We just don’t have time.

That will be today’s theme, I think, and a topic that I believe is essential to address if we ever want to see things evolve toward a healthier society.

Following a very brief (too brief?) discussion with a good friend who also lives in Japan, this was the conclusion we reached. We just don’t have time. I don’t have children, so my “available” time is naturally greater than my friend’s, who has three!
But I am married, so I naturally have less “available” time than if I were alone.

By available time, I mean time without “obligations.” I am not “obligated” to spend time with my wife, nor is my friend with his children, in a strict sense. But if we want to avoid divorce or seeing our children struggle in life, we must take this time.

On the other hand, we have scientific studies and their findings regarding brain health and well-being in general. I will group the two together, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing—on the contrary, I think it makes sense.

So, in summary, we need a healthy lifestyle, which means:

• Sleeping well. Recommendations are around 8 hours, though this varies between individuals.
• Eating well. This means avoiding rushed meals, taking the time to sit at a table, chewing properly, etc. And eating healthy, balanced food.
  The choice is simple: either trust and find a restaurant that offers balanced meals (which takes effort to find) or prepare your own food. This, of course, takes time—cooking, grocery shopping, etc.
  For those who cook daily and take the time to buy fresh vegetables every day, grocery shopping and meal preparation alone can take a good 2 hours (for dinner and the next day’s lunch).
  Plus, let’s add an hour per meal for eating.
  I’m not including breakfast since I don’t eat it myself (and skipping it isn’t necessarily bad for health).
  Total: 4 hours per day.
• Exercising daily. The bare minimum is 30 minutes of light to moderate activity per day, but honestly, that’s too little. Light/moderate activity does nothing to prevent the natural decline of muscle mass with age, which must be countered with resistance training.
  (And before anyone argues, yes, carrying your kids counts as resistance training… but still.)
  Studies show that, in addition to the 30 minutes of daily activity, we should also do at least 2–3 cardio sessions per week and an equivalent amount of resistance training.
  So, we’re looking at 30 minutes of daily exercise, plus at least 2 hours per day for additional training (cardio, resistance—factoring in preparation, shower, travel to the gym, etc.).
  Total: 2h30 per day.
• Spending time with family. We are humans, not animals, as some like to say. We need social interaction.
  Meals can count as social time, but they’re not dedicated quality time with kids.
  There’s no official recommendation, but at least 1 hour with your children seems like a reasonable minimum.
  Total: 1 hour per day.
• Lifelong learning. We should never stop learning, which means dedicating time to it daily.
  To keep it simple, let’s say 30 minutes per day.

Time Calculation:

• 8h sleep
• 4h meals
• 2h30 exercise
• 1h family time
• 30 min learning

Total: 16 hours per day

We have 24 hours in a day, leaving us with 8 hours for work.

A standard workday is 9 AM – 6 PM, and unless we’ve mastered teleportation, we must factor in commuting.
1 hour to work, 1 hour back → effectively 8 AM – 7 PM, or 11 hours per day.

Technically, we could subtract 1 hour for lunch, since it’s during work hours.
So, we’re left with 10 hours per day for work.

Conclusion:

We simply don’t have time to do things “the right way.”

And I can already hear the counterarguments:

• “You can read or study during your commute.”
• “You’re overestimating; I can do groceries and cook in less time than that.”

But today’s reflection is not about nitpicking. It’s about understanding that we live in a system that is not designed for our well-being.

To be honest, I never thought about it before—because this is “normal,” and we all assume there’s no other choice.

What I find shocking is the lack of real alternatives.
You either work full-time, or you leave the “standard system” and face financial instability.
Want a home? A loan? Everything requires a full-time job.
Everything demands that you sacrifice part of your well-being.

And for those who are deeply attached to the system and will defend it at all costs: no, not everyone wants this.
We simply don’t have a real choice.

Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur (and let’s be honest, being self-employed can be even worse for well-being in many cases).

I’m sure I’ve forgotten some obvious things. That’s the problem with writing thoughts in real-time.

But I don’t have time either. I have to look for a job…