Do you remember the plot of the great book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” written by Lewis Carroll?

The adventure starts when Alice encounters a strange White Rabbit, who takes a watch out of his waistcoat pocket and mutters, “Oh my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late I’m late!”

Curious, because she cannot understand what the rabbit could possibly be late for, Alice tries to stop him. But the White Rabbit ignores her, “No time to say hello, goodbye! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” Alice sprints after him and asks him to wait, but the White Rabbit responds, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I’m overdue. I’m really in a stew. No time to say goodbye, hello! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!”

As the story goes on, Alice meets the White Rabbit several times, but the question WHERE he was running late to, has never been answered.

Similar, for many of us “I’m late, I’m busy, I don’t have time” have turned into a life mantra. We are always in a hurry. Always stressed out about not being able to meet upcoming deadlines. Always busy running somewhere, doing something, meeting someone.

We learn time management tricks so we can “squeeze” the maximum out of every second and still feel a chronic lack of time. We learn to multitask, because we want to get more things done and then we unlearn multi-tasking, because we realize that our focus and productivity is suffering. We bury ourselves under multiple obligations, numerous must-do tasks and unresolved problems until we can no longer see the light.

This is what I call “the White Rabbit syndrome”.

When you feel that you are “in a stew”, all you do is react and get carried away by it. Your thoughts are focused on avoiding danger. You have no time to think WHY and WHERE you are going.

How to overcome the White Rabbit syndrome?

1. Prioritize. I am sure that you have heard this advice before. So have I. Many-many times. And yet once in a while I find myself stressing over something that will not matter in a week’s time or getting distracted by some insignificant problem. Identifying your priorities is a crucial part of your success and productivity. If you are spending your energy anyway, you might as well be spending it on worth-while tasks.

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“You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up.” ‘Matrix’

Did you ever get a feeling that your life is just a long dream? That one day you will wake up to realize that it was just a dream? That in reality you are not just an average person with an average income and an average life? That you are the one who was meant to make a difference in this world?

Well, let me tell you a secret. It is not too late to wake up and make your life what you want it to be.

Most of us have grand plans and dreams. But those dreams are overshadowed by everyday problems that require our immediate attention, worries about what could go wrong, “what if” questions and other insignificant but urgent tasks.

Unfortunately, time does not stand still, waiting for us to turn our great goals into reality. It keeps on going… Minutes become hours… Hours turn into weeks… Weeks become years. One day you may look back at your life and realize that ten years have gone by, but your life has not changed much. Because you kept delaying doing things that should have been done a long time ago.

This probably explains why there are so many articles, books, and workshops that teach us how to make the best out of every second and use our time in the most efficient way. Although, these time management tips and techniques can be beneficial to beat procrastination, they miss one crucial point. We are humans, not machines. We can not be 100% productive for 16 hours a day, doing only the things that we know are important to do.

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