“Perpetually feeling time-poor leaves us merely trying to get through each day, without hoping for or striving for experiencing joy or satisfaction in our days,” notes Holmes.

So, how do we break out of the time-poor mindset and get our motivation back? Alas, we can’t just get more time – but we can use the time we have more wisely, to feel like we have more of it.

“Surprisingly, to feel more time-affluent, the solution isn’t to do less… at least not of the things that matter,” says Holmes. “To feel less limited by time, spend time on activities that increase your sense of self-efficacy and confidence. This plays out to increase your overall sense of what you can accomplish with the time you have, thus increasing your time affluence.  Ways of spending time that have been shown to increase time affluence include exercise, helping others and seeking awe-inspiring experiences.”

Once you feel like you have more time, your mind will have the space to get motivated again. The things you want to do will feel possible, because you won’t be scraping around for spare minutes and can instead dedicate chunks of time to bigger-picture goals.

Why feeling time-poor is wrecking your motivation (and how to fix it)