How do I not end up being a slave to time? It governs nearly everything that we do. Most of us have to get to work and get off work during a set certain amount of time, don't we? To acquiesce to that we have to get up at a certain time, and also schedule other ancillaries (like meals) around it. Everything becomes super coordinated and regimented, which I think is how we can sometimes burn out (even if we love the job, as I do).
We love the weekend not only because we don't have to work, but also we don't have to look at the damn clock anymore to see what we've got to do.
Then again, weren't humans evolved this way? Before the invention of the 24 hour clock, people looked to the sun - perhaps the oldest times-keeping device of all - for directives on when to work and when to eat. But life was much, much simpler back then; these day we've got all sorts of freedoms to play with.
Our regular weekday is highly regimented, and on weekends we rebel on that notion, which makes it really difficult to get back into it come the following Monday. We flip-flop between the two different flows and it takes more effort to get back into strictness than the other way around.
Set work schedules aren't going anywhere for most us: only the daring few would venture out into entrepreneurship/freelancing thus able to set their own time. For the rest, it's the grind: waking up everyday not motivated by what I desire to do but what I must do. Feel like snoozing for a half hour, get in work late, but feeling more refreshed? Nope, can't do that because work rules dictate I must be there at the certain hour mark.
Outside of work (and sleep, really, because for me sleeping consistently at the same time is a tremendous boost) I'm trying to be less strict with my time, even though like most everyone I'm trying to cram in as much itinerary as possible, be it binge watching a Netflix show for you, or studying a third language for me. The point isn't to do less, but in doing stuff I try to follow my body clock than the actual clock. I let my intuition/feeling inform me when I'm done or I should move on to something else.
Turns out I've been conditioned so much to the real clock that my body clock isn't all that far from it, but I definitely do feel better when I'm following my natural impulses rather than some artificial limit.
It's always a work-in-progress.
