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INGphysician Alex Lickerman, MD,
coauthor of The Ten Worlds: The
New Psychology of Happiness.
Experts call this “time anxiety,”
and it’s a fixation on the passage of
time, he explains. It can take a few
different forms: You might have an
inability to sleep in, feel stressed
by uncontrollable time-sucks (even
when you have nowhere to be), or
worry about showing up late to
anything and everything. “When
you base your happiness and suc-
c e s s on you r abi l it y to be pu r p osef u l,
to add value in some way, you feel
very unsafe just watching the sec-
onds tick by,” Dr. Lickerman says.Running Like Clockwork
A s k id s, we ha rd ly k new what we
wanted for lunch, let alone our life
purpose, and time felt...endless.
But by adulthood, we’ve experi-
enced loss (especially the unex-
pected kind), watched infants grow
into little people seemingly over-
night, and no longer have semester
sche du le s or de sig nate d bre a k s to
punctuate our years. We know now
how fleeting and precious time can
be. So as our responsibilities pile
up and we chase new goals in the
na me of sel f- g row t h, it ’s no wonder
we fe el at t ache d to e ach m i nute
we’re given.
“The problem isn’t that time is fi-
n ite,” say s Kev i n C hapm a n, Ph D, a
clinical psychologist in Louisville,
Kentucky. “It’s the perception of
time being out of your control that
creates a negative relationship.”
You end up stuck in a vicious cycle
of anxious thoughts. For instance,
you ruminate over what seem wast-
ed moments—you know, sitting in
traffic, standing in line, even falling
asleep during a movie—to a point
that it totally messes with your
headspace and the rest of your day.
Living with a sense of urgency
can also do a number on your men-
tal and physical health long-term.
“If you’re always thinking about
what you need to be doing now, or
doing next, or should have done
e a rl ier, t hat ’s enoug h to provoke a
harmful response in your body,”
say s C hapm a n. Not on ly do e s
chronic stress put you at risk forEvery day, even on weekends, I set three alerts within
15 minutes of each other to ensure I’m out of bed by
my “real” alarm. For dates, weddings, and big work
meetings, I carve out two hours for getting ready. Not
because I need two hours (nowhere close, really), but
because I can’t stand the feeling of being rushed.
And the only days I ever spend in bed are the ones when I’m too sick
or hungover to move; otherwise, I have to be doing something. I have an
obsession with time—or more specifically, anxiety about the inevitable
lack of it. Turns out, I’m not alone.
“People who lead very meaning-driven lives tend to struggle with the
ide a of wa st i ng t i me, be it t hei r s or some one el se’s,” say s pr i m a r y c a re