Time poverty and slow movement

Since the very early days of the technological revolution, there has been an ongoing debate: while technology has solved myriads of problems, it has also given rise to many, and time poverty is one of them. Simply defined, time poverty is a situation where individuals lack sufficient time for themselves due to heavy workloads or overcommitments.

Looking back at the history of Homo sapiens, time poverty seems to be a very recent phenomenon. Our distant ancestors had plenty of time for leisure and enjoyment—calamities of nature aside. If we glance at the graph of human progress throughout history, it would be somewhat near constant until the seventeenth century. Human growth then took a ride of unprecedented pace where life became too fast, affecting the quality of living. Quality of life was compromised in order to fulfill the quantity of tasks, and now everyone has become a horse in the Epsom Derby.

This time poverty has cost humans on multiple fronts, on which we will attempt to shed some light in the upcoming paragraphs, providing a viable balance between fast and slow life.

Emotional, Social, and Physical Costs of Time Poverty

To start with the cost, it would be pertinent here to highlight the gender disparity in time poverty. Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote a book in 1989 named The Second Shift, in which she discussed how working women come home to a second shift of housework and childcare.

On the health front, time-poor people consistently grapple with insufficient self-care, leading to both physical and psychological problems. It would be a nightmare for them to hit the gym every day, and even advice from a friend to spare time for exercise may lead to a mental breakdown.

Time poverty also has grave social costs. A time-poor person often ditches plans at the very last moment, ruining everything and getting bullied by the group of friends. They miss social congregations or are always a latecomer. Despite being a racehorse, they face criticism for delays in commitments.

Moreover, a time-poor individual lacks a quality life and has no time to enjoy nature. Pondering the creations of nature opens the horizons of the mind, shifting perspectives on how we see the world. Enjoying nature is a non-negotiable and indispensable part of human life. In this modern age, even the idlest person in the world seems to be the busiest of all.

Lately, I was moving through a street and saw a man on a motorbike. He stood by a street barber getting his beard trimmed while sitting on the bike. Even Bill Gates would hesitate to make such claims of time poverty. In short, time poverty costs you yourself—higher stress and self-neglect. Hence, the cost of time poverty answers why we must prioritize the quality of life over the quantity of work done.

Navigating the time Poverty and Reclaiming the time

The first and foremost skill to be mastered is "saying no." At times, we come across situations where our self-interests clash with those of our loved ones. There, we choose to sacrifice our interests, ending up in a loop of saying yes to everything and at every time. According to psychological egoism, human beings ought to be selfish. They must prioritize their own interests over others. However, striking a balance between self-interests and communal interests is necessary and a moral demand.

Saying no to unnecessary activities can buy you a good degree of time for yourself, forging boundaries. Saying no to things you do not enjoy is saying yes to activities you like. This creates a balanced life—forming a sort of filter for unwanted or wanted activities, contributing to a good quality of life.

Prioritization of tasks and activities aligned with your core values helps reduce time poverty. We are mostly out of time due to overcommitments or wrong sequencing of activities—such as prioritizing based on the length of the task.

Furthermore, a lack of clear definition of inner core values can also cause time poverty. Studies show that individuals who plan their whole day’s activities aligned with their defined core values perform way better than those who do activities randomly. Therefore, prioritization of quality over quantity is the key to time efficiency and productivity.

Philosophically, there is a concept of "eternal recurrence" posited by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. According to this idea, an individual should make choices in a way that—even if he had to make the same choices eternally for thousands of other lives—he would unhesitatingly choose so. The crux is: you must live your life in a way that you could live that same life eternally. And of course, the choices are totally subjective. One can live an Epicurean life (based on pleasure and happiness), while others may choose to live a challenging life. At the end of the day, you must sleep with satisfaction, without any regrets in mind.

Modern notions of "time is money" have inflicted the burden of competition upon individuals, pulling them away from living their lives to the fullest. Hence, being a mature, logical person, always be mindful of making life choices—because the moments passed will never return, whether wasted or lived.

The Slow Movement: A Cultural Response to a Chronically Busy World

The slow movement started as a cultural movement in the 1980s in Italy. Carlo Petrini protested against fast food, leading to the slow food movement. It grew as a response to fast life (fast travel, fast communication, fast cities, fast food). Slow does not translate to becoming uncompetitive, but rather to striking a balance between slow and fast pace. It is more about being mindful and living in the moment.

Specifically defined, the slow movement is a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. It advocates for quality over quantity, taking time for activities, and establishing a deeper connection with everything around us (nature, people, food). It is based on the notion: "Enjoy the process."

Carl Honoré, an advocate of the slow movement, wrote in his book In Praise of Slow that individuals must live their lives to the fullest in every dimension, and he criticized the obsession with pace and speed. This movement champions slow parenting, slow fashion, slow travel, and slow cities.

Slow parenting fosters consistent engagement of parents in raising their children and giving them enough time (the greatest side-effect of modern life).

Slow cities encourage building green spaces and community-based activities, strengthening the community bond.

Slow fashion emphasizes the quality of garments over the quantity of products and it fosters ethical production. Fast fashion has produced what is now called fashion waste due to the insufficient durability of clothes.

Lastly, slow travel suggests that individuals must enjoy the journey (which in itself is a field of learning) instead of merely passing by the sights.

The slow movement offers a powerful response to time poverty, encouraging a mindful view of time and prioritizing quality over quantity. Despite its appeal, there are certain limitations of the slow movement that cannot be addressed by revamping lifestyle alone.

For example, due to poor economic realities, not everyone can afford to slow down. It would be no less than a folly to lecture a daily wager to slow down the pace of life just to enjoy. Moreover, demanding work culture does not allow sufficient paid leaves to slow down. These are systemic flaws that need overhaul to defend everyone's right to prioritize quality over quantity.

Final Thoughts:

Making a lot of money makes you money-rich, which at times comes at the cost of being time-poor. What is the purpose of making so much money if you cannot buy time to live your precious moments to the fullest? We are in a constant race to improve the quality of our materialistic lives while undermining the actual qualifier of quality—the moments. Hence, it is your perspective of life that can either immerse you in the pool of stress or break you free from it.

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Point to Ponder:

In a world that rewards speed and constant productivity, can we truly afford to slow down—or can we no longer afford not to?