Working with a client of mine we investigated his gruesome schedule. He had asked for my support in managing his time and explained how adding an activity would help him.

As we explored the situation, we learned how his main work had gained such speed that it had almost become unmanageable. Adding a new activity seemed possible based on learning from his past. His desire to be present with his children in the evening as well as to support the household had once made it easy for him to leave his job on time. Since losing that obligation, he seemed to have lost the ability to manage time boundaries at work.

The more we explored the situation, the clearer it became that he didn’t lack awareness of his being tired, or of knowing the benefits of nature, free time, exercise, and taking some time out for reflection.

There was no issue regarding his relationships either as family time seemed to be fulfilling. What seemed more complicated, however, was connecting with friends or being part of a network. The other element that appeared was how much care he was putting into his environment and wanting it to be well done and efficient. Whenever something in the building needed to be fixed, or something at home had to be repaired, he almost impulsively noticed it and decided to have it done. And when it came to work, he was focused on making things efficient, which he measured by things being done fast.

What was out of sight for him was how he was balancing the different aspects of his work. Whenever the work moved towards the boring parts of the things to be done he was speeding to have it done faster. His desire to remain connected to clients and provide them with the quality of work and the care he aspired to kept him involved in activities he found boring. But the desire he rarely seemed to reach was having the opportunity to do creative and intellectually challenging work.

What he hadn’t realized was how his satisfaction of having finished a task served him. It had become his way of dealing with the boring aspects of his work. For him, having this satisfaction seemed to be the way to be valued by his organization and to overcome the activities he perceived as necessary but boring. Seen from another perspective, it was the hope that by becoming more efficient he would make the work he was interested in finally accessible to himself.

Unconsciously he had been aware of this but couldn’t express it clearly. And yet it had been the reason he decided to add a new activity to his existing activity.