Why do we feel so busy?

If I would choose one phrase I use often and I heard a lot all around me it would be: I am busy or I don't have enough time.
I see time flying and the more I hurry the less time I seem to have. The only moment when the time is almost still is when I have to do something I don't like. And this happens rarely.

I could not help wandering why is this happening and I found recently an article that answered this question for me. The article is here: http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21636612-time-poverty-problem-partly-perception-and-partly-distribution-why. It's quite a long one, I've tried to extract the most important parts of it and added my own perspective to it but I recommend reading it if you have time :)

It's a perception, we actually have more leisure time

1. Time and money

Last century, the working day decreased from an average of 12 h/day, 6 days/ week to an average of 8 h/day, 5 days/ week, at least in Europe. So, the problem is not in the absolute value of our time, but in it's relation with money. When you get paid on the hours you are working, you start worrying about wasting the time and consider any other way of spending it as non profitable.

The urgency to monetize every moment is something that was dramatically increasing over the last couple of years and doesn't seem to stop.
The richer we become, we as individuals and country as groups, the more busy we'll become, trying to keep and increase the wealth. The value of our time, in this case, will get bigger and bigger and we will feel more in more guilty spending it without a clear purpose that can be monetized. Anxiety, one of the modern illness, has it's birth in this guilty feeling and from here to depression is a short distance.
When all of this happens we tend to maximize the spending of the money and the utility of our leisure time by spending more on consumption goods that we consider adequate for our wealth: expensive coffee, cigars and alcohol, buying expensive gifts to family and friends, choosing expensive places to spend our vacation (vacations when sometimes we won't be able to disconnect and we'll continue to do stuff and earn money).

2. Endless opportunities

Another ingredient affecting our perception of too less time is the vast possibilities we have to utilize it and the fear of missing out any of it. Even if we are doing something that we like knowing that a friend is doing another thing that we would enjoy in the same period of time make us feel that we don't have enough of it.

3. Multitasking

Last, but not least, the whole multitasking thing put's our brain in permanent alert and enhances the feeling that time is passing by and we are not fast enough to manage to do everything. Multitasking does not exists and that moment when we'll understand this and would be able to focus on one just activity at a time, we will have both the feeling of completion and that we have enough time if we give us enough time and patience.

Distribution of time and wealth has changed

1. Family origins and inheritance

One century ago, the most wealthy people were not really working. They were aristocrats, well educated, leaving their lives in a continuous leisure time. They had no time issue, this kind of problems were limited to the working class, with almost no education, who knew too little about what leisure time is and what to ask for.
In the last 20 years, this distribution took a major shift and now the people having the money are the ones working long hours. This are the people knowing the value of their time so they are investing less and less in quality free time and more in making more money which brings us to the previous perception issue.
Now, the ones working more hours are usually the well educated ones. Having lunch time was transformed in business lunch time, sports consider in the last century as the mark of the wealth like golf is now considered not fast enough and a way of loosing time, the family time is often spent with one eye in the phone, reaching for urgent requests and emails.
Even if in theory the working week is 40 hours for the most of us, in reality, most of the people remain connected through technologies for more than 12 hours/day.

2. Access to education

Nowadays, the possibilities to learn and develop are endless for most of the people in the world and less expensive. Internet has created a global classroom where you are able to learn almost everything, from programming to how to deal with your emotions.
This access to education and the possibility to find very good people in all fields has enhanced the anxiety related to keeping your job. The medium stay in one workplace is around 3 years, comparing with our parents generation, who spent a lifetime in the same working environment. The fear of loosing our jobs makes us work more and prove that we are worthy of being kept as productive employees.

3. Technology

Technology has it's great parts, access to education being one of it. But has also bad ones, like the fear (and reality) some of the jobs would be replaced.
This makes us spending more time trying to acquire abilities that will make us hard to be replaced by machines.
The only problem is that being always busy is the worst thing we can do to our creativity. And if it's something we are still better than machines is our ability to connect different thoughts and knowledge and find out of the box solutions to new problems.

Conclusions

Being busy is what it is in the current world we live in. Fighting it is not a solution but we can do little things that will help us reduce the anxiety and enjoy life more.
What we can do if we cannot remove money from the time equation would be to include money in evaluating the leisure time also, in terms of gaining, not loosing.
What is the value of your health and good mood ? How could a good night sleep, a walk in the park, a good discussion with a friend, the time spent with your loved ones or just the alone time, thinking about your dreams and letting your brain build new connection make you earn that "value"?

How do you deal with being too busy and not having enough time?