Living Life Anxiety Free: Taking Control of Time Stressors
If you’ve ever felt anxious or overwhelmed by the amount of time you have, or lack thereof, you’re not alone. Time anxiety is a real phenomenon, and it’s something many of us experience in our day-to-day lives.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at the different types of time anxiety, what causes them, why they might occur, and ways to overcome them.
Before you begin, remember that our professionals are always here to help
What is time anxiety?
Time anxiety is a feeling of stress and worry about not having enough time to do the things that are important to you. This can manifest as a fear of running out of time, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of tasks you have to complete, and feeling like you are constantly running late.
Types of Time Anxiety
Time Loss Anxiety
Are you super cognizant of the time you’ve wasted doing nothing? For people with time loss anxiety, the feeling of guilt, disappointment and self-doubt that comes with the time they’ve already lost in a day can be debilitating.
This type of anxiety often comes with feelings of guilt or regret, as if you’ve missed out on something important or wasted an opportunity. It can be caused by a variety of factors, such as feeling like you’ve spent too much time on unimportant tasks, feeling like you’ve wasted time when you should have been productive, or feeling like you’ve missed out on something important.
Timeline Anxiety (Past, future)
There are two different types of what we’ve coined “timeline anxiety”—which is what happens when you’re living in another part of your life experience timeline. This most often means you’re dwelling on the painful past, or worrying over the uncertain future instead of focusing on what’s here and now.
Future anxiety is the feeling of being consumed by the unknown and uncertainty ahead of you in life. This kind of anxiety often comes with feelings of uncertainty and doubt, as if you’re unable to predict or control what’s going to happen.
Future anxiety can be caused by a lot of things—even good ones—like making plans for what’s to come, feeling like you’re time or energy deficient to carry out those plans or being unsure about what you want from life.
On the flip side, past anxiety happens when you’re constantly overwhelmed by the things you’ve done in the past. This anxiety often comes with feelings of regret or guilt, as if you’ve done something wrong or made a mistake.
Timeline anxiety for the past can be caused by a variety of factors, like feeling regret, guilt, loss or grief for choices made (or unmade) or people who are no longer in your life.
Time Pressure Anxiety
You know that feeling you get when you’re acutely aware of your entire to-do list and it feels like there are more items on it than there are hours in a day? This is time pressure anxiety. It’s the feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of things you have to do in a given amount of time.
This type of anxiety often comes with a sense of urgency, as if you need to get everything done as quickly as possible. It may happen for a number of reasons, including things like having too many tasks to complete in a short timeframe, feeling like you don’t have enough time to do everything, or feeling like you’re running out of time to do what needs to be done.
How does time anxiety impact you?
There are a number of factors that can contribute to time anxiety. These include external pressures, such as work deadlines or family responsibilities, or internal pressures, such as perfectionism or a fear of failure. Other causes include the feeling of being overwhelmed by too many tasks and feeling like you don’t have enough time to complete them.
Feeling anxious about time can have particularly negative effects on your mental and physical health because you can’t turn off or tune out the ever-onward march of it. It can cause an increase in stress and mood imbalances, contributing to insomnia, poor concentration, and difficulty in making decisions. Your body may also stage a protest at your mental time-turmoil through symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and stomach problems.
How to Tune Out the Tick of Time: Tips for Overcoming Time Anxiety
There are lots of small ways you can nurture yourself and shift your schedule to reduce time anxiety. You can try some, all or none of the ones we’ve listed below or use them to help you navigate your own best tips that are clockless to help you take your life back.
Take a step back and prioritize your tasks
Create a plan and a timeline for completing tasks
Study relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation
Practice mindfulness to stay present and focused
Create boundaries to protect your time
Ask for help from family and friends
The power of now when you’re dreaming of an anxiety-free life
Eckhart Tolle introduces the idea that any time you’re not living in the present, you’re giving your energy away to things you cannot change—he calls it “the power of now”.
Holding on to the power of living in the present moment of life can be an empowering way to ground yourself if you’re prone to bouts of time anxiety in any manner.
Right now, in this moment, what do you have the power to influence?
Can you change your breathing, your focus, or your body position? You may not be able to change the world from right this second but you can change the lens of your world by stepping outside (literally, if you want) of your coping mechanisms and making tiny shifts to reorient your focus into the fierce potential of the present.
Getting to the place where you feel ready and able to harness your now effectively can be really overwhelming, but that’s where we come in. Working with a trusted therapist can help. We can support you in whatever ways you need to work toward overcoming time anxiety and other barriers in your life can help you unlock a life of healthy living through therapy.
