—and perhaps daily—thought for you.

We’re constantly drowning in a sea of never enough. Never enough time. Never enough money. Never enough downtime. Never enough rest.

I want you to know that I see you. The struggle of not enough is a real one, especially now as we juggle pandemic life (which for many of us means parenting + working + homeschooling + not enough of the things that fill us up like time with loved ones and community support).

I also want to suggest that telling yourself “I don’t have enough time” is compounding the problem.

You may have heard of confirmation bias, particularly as it relates to political views. Confirmation bias is “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories” (Dictionary.com).

Your brain is constantly looking for evidence that what you tell yourself is true. So if you’re constantly telling yourself, “I don’t have enough time,” then. . . you guessed it. Your brain is going to go to work finding evidence that supports that belief.

Once your brain finds that evidence, it reinforces the “I don’t have enough time” belief, and before you know it you’re in a constant cycle of stress, scramble, and not-enoughness.

Want to try sending your brain on a different sort of fact-finding mission?

The next time you catch yourself saying, “I don’t have enough time,” try on one of these instead:

I have enough time for what’s truly important. Many of the things that eat up our time aren’t actually that important to us, when we really think about it. Give your brain a chance to zero in on your priorities and to honor the ways you are making space for what matters (Did you eat today? Did you hug your kid? You’re rocking the important things).

I choose how I spend my time. Using the language of choice can be a powerful way to put us back in the driver’s seat. It takes us out of victim mode and into a place where we can honor the bigger picture of our life choices.

Whether or not we show up for work is a choice. How we show up as a parent is a choice. Sure, there are consequences to not showing up for work or letting our kids have daily 10-hour TV marathons, but shifting the language from “I have to go to work” to “I choose to go to work because I value a steady income” puts us back in a place of control.

I can release the need to finish everything. When we tell ourselves there isn’t enough time, we’re often trying to get to just one. more. thing. done. If we can accept that life is forever filled with unfinished business, we can release the need to cross it all off before our head hits the pillow at night.

I’m not suggesting that the struggle is not real (believe me, I am right there with you). This is not about trying to erase our reality, but rather learning how to come at it from a different angle to improve our experience of it.

We can ease the burden by shifting our perspective--and this can offer more relief than you might think.

This week, can you replace “I don’t have enough time” with one of the statements above and notice if it helps you feel differently about your time?