August 5th, 2023

Spreading yourself too thin

clear glass hour glass with black liquid


As per the topic of not turning yourself off, it is important to distinguish the limitations in the amount of time we have to use. I already wrote about this briefly, but another important point is balancing the use of your time. You may find yourself in a situation where almost everything you do is productive: whether it be work, family life, housekeeping, or hobbies, for instance. In those cases in which there literally is no room left for procrastination either, there rarely is room for anything else to grow in your life either.

Therefore, you can end up spreading yourself too thin. Imagine a lovely piece of toast.

bread on white ceramic plate


Now, once you start to spread the butter, you will find that there are three important variables:

  1. The kind of spread you use
  2. The amount of spread you use
  3. The balance of the spread on that piece of toast

The first point here will define the quality of whether you will have a good piece of toast, no matter the amount and the balance. Since we may assume you are doing the right things in your life (not turning yourself off), you will have chosen a good quality butter already. This brings us to the numbers two and three.

The amount of butter will determine how good the outcome will taste. If you use too little, you will end up with dry toast, as in with too much spare time in your life. Use too much and the outcome will become rather nasty to swallow as well. Note that there is a limit of how much butter you can add to one piece of toast without it overflowing or you running out of butter.

The balance of the spread will determine how balanced the experience of eating that piece of toast will be. Just like the balance in your life. For the most enjoyable experience, aim for a balanced outcome. If you try to accomplish too many things at the same time, you will sooner or later end up failing. Thus, you will have spread yourself too thin with too many fields to succeed in.

In the end, the sand in the hourglass will have run out, and what counts is the way you have chosen to use that time.

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