Time Anxiety: Rebuilding Your Relationship with Time
It's 7 AM. Your alarm goes off ⏰, and before your feet hit the floor, your mind is already running at 100 km/h through the day ahead. The client meeting… did I confirm that meeting?, The endless emails… when will I find time to exercise? Why does everyone else seem to have it together 😖?
We live in a culture where being busy has become equal with being productive. "How are you?" … "Busy!" has become the default response for many of us. For many adults, regardless of your employment status, the day feels like an endless loop of rushing, worrying, and never quite catching up. We rush from meeting to meeting, from family duties to personal errands, all while a nagging voice whispers in the back of our head, "You're behind schedule!", "Why can't you be more efficient?!", "You're too slow!" and so on and so forth.
Just like other types of relationships, our relationship with time can be healthy and/or unhealthy. While a healthy relationship can make us feel happy, an unhealthy relationship can make us feel anxious. When it comes to time, this anxious feeling is known as time anxiety.
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash
So, What is Time Anxiety?
Time anxiety isn't about the lack of hours in the day…whether we like it or not, we all have the same 24 hours 😅. Neither is about poor time management or laziness! Instead, it’s an emotional response to the unrealistic expectations, misaligned priorities, and a relationship with time that's often at odds with how we, as humans, actually function.
Research by Sharif et al. (2021) showed a U-shaped curve, which means that we feel stressed when we have very little discretionary time. However, when we have too much time on hand, our sense of purpose can drop, and we might feel lost. The sweet spot depends on how we use that time.
According to MacKay (2020), there are at least three types of time anxiety:
Daily time anxiety: This is the feeling of never having enough time in our day. We feel rushed, stressed, and overwhelmed.
Future time anxiety: These are the 'What ifs?' that keep playing in our brain. We feel paralysed thinking through everything that may or may not happen in the future depending on our actions today.
Existential time anxiety: This is the overall anxiety of only having a limited time to live our life. No matter how much we race ahead or push forward, there's only one finish line.
Why Time Anxiety Matters?
Studies with working adults show that when we experience chronic time pressure, our brains don't just feel stressed. They actually shift into a state that significantly increases our risk for anxiety and depression (Virtanen et al., 2011).
The irony is… time anxiety makes us less productive, not more. When we're anxious about time, we underestimate how long moments actually last, struggle to focus on what truly matters, and end up in an exhausting cycle where we're always busy but never quite getting where we want to go (Young et al., 2024).
How Time Anxiety Shows Up?
Time anxiety can manifest in different ways, and it can vary from one individual to another. Some of the examples are
Constant Rushing: Feeling a need to rush from one thing to the next, even on a day off 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏽♂️! There is also a constant feeling that we aren't doing enough or working fast enough.
Chronic Worry: Constantly worrying about being late, regardless of the events, whether for work, meetings, classes, etc.
Weekend (instead of Monday) Blues: The inability to enjoy your weekend because we’re already dreading Monday's to-do list. Sometimes with added self-nagging, "You can't afford to or don't deserve to have a break!"
Restless Relaxation: Trying to relax (watching movies, listening to music) while simultaneously checking work emails, meaning we aren't fully present for either activity.
Productivity Guilt: The heavy feeling of guilt when we do take a break. It feels as if we're stealing time from something more "important" (but what is that something?).
Procrastination Paralysis: Ironically, the more overwhelmed we feel, the higher the tendency to procrastinate, which then creates more time anxiety (read our blog on procrastination).
Time Anxiety Affects Everyone... With a Twist
It's crucial to understand that not everyone experiences time in the same way. For neurodivergent individuals (including those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or other neurological differences), time perception challenges can be even more complex. While time anxiety for neurotypical individuals often stems from overcommitment and cultural pressure to be productive, for neurodivergent individuals, it can be compounded by how the brain's prefrontal cortex processes information.
ADHD and "Time Blindness"
Research shows that individuals with ADHD often experience "time blindness", a challenge in perceiving and managing time that goes beyond typical time management struggles (Barkley et al., 2001). Despite trying hard, they may struggle to estimate how long tasks will take, lose track of time easily, or feel surprised when deadlines arrive "suddenly" 😱. That mismatch can amplify time anxiety when schedules are rigid or interruptions are constant.
Autism, Sensory Load, and Anxiety
Sensory over- or under-responsivity can raise stress, affect how we feel time (a loud, bright office can make an hour feel like forever!), and make estimating durations or transitioning between tasks more challenging (Allman & DeLeon, 2009). Moreover, the pressure to conform to a "neurotypical" pace of work and social engagement can be a chronic source of stress and anxiety.
Whether we're neurotypical or neurodivergent, time anxiety is real, valid, and manageable. The strategies that work may look different for different people, and that's okay. What matters is finding approaches that work for our brain.
A Real Journey: From Overwhelmed to In Control
"I used to feel guilty whenever I wasn't being productive. Even watching TV with my family felt wrong because I should be thinking about work."
Note: This is a composite story based on common client experiences, protecting individual privacy.
That's how Jack, a 34-year-old data analyst, described his relationship with time when he first made an appointment. Jack would arrive at work an hour early and leave two (or even more) hours late. Weekends were spent looking at his phone and answering emails. He rarely met and played soccer with his friends anymore. When he did take a break, he couldn't enjoy it because the anxious part of him said, "Why are you taking a break? You should be doing something productive now."
As we worked together, we explored the anxious part of him that was acting as a rigid timekeeper 👮🏻♂️. This part was working overtime trying to protect him from the fear of failure, which he'd experienced early in his career. We slowly became aware of the strict rules set by his anxious part: "You must reply to every email within 2 hours!", "If you're not busy, it means you're lazy.", "Taking breaks means you're not committed to your work.", and the list goes on.
Over several months, Jack learned to connect with his anxious part and worked together to create more realistic "time rules". He also started to practice accepting being "good enough" on lower-priority tasks, set boundaries around email response times, and practiced saying "no" 🙅♂️ to non-essential meetings.
Gradually, he noticed the shift in him as he shared, "I realized I was living in firefighting mode! It was not only tiring but also made me less productive. Now I work smarter, not just harder. And I have become a friend to my anxious part!"
Practical Tools: Managing Time Anxiety
If you're ready to start shifting your relationship with time, here are some evidence-based strategies that work for both neurotypical and neurodivergent brains.
Define Your "Enough"
We often operate from an infinite to-do list that we can never finish. For a change, at the start of the day, try to create a "Good Enough" List by identifying just 1-3 things that, if completed, would make the day feel like a success. Remember, not everything needs to be perfect. This isn't about lowering standards. It's about allocating your energy where it actually matters. Be realistic and concrete; for example, "Today I will exercise for 30 minutes." By setting a realistic finish line, we give ourselves permission to be done.
Rewrite Your Time Rules
We all have unwritten rules about time (e.g., "I must reply to emails immediately," "Taking a break means I'm lazy", etc.) Write them down and challenge them. Ask yourself, "Which rules serve me now? Which ones no longer serve me?". Rewrite the rules based on reality, not fear.
For example:
Old Rule: "I should respond to messages immediately."
New Rule: "I respond to non-urgent messages within 24 hours, and that's perfectly fine."
Old Rule: "I must finish everything today"
New Rule: ""Something can wait until tomorrow."
Use "And" Instead of "But"
Just like in an interpersonal relationship, the words we use do matter. So, notice the words you speak! We often say, "I want to relax, but I have to do the laundry." This creates internal conflict. Try tweaking it to: "I want to relax, and I need to do the laundry." This small change removes the conflict and validates both needs. You can then decide if you will relax for 20 minutes, and then you will do the laundry.
Use (Realistic) Time Blocking
Try assigning specific blocks of time to tasks and be realistic by including some buffer. Add 25% more time than you think you'll need. Sometimes things take longer than we expect, a call comes in, or people drop by.
Neurodivergent Adaptation: Try to use visual timers or analogue clocks (digital clocks with changing numbers can feel abstract) to make time more tangible. Visual countdowns might help make time passage more concrete.
Try the Two-Minute Rule with a Twist
Instead of the classic "do it if it takes less than two minutes", try this: Take a two-minute pause before responding to an "urgent" request and ask yourself, "Is this truly urgent, or does it just feel that way?"
Implementing the Shift
Ready to take action? Try this 7-Day Time Audit Challenge:
Days 1-3: Simply notice when you feel rushed or anxious about time. Don't try to fix it; just observe! Jot down these moments in your phone or a notebook.
Days 4-5: Review your notes. What patterns do you see? Are certain times of day worse? Any specific types of tasks? People or situations?
Days 6-7: Choose ONE small change based on what you observed and learnt. Maybe it's starting your morning 15 minutes earlier to avoid the rush. Maybe it's setting a boundary around evening work.
Some ground rules for the challenge
Don't quit even if you miss a day. Just start again tomorrow.
Share your challenge or experience with at least one other person (family, friend, or colleague) for accountability.
Notice changes in your stress levels, sleep quality, and overall sense of control.
Honor how your brain actually works. There's no one "right" way to do this.
You don’t need to find more hours in the day.
You just need to find more peace within the hours you have,
in a way that honors how our brain actually works.
Allman, M. J., & DeLeon, I. G. (2009). No time like the present: Time perception in autism. In A. C. Giordano & V. A. Lombardi (Eds.), Causes and risks for autism (pp. 65-76). Nova Science Publishers.
Barkley, R. A., Edwards, G., Laneri, M., Fletcher, K., & Metevia, L. (2001). Executive functioning, temporal discounting, and sense of time in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29(6), 541-556.
MacKay, J. (2020). Time anxiety: How to deal with the feeling that you 'never having enough time.' RescueTime Blog. Retrieved October 24, 2025, from https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-anxiety/
Sharif, M. A., Mogilner, C., & Hershfield, H. E. (2021). Having too little or too much time is linked to lower subjective well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 121(4), 933–947. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000391
Virtanen, M., Ferrie, J. E., Singh-Manoux, A., Shipley, M. J., Stansfeld, S. A., Marmot, M. G., Ahola, K., Vahtera, J., & Kivimäki, M. (2011). Long working hours and symptoms of anxiety and depression: a 5-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study. Psychological Medicine, 41(12), 2485–2494. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291711000171
Young, A. N., Bourke, A., Foley, S., & Di Blasi, Z. (2024). Effects of time management interventions on mental health and wellbeing factors: A protocol for a systematic review. PloS one, 19(3), e0288887. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288887
