Chapter Three
The Time-Pressure Paradox
The time we have to spend each day is elastic: it is stretched by the passions we feel; it is shrunk by those we inspire; and all of it is filled by habit.
M arcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
The ability to choose how you allocate your time lies at the core of a positive notion of freedom. Idleness and abundant leisure were once markers of the aristocracy. Today a busy, frenetic existence in which both work and leisure are crowded with multiple activities denotes high status. However, just as in the past, people’s control over their own time largely depends on their personal circumstances and financial resources. While this is equally true of our relationship to technology, this chapter will focus on changing patterns of work and family life that afect men’s and women’s experiences of time pressure.
A major theme of this book is that the rhythm of our lives, the very meaning of work and leisure, is being reconfigured by digitalization. But at this juncture, it is helpful to consider other, often overlooked, dimensions to and causes of harriedness. I want to bring to bear on this question some interesting and credible data about how people actually use their time. Such close scrutiny will reveal the limitation of treating all time as the same, as if we only inhabit one time-space, that of acceleration. It may also help to resolve the riddle of how it is that we often feel we have less time for the things we want to do than we actually have.
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