You know that moment when you’re short on time and need to get something done, and the easiest answer is, “I'll just do it myself”?
Even if it’s not your job.
Even if you’re not the best person to do it.
Even if it’s the fifth time this week.
It feels faster in the moment. But then the same task comes back. Again. And again. And you’re still the one doing it.
Still behind on the thing you actually should be doing.
Still not getting better at what you’re here to do.
When I waste time looking for a file, I rarely stop and think,
"Let me take 15 minutes now to fix this so it doesn’t keep happening."
Because I don’t have 15 minutes right now.
So I keep wasting 3… then 5… then 10.
And that’s how time scarcity makes you time poor. Forever. Busy get busier. Poor get poorer.
In the book “Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives,” the authors call this mental state tunneling.
When you don’t have enough of something, like time or money, your mind narrows in on what’s urgent. You go into the tunnel. You’re focused on getting through the next task, the next hour, the next email.
You stop thinking about:
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Delegating
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Automating
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Fixing the root problem
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Building a better system for next week
Because you’re barely surviving this one.
It’s a trap.
And it doesn’t just affect people with limited resources, it affects everyone under pressure.
Imagine your mind is a jar. And each thing you need to remember or fix is a pebble.
Look for a file → pebble.
Re-send that email someone lost → pebble.
Fix someone else’s mistake → pebble.
Figure out what’s for dinner → pebble.
The more pebbles, the less room for the big stuff - strategy, creativity, vision, solving the real problem. They call this brain's working memory limit.
And that’s the cruel part about scarcity,
When you’re short on time (or money), your brain can’t access the space it needs to solve your time (or money) problem. It’s just busy solving tasks.
In the book, they talk about how financial scarcity makes people take out bad loans, not because they’re stupid, but because they’re under pressure and don’t have the cognitive room to think long-term. They’re not optimizing. They’re surviving.
Time scarcity works the same way.
Too busy to build a better way.
Too overloaded to delegate properly.
Too overwhelmed to stop and think, “Why does this problem keep happening in the first place?”
And so the same stuff keeps coming back.
And the tunnel deepens.
And the fire never stops.
There’s no magic. But there is a choice.
The only way out.
Put time on your calendar to fix the system before the system eats your time forever.
Even when it feels impossible.
Even when it feels like you have no space, no time.
Because if you don’t, you’ll be in the tunnel forever.