I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!

Why do many of us feel so rushed? If our watches are in good working order, time is the same for everybody. The problem is less how much time we have than how we perceive it. Increasingly, the stress-o-meter is maxed out.

We want it hot, fast, and now.

Biological factors such as working memory loads, body temperature, metabolic rate, and age influence our perception of the passage of time. Studies also find that psychological factors like motivation, emotions, and mood can also influence how fast we see the world going by. It seems that change is evolving faster than our ability to deal with it, making time—that frustratingly finite, nonrenewable resource—feel ever more precious.

How we perceive time shapes our attitudes and behavior. NeXters feel compelled to multi-task, reinforcing the perception that they are pressed for time. Impatience and immediate gratification are the new norms (self-control trap*). Nagged by a sense that they could be doing so much else, more than a fifth of Internet users abandon an online video if it takes longer than five seconds to load. People visit websites less often if they are more than 250 milliseconds slower than a close competitor, Google researchers say.

The cult of overwork.

With a recovering economy, people are earning more money to spend. As the cost of living rises to match purchasing power, so does the value of one’s time. Thus, there is an urgency to make every moment count. The average employee takes only half of vacation days allotted, and 15% don’t take any vacation at all, according to a survey from Glassdoor (2014). Who wins the top prize for most time-scarce segment of society? Working mothers with young children.

Faced with sharper competition, all workers today report greater feelings of job insecurity. And the bigger the paycheck, the more anxious you are about your time, concludes a Gallup study (2011) on how working adults are feeling increasingly strapped for time. Nowadays, white collars everywhere are twice as likely to work long hours as their less-educated peers. A Harvard Business School survey (2009) of 1,000 professionals found that 94% worked at least 50 hours a week and almost half worked more than 65 hours. For many, the product of this constant churn is emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion and lowered life satisfaction.

Press the pause button.

The so-called leisure class has never been more harried. Here are some tips to increase your satisfaction with life:

• Be honest with yourself. The impression is busy people are important, competent, smart, and successful. If you are busy, you are to be admired, even envied. What might you be hiding behind your “To Do” list? Are your choices about making you feel big and important?
• Reflect before you react. Mature deciders try to become more intentional, more deliberate, and more aware of their choices. Give yourself space to think and get in touch with your feelings. Chat with a tribal elder before responding.
• Focus on what’s important. In modern life, busyness distracts from living. Do you find yourself pleasing your boss or family but rarely yourself? “Time is the coin of your life. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you,” cautions poet Carl Sandburg.
• Be mindful of your self:
  • Do less. Appreciating, enjoying, and savoring life doesn’t just happen. Slow down what you are doing and pay attention to positives in the moment. Develop the capability of doing a few things well.
  • Do more self-care. The age-old advice remains true: eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep. Once each day, close your eyes and for 30 seconds quietly listen to yourself breathe.
  • Do something you enjoy. Figure out what things make you happy and force yourself to make time to do them—often.

* Questionable beliefs can “trap” our better judgment, leading to poor decisions and unintended consequences. In the self-control trap, we often sacrifice our long-term self-interests in favor of gratifying our immediate emotional desires. Learn more about this, and other traps, in the Young Person’s Guide to Wisdom, Power, and Life Success.

Image credit: “Woman driving a car and looking at watch” by Syda Productions, licensed from 123rf.com (2015).