Yale psychologist, Jeff Bezos agree too much 'time blocking' causes burnout, 'makes you less happy'

Feeling too busy all the time can become just as harmful to your mental health as being unemployed, psychologist Laurie Santos said. (Representational image: Unsplash)

If you feel you're too busy all the time or don’t have time to do what you want, this can lead to “time famine,” said Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos. The term first emerged in the scientific literature around 1999, and refers to the universal feeling of having too much to do but not enough time to deal with those demands.

According to Santos, time famine can lead to poorer work performance and burnout because it makes you less happy. It can become just as harmful to your mental health as being unemployed, she added.

“I think we feel strapped for time because we think working... as much as we work all the time is essential for achieving the things we want to achieve in life," she told attendees at SXSW earlier this month, CNBC Make It reported.

The Yale psychologist suggested professionals reduce time blocking their calendars. Setting strict time blocks for all meetings and engagements might look impressive, Santos said, but it can "make you feel like there’s no time to eat lunch, chat with colleagues or even finish that day’s Wordle."

"Some tasks that belong on a to-do list don’t deserve to take up space in your planner," she said. "Giving yourself time, with fewer interruptions, to work on larger projects can psychologically make you feel less busy, less stressed and as result, more productive."

Interestingly, even Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos recently revealed in a podcast that he is also not a fan of time blocking. Instead, he favours mind wandering.

“I don’t keep to a strict schedule,” CNBC Make It quoted the 60-year-old Amazon and Blue Origin founder saying. “My meetings often go longer than I plan for them to, because I believe in [mind] wandering.”

Explaining what it means to him, Bezos said he makes time during meetings for people to bounce ideas off each other, no matter how small or spontaneous, he said. “Messy meeting,” the Amazon founder called it, adding that these sessions don't usually have a set time.

“When I sit down [in] a meeting, I don’t know how long the meeting is going to take if we’re trying to solve a problem,” Bezos said in the Lex Fridman Podcast. “The reality is we may have to wander for a long time ... I think there’s certainly nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spit-balling and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas, and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth.”