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1-Page Summary of Overwhelmed
Introduction
Many adults in the United States spend their lives with a lot of time confetti, or tiny fragments of time dedicated to multiple tasks. They’re anxious, depressed and fearful because they don’t have enough leisure time. Some Americans want to be both ideal workers and ideal mothers at home; others are trying to balance work and family life. American companies that support employees also tend to give them autonomy (freedom) over their schedules, as well as clear expectations about what is expected from them at work. In addition, it’s important for men and women who share housework equitably to create more leisure time for each other so they can play together more often.
Time Confetti
A woman named Jane is trying to finish everything she didn’t get done during the day. She works full-time and does a side hustle, which takes up most of her time. After work, she spends an hour on chores that her husband should have done but didn’t get around to doing. She then watches TV with him for an hour while answering emails from work and from her side hustle. She finishes up all the chores he should’ve done before bedtime so that tomorrow will be easier for both of them. When she’s finished cleaning the house, she checks Instagram and writes down reminders because there are things that keep slipping through the cracks in her busy schedule. Finally, after taking a shower (of course), it’s finally time to go to bed at midnight!
Jane’s life is like a handful of confetti thrown into the air. She has many tasks that seem to flow together, and she doesn’t have enough time for leisure activities.
John Robinson, a researcher at the University of Maryland, has found that people spend more time on leisure activities than they did in the 1960s. However, many people only get their free time sporadically. For example, Jane might have 10 minutes to herself but she doesn’t know what to do with it. This leads back to anxiety and restlessness because you want to be doing something else instead of relaxing or taking a break. A new generation of sociologists believe that regardless of how much free time there is cumulatively, how you feel about that free time matters more than having lots of it.
The average person consumes too much information. This is a problem because the brain hasn’t evolved as much as it should have since humans were living in Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherer societies. The brain isn’t good at multitasking, and it’s not even all that great at identifying threats like bears, fire or rival tribes.
Jane’s life is even worse than it was before. She spends part of her day trying to remember what she did during the day, and has a hard time finding free time with her husband because of all the work she has to do. Even going to sleep is difficult for Jane, as there are always more things that need to be done.
Stress has a negative impact on the brain, causing it to shrink in size and affecting one’s ability to remember things. It also makes people less organized and more impulsive. Stress can lead to destructive and addictive behaviors that make one sicker physically as well.
Work
Renate Rivelli was a loyal employee at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. She worked hard and took on extra responsibilities, but when it came time for her to be promoted, she wasn’t given an opportunity because she had kids. Her bosses didn’t believe that because of her family obligations, she could put as much effort into work as they expected.
American culture is work-obsessed. It’s a stereotype that men are the ideal workers, who come in early and stay late, never take days off, etc. This is because women used to be expected to handle domestic life while men worked outside the home.
