Ask a group of people where their time goes. The same answers come up: work, commuting, chores, trying to keep up.
Let's consider technology built to mitigate that:
- Cars instead of horses and long walks.
- Instant messaging instead of waiting for letters.
- Search engines instead of shelves of encyclopedias.
- Printers instead of scribes and carbon copy.
- Calculators instead of long hours of arithmetic by hand, etc.
Technology enables us to do more in less time with less effort.
In 1930, an economist named John Maynard Keynes made a prediction. He said that by 2030, people would only need to work about 15 hours a week. Technology would do the rest. We are almost at 2030, and most people are not working 15 hours a week.
The average working-class person works 35 hours a week, and in a country where many have informal jobs, that number is about 50% higher.
So where did the time go? Let's find out.
I - The Gap Between Tasks
We all have in-between moments.
During travel or a (short) commute. A meal alone. The few minutes before something starts. Waiting for a friend. Queuing in a line (at Caf).
Those gaps used to be quiet. Not always comfortable, but quiet. The mind would wander. Ideas would arrive, and sometimes solutions to a problem.
Those gaps used to be quiet. Not always comfortable, but quiet. The mind would wander. Ideas would arrive, and sometimes solutions to a problem.
Boring moments, or perhaps not. Let's dive into that.
When we seem to get bored, something activates: our Default Mode Network. It activates precisely when the mind is not focused on the external world. It handles creative problem-solving, self-reflection, and a sense of who a person is over time. Our ‘Aha!’ or ‘Eureka!’ moments.
Now, when a gap appears, the reflex is to fill it. Reach for a phone. Open something. The discomfort of having nothing to look at or listen to has become unusual enough to feel like a problem to be solved.
The time did not disappear. It got filled; however, how much time goes to entertaining ourselves or keeping ourselves busy? There is an answer and time for that.
II - Consuming and Finding
There is a difference between searching for something and consuming content. A similarity is that both take time.
Searching has a goal. There is a want for an answer. We look. We find it, or we do not.
Consuming (often) has no (particular) goal. One video leads to another. One post leads to more - there is no last page.
Having access to information is a great benefit and advantage. It is one of the best things technology has given us. However, access and use are different things. Reading about swimming for four hours is not the same as swimming.
Time slips as we (attempt to) find what to fill our time with.
III - Tools (May) Create More Work
With almost every time-saving tool there is a pattern.
Let’s think about the calculator. Before it existed, accountants and clerks spent hours doing arithmetic quite tediously. The calculator made it faster and more convenient. Work that used to take a full day could be done in an hour.
Accountants didn't suddenly get an extra 6 hours or a day off. The job expanded. More calculations were expected, because more could be done in less time with the right tool. More reports. More analysis. The time the calculator saved became time filled with more of the same work.
With email, the pattern repeats. Letters used to take days. A reply could come back in a week. Email made communication across distances (near) instant. What happened was not fewer messages. It was more messages, faster, with an expectation for immediate replies.
The pattern outlined looks something like this:
- A tool makes a task easier or faster.
- Standards and expectations increase to match what is now possible.
- The saved time fills with more of the same task.
Efficiency used to mean: this takes less time.
Now it often means: we can fit more into the same hours or less.
