Time famine
There is a well-researched concept in psychology called ”time famine.” This refers to the feeling that a person gets when they have a lot of things to do, but only have very little time to complete them. Studies show that time famine significantly impairs brain function. When one constantly feels pressed for time, the brain copes through “hurry sickness” and prioritizes immediate, short-term tasks over long-term planning. This compromises a person’s creativity, memory, attention, and decision-making capabilities.
A person experiencing time famine feels they are perpetually behind, no matter how much they actually accomplish. The sustained strain eventually leads to physical and mental exhaustion. Across professions, cultures, and socioeconomic levels, time famine has been consistently identified as a major driver of burnout.
Perhaps nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the education sector. Teaching, by its very nature, demands a high amount of emotional, cognitive, and relational labor. Educators are expected to give generously of themselves in order to respond to the varied and often complex needs of their students.
In schools with limited resources, this burden is further compounded by the inability to hire for key positions, which often forces teachers and staff to constantly wear multiple hats. While this may appear cost-efficient on paper, decades of experience running a nonprofit school have taught me otherwise. Over time, this approach erodes effectiveness, increases vulnerability to burnout and high staff turnover, and ultimately becomes more costly due to the cycle of constant hiring and retraining. The emotional weight of carrying a mission-driven vocation is already heavy. When layered with time famine, it becomes unsustainable.
Research on well-being offers an important insight. Studies in the science of happiness show that spending on conveniences that enable a person to “buy more time” leads to improved well-being and life satisfaction. Common examples are childcare support, household help, or delivery services. Relief comes from the mental space created by the perception of having more free time. Applied to organizational settings, administrative support, along with streamlined systems are institutional time-saving investments that help prevent unnecessary mental drain.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) has rightfully identified teacher burnout in public schools as a critical issue. According to their findings, 42 percent of teachers work over 50 hours per week. Aside from teaching, educators spend significant hours on nonteaching duties, including administrative, clerical, and coordination work. Fragmented attention, constant deadline pressure, and compliance with multiple metrics create conditions that inevitably cause chronic time scarcity.
In response, the Department of Education (DepEd), with guidance from Edcom 2, has since committed to reducing teachers’ paperwork by 57 percent by streamlining reporting systems and hiring more administrative officers, targeting 20,000 new positions to support schools.
Teachers are our greatest assets, and we should give them the time and flexibility to do their jobs well. This starts with making their classes more manageable. Class size functions as a time multiplier: a dedicated teacher finds ways to personalize the same content based on the skill level and unique needs of every student in her class. No matter how efficient, a teacher who is constantly handling a class of 50 to 60 students will always play catch-up. Addressing classroom shortages is a crucial step to counter time famine, ensuring teachers will have enough time not just to teach, but also to think, plan, and recover.
Time famine also occurs because of guidelines that do not always take into consideration the realities and complications faced by those on the ground. In a previous column, I wrote about the challenges of implementing cocurricular activities in public schools. Without clear priorities, everything in the list of prescribed events feels urgent and important. School leaders must be trained and empowered to align the goals and intentions behind these directives with what is relevant and genuinely responsive to the needs of their school community, rather than implementing everything for the sake of compliance.
The education crisis is not a problem of effort or commitment. Many of our public school teachers are willingly extending themselves to do more for their students, carrying a heavier mental, emotional, and physical load in the process. But an entire sector is exhausted, and understandably so. Until we take time seriously as a finite resource that needs to be strategically utilized and safeguarded, we will continue to undermine the very people we depend on to shape the next generation.
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eleanor@shetalksasia.com
