We Spend More Time Doing Than Living

“We spend more time doing rather than being” means that sometimes we live so much as planned that we forget to be, to feel, to live in the present moment. We spend our lives carrying out tasks for the sole purpose of completing them, as if our well-being depended on it.

In a way we tend to live immersed in a schedule: going to work, cooking, having coffee with friends, going to the gym, doing laundry, showering, going to the hairdresser… and millions of other tasks. The degree of planning is such that even before finishing one task we are already thinking about the next one, without enjoying the here and now, the present.

When we invest more time doing, we forget we are

Sometimes we forget we are, to stop and think about who we are and what we need. Therefore, we tend to focus most of our energies on unnecessary tasks and activities, to organize our time and our agenda.

And it is so true that we forget to live in the present, the moment in which we find ourselves. We focus on the future, neglecting the importance of living in the present.

In some moments we forget to laugh, to thank, to appreciate the nature that surrounds us, to hug, to kiss, to show our affection, to breathe pure air, to walk barefoot, to taste the aroma of a good coffee …

Sometimes we don’t appreciate the small details of everyday life, and are actually too absorbed in completing our to-do list.

We spend more time on duties, but time is never enough

Without realizing it, we risk turning into mechanical people, dissatisfied, frustrated, afflicted by a constant feeling of dissatisfaction. So when we spend more time doing than living, our list of things to finish can be endless.

Do we really think it is possible to complete all the tasks we have set ourselves? There is probably always something left to do. Focusing our attention on what remains to be done can cause us a deep feeling of frustration, because we fail to achieve our goals.

We don’t spend enough time on ourselves

We also feel a high degree of dissatisfaction, since “I can never do everything I want and, consequently, I am not satisfied”. In these cases, the concept of self and self-esteem depend on the successes obtained and not only on ourselves.

Do we really prioritize what matters?

Ursula Calvo, an expert in personal development, argues that time management should depend on priorities and that it is important to be honest. In order to be honest, you have to choose your priorities: “decide how much space to dedicate to your free time, keep it as if it were an indissoluble commitment”.

We tend to struggle to follow a priority list. We dedicate a large part of our energies to daily activities (eating, working, cooking, taking care of others ..), but we don’t dedicate time to ourselves, to stop and think.

In our daily priority list we usually don’t find room to listen to ourselves and ask ourselves what we want, what we need, who we are. In short, we spend more time doing than enjoying life, skipping to the bottom of our priority list.

Calvo argues that we should follow a list of priorities based on our needs, what we need, outlining its contents as an inevitable commitment. If we give ourselves the time we need and don’t live in a continuous schedule, we may feel more satisfied with our life.