I suppose most of us have had the experience — at one time or another — that we feel like we have run out of time.

I can certainly count myself in that boat, whether it's because I had a looming deadline on a project or there are simply more things on the daily to-do-list than there is day to get them done.

Part of the mystery of this whole contemplation is the fact that a day has pretty much always had 24 hours in it! So what gives? Have we just become worse at managing our days — technological aids and wizardry notwithstanding — or have we created a world in which there's eternally more on our respective "plates" than we can manage to deal with?

Or are we all part of some collective psychosis that manifests as a form of perpetual FOMO that keeps us eternally running towards something we actually have no possibility — and possibily no business — striving for?

I have a fair number of friends overseas, and one of the things that sometimes strikes home is the fact that people in the USA tends to quantify "success" differently from people in other parts of the world. In this country, we tend to be very oriented towards having loads of experiences and collecting lots of stuff.

Intangibles — such as having nice friends and a sense of "life enjoyment" — seem to get pushed further down the list of what matters.

Side Note: We cats have it easy! Our primary objective is to take lots of naps and enjoy excellent treats. You Hoomans? Not so much.

The thing I find slightly ironic in contemplating this particular line of thought is that we live in this age where technology allegedly has made everyone's lives easier. I remember reading somewhere that the (original) intent behind automation was to help us all enjoy more free time... but instead we actually seem to be enjoying less free time!

"Out of time" seems to permeate almost every aspect of life. I ended up writing these words because I have actually been "intending" to fire up my blog again for the better part of two weeks but I was just never able to find the time.

Sometimes we talk about the activity level on Hive not being so great... and I come back to the same thing: We just don't have that much time, anymore. Part of it may simply be the rising cost of living... and the fact that people often have to work more in order to maintain the same amount of life. That's certainly happening around here!

Along those same lines, I just re-read my "Goals for 2023" post from back in January, and am watching several of my goals quietly slip away because... I just haven't had time to put in the work!"

I think FOMO does play into this... at a societal/systemic level. It seems so ingrained in everyone that we "should" have — and participate in — this enormous number of things. But why are we doing it? Would having/doing these things actually make us happy? Or are we simply fearful that if we don't get onboard with the latest and greatest gadget/fad, the world will somehow think less of us?

I don't actually have any good answers here... just throwing some ideas out there for consideration and contemplation.

How about you? Do you generally have "plenty" of time, or does it feel more like you're mostly "out" of time?

*Thanks for visiting, and till the next one... hopefully sooner, rather than later!

=^..^=

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