Why Do You Always Feel Like You Don't Have Enough Time?

The Truth: You're Wasting Time on 'Side Quests'

01/ Busy All Day, but Little Output

Complaining about not having enough time while wasting it at the same time, this is my daily life. Every time I feel like I'm short of time, it's usually because there are still a bunch of tasks unfinished. For example, there are many articles to write, products and websites to build, courses to study and training camps to attend, functions to develop, work to finish, and I haven't even gone for a run. And I didn't get up early in the morning either.

When am I wasting time? Almost all the time. The real problem isn't that I don't have time, but that I waste it on unproductive things.

02/ Main Quests vs Side Quests

So-called "wasting time" means not wanting to do the main work, starting to procrastinate, and getting involved in other things. For instance, I clearly know there are main tasks to complete today, but I just can't control myself. I always want to do something else, and I'll mess around with all sorts of things in the morning.

On the surface, it seems like I've done a lot, but they're all "side quests", not the most important main task at hand. As a result, the progress of the main task gets delayed.

This way of wasting time isn't always obvious, and it's easy to be overlooked by myself. For example, today, besides the normal work, I optimized an English content website, solved some problems, and then launched it. I also browsed and posted on Reddit to grow my account.

But there's a very important thing that I haven't finished in the past few days, which is to write a long sharing article. Although the content is basically finalized, there are still many details to optimize. I should have finished it last week, but I've dragged it on until now, and it's almost the end of this week. Do I really have no time at all? Not really. I could have done this first during the day, but I always got busy with other things that weren't that urgent.

The reason I didn't do it is that I'm avoiding it. I really don't like writing this kind of review content. I prefer to write about my current thoughts and reflections. Another reason is that the requirements are a bit high, so it's painful to write. Because it's painful, I avoid it.

And I've found that it's not just me. Many people have this problem. Maybe others think you're doing so many things every day, but only you know that you're not satisfied at all. Many things haven't been advanced or done. Only you, as the person involved, know your real thoughts and the situation.

These seemingly useful things are actually just "side quests". And the "main quest" that really drives the result is often infinitely postponed by you.

03/ 'Ineffective Rest' Is the Time Black Hole

Another situation that counts as wasting time is ineffective rest. Let me explain what ineffective rest is. In my definition, effective rest isn't a waste of time. For example, going to bed early and sleeping for eight, nine, or ten hours at night all count as effective rest. Taking a nap at noon, meditating, exercising, or going for a run also belong to effective rest.

Ineffective rest refers to those activities that seem like you're resting, but actually make you feel more tired or empty. These activities can't really relax and restore your body or mind. For example, scrolling through short videos is a typical ineffective rest.

Some people can relax and vent their emotions by playing games, and they'll feel better after playing. I think this also counts as effective rest. Of course, playing games all day long isn't recommended.

Nowadays, people have very little rest time. I even think that many people now have less rest time than before, even less than when I was a kid. At that time, we did farm work in the countryside. Although it was tiring, we had more rest time. That was real rest. For example, we'd finish work at six or seven o'clock, have dinner at eight, and then we had a lot of free and relaxing time.

The "tiredness" of modern people, or the pressure of office workers, is all-round, including mental, physical, social, relational, and work hours. The working hours nowadays are really long. A job without overtime and with two days off on weekends is already considered very good.

After deducting the sleeping time of a day, the remaining time for rest and meals, I estimate, won't exceed two hours. In other words, besides sleeping, people really don't have much rest time. This is also one of the reasons why it's hard to坚持 both the main job and the side job.

So, how to solve this problem? The only way I can think of is to increase your effective rest time as much as possible. In other words, be focused on whatever you're doing: focus on work when you're working, focus on rest when you're resting, and focus on playing when you're playing. This way, you'll be much more efficient in doing things, and it's more likely to achieve the desired results.

The worst thing is to want to do everything, but end up not doing anything well.

04/ Three-Step Solution

• List One Main Task Every Day: Even if you only complete one main task, it's more valuable than doing ten small things randomly.
• Learn to Say No to Side Quests: Ask yourself, "Can this thing directly bring results?"
• Practice Effective Rest: Exercising, meditating, and going to bed early can restore your energy better than scrolling through your phone.

The key to time management isn't to do more, but to spend time on the truly important things. When you learn to distinguish between main tasks and side tasks, you'll find that you can get back at least three hours every day.

Daily Reading & Writing by Xiaolu 2025.09.18 [Day 744]