By Patricia Jones, Alliance Community Task Force: Creating Opportunity
In my column last week, "I Can't Pay That Bill Today," I talked about tyranny of the moment. People frequently have to focus on immediate needs because they simply do not have enough money or resources to see better solutions or do long-term planning. This means that people in poverty often live in a constant state of crisis management.
We haven't talked about "the moment", or being overwhelmed by not having enough time. For those in poverty, the bills might be due before there is enough money to pay them. It might mean staying trapped in a job because there isn't enough time to put together a resume or go to a job fair or schedule an interview; staying in substandard housing because there isn't time to search for something better; going to an agency like DHHS or NCAP to apply for assistance.
Low-income people are often employed in hourly wage jobs, and it might be difficult to manage schedule changes. Is it possible to get to parent-teacher conferences? Doctor and dentist visits? Get a haircut? Stay home with a sick child? Or even stay home when a person is not feeling well?
Another "time" issue is often faced by low-income households. Because there is never enough money, they haven't developed personal finance skills, a gradual learning process we work through as we earn raises or take on more monetary obligations. They may have opened a checking account, but after a few $35 overdraft fees, they realize they cannot handle their money through a bank, so they close the account. With bad credit, they cannot get a car loan. Now paying bills means getting cash, sorting it into correct amounts for each bill, then going around town to make rent, utility, phone payments, or buying groceries. Imagine how much time that takes! especially for someone with no transportation.
One of the other tyrannies of time is faced by all of us, not just those in poverty. We now live in a constant state of urgency. People expect us to be available 24/7. Our phones chime constantly with texts, social media messages, email updates, news alerts, maybe even the occasional phone call. We are expected to react right away. Our focus is on the present, and our attention is fragmented.
How about our jobs? Think about the song from the musical Ragtime about Henry Ford's factory: "Speed up the belt, speed up the belt, speed up the belt!" Are we constantly under pressure to work faster, produce more, manage a heavier load? I certainly found that to be true in my career.
This work pressure often leaves us exhausted, too tired to go home and do our chores like cooking, so we grab fast food. We switch on our tv and numb our brains. We don't sit down often enough with our families to find out what is happening in their lives. We don't plan for the future, focusing on what is important to us in the long run.
Something I am beginning to see in my internet searches is how the tyranny of the moment—lack of control over our time—is affecting us in the long term. Our technology and our constant state of busyness, or our pressure from work change the focus of our thinking. We lose broader perspectives. We don't evaluate options. We don't think enough about consequences of our actions. We don't see creative approaches to our problems. We don't set long-term goals.
How do we shift our attention to something other than those phone chimes or those work pressures? We give our brains permission to disconnect. By setting aside time to meditate or pray or daydream or go for a walk, we give ourselves down time. Then we become happier, more relaxed, more creative. Our perspectives change.
Tyranny of the moment, living in a state of crisis, is not only true for people who don't have enough money. Unless we learn to think beyond the present, it's true for all of us.