#238 – What makes the passing of time so distressing?

In the morning (or at the beginning of the week, month, or year), your "planning self" is hyperactive, recounting all the things you'll do together.

Then life happens. The newspaper contains very interesting stories you better read because you need to be informed. Substack notifies you of new fascinating posts and videos going live. You decide that it's the perfect moment to do laundry. And then go to grocery store, so that you'll concentrate on your work later.

This is what's going on: the Ghost of Time Indifference (GoTI) is using your mind as its playground.

And you, like a parent who can't say no to their 5-year-old's demands for 'just one more turn' at the slide, trail behind your GoTI, listless. Patience gives way to boredom, and then to checking your watch way too often. Suddenly it's dark outside and making dinner from scratch is no longer an option.

That's me as I watch the day go by, Friday approach, the month come to an end.

As the GoTI makes me see that all my plans will stay unrealized, it wants me to spring into action – come on, come on, chop, chop.

It starts rushing me, there's not enough time. But then, noticing that I may actually act, it relaxes its grip – what are you saying, 'there's not enough time?' There's plenty of time. All the time in the woooooorld.

Yet when it's time to eat, it wants the cooked-from-scratch dinner right now!

What helps you keep the Ghost of Time Indifference at bay?

Love,

Carolina