Time Scarcity and Time Management as a Social Problem

Time scarcity and time management as a social problem

The pace of life is speeding up in modern society and time always seems not enough. Therefore time has generally been regarded as a scarce resource, time scarcity (Zeitknappheit, in German) has also become cultural phenomenon in modern society; the issue of “time management” thus becoming more important along with the phenomenon (Luhmann, 1971). Time management is deemed to be one of the essential life skills nowadays. Everyone should manage their time effectively to cope with the phenomenon of time scarcity, slowing down from the fast paced life, getting things done and doing things right. Therefore people can easily get thousands of monographs in any web search engines or published books in bookstores, with the title “time management”. There are also many famous management experts or gurus and successful people have put forward numerous theories about the time management skills or formulas. It seems like if everyone can manages their time exceptionally well when they are facing time scarcity by following the recommendations from the celebrities, then everyone can have the same success life like those celebrities. However, why there are still a lot of books on time management is publishing? Apparently, time management is an issue for which no satisfactory answer has yet been given but it has become more important.

In addition, if the society has only one or two individuals find that they are lack of time and do not how to manage, then, time management can only be defined as personal problems; in contrast, if there are numerous people are facing the same problem, people afterwards believe that it is not about the personal problem but the overall situation of the society has been different from the past, therefore, time management has become a common and important issue (Mills, 1959). This evidence highlight that time management is not simply just a management problem but also a social problem which can be analyzed by sociological perspective.