Timing is Everything by Katherine

Timing is Everything by Katherine - February 2023 Scholarship Essay

The typical American adult's life, in today's world, is busy. Busy not because there is actually so much to accomplish, but because they are told there is so much to accomplish. Their lives have become micromanaged by the constant interruption of messaging, monitoring, and comparison, most of which carries an unwarranted urgency. The very tools and devices that make lives more efficient also create the biggest hurdles against productivity.
While there are many Americans who follow the so-called traditional path of college, entering their programs directly out of high school, there are plenty who return to their educational pursuits later in life. These Americans re-enter the world of education with the benefits of more experience and maturity, but also with the hardships of far less time. Clearly, everyone is allotted the same number of hours in the day, yet so many people find themselves short on time, unable to finish all the busyness of their to-do list. When comparing a young twenty-something's schedule to a late thirty-something's, days can look drastically different. It is not unreasonable to assume that the average young twenty-something does not have an overwhelming career, a spouse, multiple dependents, a yard, a pet, and a home project all demanding their attention and time within a single day. It is also not unreasonable to assume that the average late thirty-something does have these things. While these widely different lives could have little in common in regard to how their hours are used, what they do have in common is the availability for interruption.
Both of these adults could realistically carry smart phones, wear smart watches, log into email from a desktop, and cross paths with a variety of television screens in a single day. Every one of these items serve the purpose of efficiency and instant gratification, whether for work or pleasure. How ironic, though, that these same devices can be the single fault in the execution of time management- those fine, precious hours of the day.
These tools of distraction, while infinitely useful and helpful, and so frequently time-saving, can be detrimental in time management. Regardless of age, the temptation to take a pause from the current priority, whether to answer a group message, to look at a shared photo, to scroll though short videos, to catch up on the news through only the source of headlines, can shred the opportunity of a day's success within minutes.
As children, Americans are told to rest when they need, to take pause, to take a moment to regroup. But at some point, it seems that people get lost in that pause, and the ability to redirect has become a foreign skillset. The ability to truly prioritize time, both for personal and professional benefit, is a balancing act that the many people seem to fail. When asked about priorities, adults can identify the importance of self-care, domestics, professional tasks, and organize those priorities around themselves. It's when each of these priorities gain the ability to constantly nag and remind of their importance, stress urgency of their deadlines, cause fret over their delinquency, that the ability to negotiate around prioritization is lost.
Somewhere in between urging children to 'take their time' and young adults receiving their first smart phone, people have lost their ability to maintain balance. The busyness of life, as far as homes and families and careers seems inevitable, but the ability to shut out the distraction, under the guise of accomplishing more, has seemingly fallen off the radar. If Americans could learn how to slow down, count the hours, and commit to priorities instead of longing for the distractions, perhaps the busyness could be less about all the things people 'need' to do, and more about the things they 'want' to do.