I was flipping through a business trade magazine this morning while sitting at my desk and came across an article that used the term “time poverty”—I haven’t heard this term before, or if I have I missed it. I decided it was the perfect term for a harried single parent—if there is one term that can often describe my wrestling with time issues it would be “time poverty”!
Like many single parents, I have definitely teetered on the edge of the more traditional idea of poverty—one adult, one income and a family to support does not make for the most lucrative family scene—but I might actually be MORE starved for time than money. In the article the term was being used to describe the busy corporate professional of the current day—an identity which I do NOT claim (I am about as far from a corporate professional as they come) but I think it better fits the life of the average single parent. Who among us is not feeling the effects of time poverty—at least at one time or another?
The only problem that I am having with the term “time poverty” as it pertains to my existence as a long-time single mom is that I do not know how to get more time. When it comes to monetary poverty, I know that I can hope and work to improve things financially. As far as time is concerned, the only way to get more of it I see is just to wait this thing out until my kids grow up. By then, of course, I will be so used to multi-tasking and living in a perpetual state of time poverty that I fear I will have more time on my hands than I know what to do with!
Also: Look for Tasks That Go Together
There Will be Days When the Exhaustion is Unbearable