It's OK That Life is Impossible

I'm so sick of trying to do it all - it's impossible! The expectations for what I should be able to accomplish in a day... school, work, socialization, spiritual reflection and sleeping and eating? Not happening. I know I'm not the only one that never seems to have enough time. I became incredibly angry one night and started listing out all the things I am expected to do or need to do. It was eye opening and, admittedly, relieving. I thought maybe some other time-starved university students might want to know that life is, mathematically, actually impossible.

Time in the Week

There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. This means that there are 168 hours in each week. 168 hours to accomplish absolutely everything that we have to do, in addition to everything we are expected to do and everything we want to do. In this post, I will be using the general time recommendations for activities, unless stated otherwise. Also, since I go to a Seventh-Day Adventist University, I will be using their expectations for my spiritual life, whether or not I still chose to follow them.

Time Remaining: 168 hours

Sleep

We are supposed to get around 8 hours of sleep each night in order to function properly. If you actually aim for that, then a third of your time is already used up. But missing sleep affects your productivity in all other areas of life, so can you really afford to skimp?

Time Remaining: 112 hours

Food

We have to eat or we'll die - simple as that. We are also not supposed to eat fast food or eat on the go. It's healthiest to sit down for each meal - helps with digestion and psyche. So, let's estimate that you need 30 minutes for breakfast and an hour for both lunch and supper. This estimate includes preparing the food, eating it, and cleaning up afterwards. This comes out to 2.5 hours a day and 17.5 hours a week.

Time Remaining: 94.5 hours

Getting Ready

I'm a girl (that shouldn't be a surprise to most - but it might be!) and to be presentable in our society, I need around an hour per morning to get ready: shower, get dressed, do my hair, do my makeup, pack my bag, etc. That seems like a long time, I know. I am physically capable of getting ready in fifteen minutes, but I'll show up in jeans, a t-shirt and tennis shoes, with my hair in a pony tail and no makeup on. That's not really acceptable for a work environment, whether we want it to be or not. So, 7 hours a week goes to preparing to face the world.

Time Remaining: 87.5 hours

Class

At Burman, a 'regular' class load is five classes, each of which meet for 2.5 hours a week doesn't seem like much, until you realize that you are spending 12.5 hours just in the classroom. The thing is, skipping class is highly discouraged, especially as you enter into higher level courses more specific to your degree. Sure, you can read the textbook and maybe pass the exam, but will that really equip you for a prosperous career? Probably not - therefore, go to class.

Time Remaining: 75 hours

Homework

In University 101, I learned that it was recommended to spend 2 hours on homework for every 1 hour you spend in class. First off, you spend way more time on homework that just two hours. But, let's be hopeful and only plan in 25 hours a week for homework.

Time Remaining: 50 hours

Sabbath

Since I go to an Adventist university, I am encouraged to follow the Biblical command that the entire seventh day of the week be kept holy. Tradition (as opposed to actual Biblical teaching) dictates that I go to church in the morning and then spend the afternoon in prayer, Bible study, fellowship or some combination of that. Sounds great!

Time Remaining: 32 hours

Spiritual Reflection

Ellen White, in the Ministry of Healing recommends at least one hour a day be spent in spiritual meditation and communion with God. Since we're already spending 24 hours on Sabbath with God, we’ll just require 6 additional hours throughout the week.

Time Remaining: 28 hours

Work

Let’s not forget that this life requires money. We’ve got groceries, medical expenses, school expenses, the rent/mortgage, clothing, transportation and just other every day costs. If we’re going to survive, we need a job. But, as we can already see, we don’t have time to work a full-time job, so we’ll say half-time and hope that we can afford to eat this week.

Time Remaining: 8 hours

Exercise

To stay healthy, we need to be exercising for at least 90 minutes a day. Since we may not be able to afford the medical bills from an illness, exercise is important. Plus, we want to be capable humans, and maybe we want to look good too. But we can’t exercise on Sabbath, so we’ll plan in 1.5 hours for 6 days.

Time Remaining: -1 hours

Housework and Errands

Now let’s address the menial labour required of everyone. You have to grocery shop, you have to vacuum and mop, dust, clean the bathroom, do laundry, empty the litter box, take out the trash and recycling, mow the lawn or shovel the driveway, tidy your room, open the mail, pay the bills, drop off or pickup items, answer the phone or call someone, go to doctor’s appointments, etc. Let’s say you only spend an hour a day on these essentials, Sunday through Friday.

Time Remaining: -7 hours

As you can see, we’re out of time – in fact, we’re in debt. I haven’t even addressed the issue of transportation – depending on where you live, you have to spend time getting to work, or school, or back home. What about relaxation and time to yourself? What about your hobbies? What about a social life? You’ll notice that I couldn’t include any time spent with family and friends, let alone focused time on a significant other. And all these calculations assume that at no point are you stuck in traffic, or class goes late, or someone stops you to ask a question, or you spill water on the hardwood floor and have to clean it up…

My point wasn’t to complain, believe it or not. Life will always be this hard – there will always be something that you need to do and can’t. And true, there are techniques to give yourself more time - like studying while eating, or socializing at church - but there will never be enough time in the day for everything.

The point is that it’s ok that you’re not enough.

It’s ok that you’ve only slept four hours today.

It’s ok that you ate fast food.

It’s ok that you’re in sweatpants.

It’s ok that you skipped class.

It’s ok that your assignment is late.

It’s ok that you didn’t go to church.

It’s ok that you fell asleep during prayer.

It’s ok that you’re in debt.

It’s ok that you didn’t work out.

It’s ok that your house is a mess.

It’s ok that you haven’t seen your friends in two weeks.

It's ok that you have anxiety from trying to handle it all.

It's ok that you're depressed from failing every day.

It’s ok that life is impossible.