The Wellness Wire: Issue 13

🕧 Why we never have enough time (and what to do about it)

"The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control — when the flood of emails has been contained, your to-do list has stopped expanding, and the fully optimised person you’ve become can turn, at last, to the things that really matter."
— Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

No matter how many productivity hacks we try, the same feeling haunts us: there just isn’t enough time. We open our calendars with good intentions — to exercise, eat better, sleep more, and finally start meditating — but life surges in with demands, distractions, and unexpected chaos.

Habits slip. Guilt creeps in. We tell ourselves we’ll try again next week.

And you’re not alone. In our latest reader poll, time came up as the number one barrier to forming new health habits. Not motivation. Not knowledge. Just time — or the lack of it.

But what if the problem isn’t your time management but your time expectations?

As author Oliver Burkeman reminds us, the average human lifespan is around four thousand weeks.

That’s it.

We won’t out-organise this limit. And trying to is part of the problem. In fact, the modern obsession with trying to “do it all” often leads us to do nothing well. Constant busyness is not a sign of ambition — it’s a symptom of overload.

This week, we’re shifting gears. Instead of promising you more “efficiency,” we’re offering something better: clarity. Backed by science and inspired by time psychology, we’ll help you identify what really matters and how to make time for it even when life is messy.

Because your health habits don’t need perfection. They need space.

🧠 The illusion of “not enough time”

Feeling time-poor isn’t just about a full calendar — it’s a psychological state. Researchers call it time scarcity, and it can distort how we think, feel, and behave.

A study from Harvard Business School found that when people feel they’re short on time, they become more impulsive, more anxious, and less likely to follow through on long-term goals — even if they technically have the time to spare. It’s a kind of cognitive tunnel vision. When our capacity is low, we prioritise the urgent over the important, often neglecting health, sleep, and movement.

One concept that explains this is “time confetti”, coined by Dr. Ashley Whillans. It refers to how our days get fragmented by pings, meetings, micro-tasks, and multitasking, leaving us with tiny scraps of time that feel too small to use meaningfully. This fragmentation creates the illusion that we have no time, when really, our time is just shredded into unusable bits.

Another contributor is attention residue, a term from organisational psychologist Dr. Sophie Leroy. Every time we switch tasks, like jumping from an email to a WhatsApp to a work doc, a residue of attention lingers on the previous task. This buildup makes it harder to focus, adds mental fatigue, and makes even short health habits feel like too much.

The modern world isn’t just busy. It’s mentally leaky.

But here’s the hopeful part: Time scarcity is not always about the hours you have — it’s about how you relate to them. And that can change.

🚧 What’s really getting in your way?

When time feels tight, healthy habits are usually the first to drop. But it’s not because you don’t care — it’s because your brain is under strain.

Stress and constant busyness reduce executive function: the mental skills you need to plan, resist impulses, and follow through. When your mind is overloaded, even simple goals like going for a walk can feel like too much.

Then there’s decision fatigue. We make thousands of small choices every day. As that mental load builds, our ability to make good decisions fades. By the evening, fast and easy usually wins.

Finally, there's the intention–behaviour gap. You know what you want to do, but it doesn’t happen. This is common when habits aren’t linked to cues or routines and when your day lacks predictability.

These barriers are subtle but powerful. The key is learning how to lower the friction.

📅 Make time by managing it better

You can’t control how many hours are in a day, but you can decide how you use them. These strategies help you reduce mental load, protect your priorities, and carve out space for what matters.

1. Do a time audit

For one or two days, track everything you do — meetings, scrolling, commuting, errands. Most people find they have more usable time than they think. Awareness is the first step to reclaiming it.

2. Use “fixed-time” blocks

Instead of vague intentions (“I’ll exercise later”), schedule short, defined blocks in your calendar — even just 15 minutes. Research shows that assigning a when to a task significantly increases follow-through.

3. Batch your decisions

Decision fatigue is real. Group similar tasks together, like meals, emails, and errands, to reduce switching costs and free up mental bandwidth. Fewer transitions mean more time left over for high-value activities.

4. Identify your time leaks

Do certain apps, tasks, or meetings eat more time than they give back? Set limits or boundaries. Consider screen time controls, meeting-free hours, or low-stimulation mornings to protect your best thinking time.

5. Build in buffer zones

Over-scheduling is a silent stressor. Leave white space between tasks to absorb delays or allow decompression. It’s not wasted time — it’s recovery time that keeps your system running smoothly.

🤿 Dive deeper: rethinking time

If you're interested in exploring new perspectives on time management and making the most of your limited time, these resources are for you:​

📖 Book: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

This book challenges the conventional pursuit of efficiency, urging readers to embrace the limitations of our finite time. Burkeman argues that acknowledging our constraints can lead to a more meaningful and fulfilling life. This is not your average time-management book.

🎥 TED Talk: How to Gain Control of Your Free Time by Laura Vanderkam

In this insightful talk, Vanderkam discusses how we often misperceive our time constraints. She suggests that by prioritising and being mindful of our time usage, we can create space for what truly matters.

⌛ Final word: Embracing time with intention

Time is a finite resource, and our perception of its scarcity often stems from how we manage and relate to it. By understanding the psychological factors that influence our time management—such as attention residue and time confetti—we can take proactive steps to reclaim our schedules.​

Implementing strategies like time audits, fixed-time blocks, and batching decisions can help reduce mental load and create space for what truly matters. It's not about doing more but about doing what aligns with our values and brings fulfillment.​

Remember, the goal isn't perfection but progress. By making intentional choices about how we spend our time, we can foster healthier habits and a more balanced life.

📤 Share & support

Know someone who could use some more time in their day? Forward this issue—knowledge is power! 💪✨

💼 Could Strove help at your organisation?

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