That pesky “in-between” time part ii
Over five years ago I wrote about* how short periods of “in-between” time between activities made me feel anxious. That it was not enough time to relax, and not enough time to start a new activity.
That anxiety is still a thing for me, only now, I don’t give myself as much free time between activities. Which sometimes works and sometimes backfires (like when I am rushing to take a shower and get somewhere after a run taking longer than I thought it would).
An article showed up in Feedly last week “Want to be more productive? Try skipping the schedule,” (pdf here) citing a few studies that show how people feel like they have less “usable” minutes in an open time block before an appointment/event.
We believe that when there’s an appointment looming, we direct our attention to it, whether it’s mentally preparing for it or simply dreading it. This makes the future appointment feel more substantial; as a result, the time interval leading up to the scheduled activity feels limited and insufficient.
YES. THANK YOU INTERNET FOR BEING MY THERAPIST AND EXPLAINING MY ANXIETY TO ME.
The author suggests keeping this in mind to fight “time famine” (the feeling of having too much to do without enough time to do it) – to remember that small things can be done in what appears to be a shortened amount of useful time before an event. Or that a task can be started and finished later**. And to schedule events back to back so you have a larger chunk of open time later. <— that method does actually work for me. Most of the time.
I’m not sharing this to start a contest of who is the busiest! Just that wow, for once, the studies quoted in an article are actually believable to me. I totally feel this way before an appointment. Do you?
*Several of the comments on that post were from people asking me what “in-between” time is, saying they never have “downtime.” Don’t be an arse. You know what I mean, and even if your day is packed, you probably have it.
**Ha, this does NOT work for many personalities – starting something and finishing it later. But it’s an idea.
No related picture. So here are the kitties!
Sometimes I sit like a hooman der derr der.
Themocracy
I pretty much always feel like there’s never enough time to do everything, and definitely have that experience with runs taking longer than I think (usually it’s when I drive somewhere to run – I don’t always factor in enough drive time, or enough cool-down time to walk back to my car).
Not having things scheduled back to back can really burn me at work. As annoying as having 2 straight hours of 4 30-minute meetings can be, for example, it’s so much worse to have 30 minute meetings followed by 30 minute breaks. I get NOTHING done in that break time, so it basically feels like I’m in meetings for 4 hours.
And that is why we prioritize, right?! I often estimate wrong when I drive somewhere too. And I sometimes get screwed by the trains around my house, especially if they stop.
YES. The back to back meetings are tiring but make for way more productive days at work!
Interesting! I’ve never thought about the in between time but that makes sense. I’m bad at letting myself start things if there isn’t time to finish them. I should try to embrace that philosophy more.
Yeah, I’m not sure most people can handle starting things and not finishing them, especially if they are big projects or require leaving out a mess! But little things for sure, right?!
Da kittums are sooooo cute!
I think so too!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Time Famine” – interesting term! I often feel like I don’t have enough time, but I know that’s my anxious mind playing tricks on me. I try to keep busy doing little tasks during “in between time”.
Good for you! You have a handle on it!
I don’t get anxious during in-between times, but boy, I am not at all productive during those times. If I have less than 30 minutes between finishing something and needing to do something else, those 30 or less minutes are basically wasted time. I don’t feel like it’s enough time to get started on something, so I basically twiddle my thumbs and wait for the 30 minutes to pass. Probably not the most effective use of my time!
Yeah, and I think that is exactly why they are recommending to schedule things back to back, so we have less wasted little pockets, and more of a big long pocket to waste. Muah ha ha. I mean, to be productive in 🙂
This is something I’ve been dealing with for a month now, because my group fitness classes begin at 4:15 p.m. It’s hard to commit to doing much because I know I’ll have to get ready and drive there and for sure, it looms. Not sure what the answer is beyond setting an alarm on my phone to give me 45 minutes to get there (it’s only a few miles away but traffic is a bitch at that time of day). Interesting that someone addressed that in the article; sounds like a lot of us are in that boat.
And it’s hard when it’s something you have to go to and you don’t want to be late – I think that makes the time before getting there even more stressful! That stinks it’s not far away but you have to allocate so much time 🙁
OMG Kim, I am SO BUSY ALL THE TIME, literally the busiest person you know! Ahahahaha stab.
I totally get this, but I didn’t realize it until I read your post. I feel like my weekends are so busy because I do so many things and then don’t have a substantial amount of time in between any one thing. A big thing for me is not goofing off on the Internet during the in-between/down time. I feel like I waste all my time that way and am not any better off for it!
This being said, I feel that you are actually a very busy person! So whatever helps you feel less anxious, do it! <3
Buah ha ha ha ha. But stab indeed. I hate the “I’m busier!” contest. We all have our priorities and allocate them differently. Chill, people. No one wins this game.
Do you think the back-to-back idea mentioned in this article would help your weekends? I feel like it would make them exhausting – sure, you’d have a bigger chunk of time at the end, but you’d be too exhausted to enjoy it!
Thanks 🙂 I’ve really learned what energizes me, and what doesn’t, and what unavoidable situations wear me out, so I at least can mentally prepare for them!