Breaking free from busyness and firefightening: how being busy makes you a bad time manager

Ever feel trapped in a cycle of perpetual busyness?  

Wonder why, despite your best efforts, you never seem to have enough time to create better time management systems? The answer lies in what behavioral scientists call "the scarcity tunnel", a fascinating cognitive phenomenon that explains why the busier we get, the worse we become at managing our time. 

When we're short on time, our brains enter a survival mode where only immediate tasks matter. Like a jar filling with pebbles, each small task occupies precious mental space, leaving no room for strategic thinking or system-building. This creates a cruel paradox: precisely when we most need innovative solutions to our time problems, we're least equipped to develop them. 

This episode dives deep into the science of scarcity and its impact on decision-making.  

You'll discover why even intelligent, capable people make shortsighted choices under pressure, and how this affects everything from financial decisions to daily time management. More importantly, you'll learn the counterintuitive step required to break free from this cycle, deliberately setting aside time for strategic thinking when you feel you have none to spare.  

Your calendar doesn't lie; it reflects where your life is heading. By understanding the psychology behind time scarcity and implementing the practical strategies shared in this episode, you can escape the tunneling effect and build systems that create more meaning, impact, and fulfillment.  

Don't just survive each day - design a life you'll be proud to look back on.  

Transcript

The Paradox of Time Scarcity

Speaker 1 0:00

What if being busy is exactly what's keeping you stuck in being busy and figuring out how to better manage your time ? Guys , welcome to another episode of Change Wired Podcast , where we talk about change , about growth , about improving , optimizing for the purpose of creating more meaning , more fulfillment , more impact , creating difference in the world . And very often you probably know that that requires upfront , upstream investment of your time , of your energy , spending more time , more energy , more resources on building upfront , so downstream , you have more freedom , more time , more energy , more resources on building upfront , so downstream , you have more freedom , more time , more resources . Because what if being busy again is exactly what's keeping us from managing our time better , from figuring out a better way to invest our time to create the outcomes we seek to create ? In today's episode , we dig into this paradox of time scarcity , or scarcity in general , which has been studied . We're going to talk about why the less time you have makes you worse and worse at figuring out how to make better use of that time . We'll talk about this concept , this fascinating concept of tunneling which exists , which happens in our brain . We're going to talk about the science behind it and how to figure out your way out of this tunnel which again keeps you in this loop of being busy and not having time to figure out how to get out of the state of being busy , to create more time , more freedom and more fulfillment in your life .

Trapped in the Busy Loop

Speaker 1 2:02

Guys , you know that moment when you're short on time and you need to get something done , and you need to get it done right now , and the answer is I'll just do it myself , even if it's not your job , even if you are not the best person to do it , even if it's been coming up over and , over and over again . But you just never have time . You're like , yeah , I need an assistant . Or yeah , I need to find an editor , yeah , I need to delegate it , but now I don't have time for that , so I'll just do it myself . It feels faster in the moment , but then the same task comes back again and again and again , and you are still the one doing it , still behind on the thing you actually should be doing the difference , the impact , the leadership you want to create . Still not getting better at what you are here to do , at your talents , at your core strengths , at unique value you can create in this world . You'll just end up doing someone else's job and never getting to what you can shine at .

Speaker 1 3:12

When I waste time , guys , looking for a file and that actually reminds me I need to look again into my systems to create the ones that match what I do , my work and how I operate . Now , you know , when I waste time looking for a file , I really stop and think , oh , let me take 15 minutes or half an hour or a whole hour now to fix this whole system so this doesn't happen again Because I don't have 15 or 30 or one hour right now , and so I just keep wasting three minutes and then five and then 10 . And then that becomes an hour . And that's how time scarcity makes us makes you time poor forever . Busier , gets busier , poor , gets poorer . Not because we're not capable of thinking better or creating time freedom , not because there is an opportunity to make things better , but because we just never have enough time . We are barely surviving the now . So Welcome to the tunnel that I mentioned at the beginning of our podcast .

Understanding the Tunneling Effect

Speaker 1 4:25

In this fascinating book that I listened to a TED talk and I watched a couple of videos I'm yet to read the whole book , but in book Scarcity the new science of having less and how it defines our lives . The author is called this mental state tunneling lives . The authors call this mental state tunneling , and it's all about when you don't have enough of something essential resources like time or money , your mind narrows in on what's urgent . You go into this tunnel , your focus on getting through the next task , the next hour , the next email . It's kind of like you don't even see the future . You stop thinking about delegating , automating , fixing the root problem , building a better system for the next week , the next month , because you're barely surviving this one , right ? You're barely surviving today and the week . And then the weekend comes and you're like , well , I need dress to be able to do it all over again , so you don't dedicate any time for building systems . And then you jump into the week . And that happens again and again and again , when you just don't have time , don't have resources , and your plate keeps getting fuller , and not necessarily with the best stuff .

Speaker 1 5:50

It's a trap and it doesn't just affect people with limited resources , it affects every one of us guys . When we are under pressure , we become this tunnel . We are under pressure , we become this tunnel vision tunnel focused on one thing . And hey , it has advantages , right , it allows us to survive . It allows us to remove the distractions and fix the problem here and now without thinking about all of the other stuff that we have to fix . But it also creates this state of trap when we might never get to solving , to looking upstream and thinking how do I actually prevent this problem from happening in the first place ? Why do I always end up having no money , no savings , no time , no free time for my hobbies ? For I don't know people ? I want to see additional studying . Why am I always in this loop ? So , when we're under pressure and we never spend time thinking about systems , that's the place where we might end up spending a whole lot of time and years and decades . How do you fix it ? Well , before we get into that , let's talk about why this thing happens in the first place , why our brain doesn't naturally go into thinking long-term , looking at bigger picture , thinking about systems .

Speaker 1 7:17

The mind is like a jar

How Scarcity Hijacks Your Brain

Speaker 1 7:22

Taking a sip of water here , guys . So the mind is like a jar . Imagine a jar , and each thing you need to remember is like a small pebble Look for a file , a pebble , resend the email that somebody lost , or you didn't have a good system to figure out if you sent it in the first place . Pebble Fix someone else's mistake . A pebble Figure out what's for dinner . A pebble Thinking about fixing that squeaky doorknob a pebble .

Speaker 1 7:54

And the more pebbles , the less room in the jar for the other stuff , in the case of our brain , for the big and long-term stuff , the strategy , the creativity , the vision that solving problems before they happen . They call this brain's limit , working memory . And so the more stuff we keep in our mind trying to remember , trying to think of , the less there is room to think about anything else . As simple as that . It's like the working operating memory in your computer the more tabs , the more applications you have open , the less resource you have to do anything else . And because your strategy or creativity usually aren't the most vital or the most urgent , I would say things that gets pushed back . And that's the cruel part about scarcity Scarcity of time , scarcity of money , scarcity of resources . When we are short on time or money , your brain can't access the space it needs to solve your time or money problem and it's just busy solving tasks , the loop that keeps on looping .

Speaker 1 9:13

Guys , in the book Scarcity , they talk about how financial scarcity makes people take out bad loans , you know , with high interest rates , those daily loans or weekly loans and people take those out and they make bad financial decisions , like buying junk foods or different treats instead of where a grocery could work so much better . For so many reasons , people make those bad decisions not because they're stupid or incapable of making better decisions , but because they're under pressure and don't have the cognitive room to think long-term . They're not optimizing , they're just surviving . And again , it doesn't just go . We're not talking about just people in the worst circumstances , we are talking about each of us in the conditions of being under pressure . So time scarcity works the same way .

Speaker 1 10:13

And who is not time scarce these days , guys ? All the AI and all the things that you have to figure out on top of all what you've already been doing right ? So too busy to build a better way , too overloaded to delegate properly , too overwhelmed to stop and think upstream . Why does this problem keep happening in the first place ? And so the same stuff keeps coming back and the tunnel deepens and fire never stops . So you just keep firefighting how to break the slope ?

Breaking Free with Strategic Time

Speaker 1 10:43

There is no magic , guys , but there is a choice and the only way out , even when you are under pressure . Even when you feel like you have no time , no space , no capacity to dedicate additional time to think upstream , to think long-term , to figure out how to store your files better , right , even when you feel under pressure , you can still put time on your calendar I don't know , two hours this Sunday , or start with an hour . If two hours feels impossible , put that hour on your calendar right now . Time to think strategically long-term , think upstream and , even if nothing else , build a better system for finding your files so you get a little bit more time to work on bigger things , on things that actually add quality , impact , fulfillment in your life , in the lives of others . So the only way out is changing your calendar .

Speaker 1 11:53

I'm a huge fan of calendars and thinking about your life through the lens of calendar , because it's as simple as that , guys . What you spend your time on , that's what your life ends up being , and so your calendar is a mirror of that which you can . It's a data point that you can analyze and say okay , I've been spending this amount of time . And this is where , also , the practice of time journaling , or keeping your time budget , like what you do at what time of the day in 30 minute increments . This practice is super powerful because it's a mirror of where you spend the majority of your time and that , repeated , will show you where your life is going . And so how do we get out of this scarcity tunnel ? So , instead of getting busier and busier , we create more impact and fulfillment .

Speaker 1 12:47

Step number one simply put the time on your calendar to think about your life , your work , your systems , long-term , to solve the problem before they happen , but , what's even more important , to figure out the systems to invest your time into things that create more meaning , more fulfillment . So in five years , in 10 years , at the end of your life , you look back at your life and you could say you know what I lived intentionally and I created what means a lot to me . I created the impact that I wanted to create in the world and I'm kind of proud of my life . So that's what we are looking for . And again , the only way out of being busy , of scarcity tunnel , is to put time on your calendar to think about bigger things , things strategically and long-term , okay .

Speaker 1 13:46

So at the end of this podcast , I invite you to stop to set that time on your calendar first , first and foremost , to think long-term , strategically , and also , don't forget to share this podcast with at least one other person so together we could start thinking more strategically , more long-term , and in our lives , in our world today , nothing is more important than stop being in survival mode and shortcutting our decisions so we could actually build for the world , for the future that we want to live in . So share this podcast episode to spread a long-term , strategic thinking and designing the life that fulfill us . Share ,

Call to Action and Closing

Speaker 1 14:28

don't forget to rate , review , take a second , take a minute on any platform you find this podcast on this matters . We don't run any ads , but we are here about together creating better world , creating more meaning , more fulfillment , not just for yourself , but for people around you . So share , review , rate and till next time . Well , first of all , set the time on your calendar to think strategically , systematically , about your future and then , till next time , keep changing and keep growing .