This expression is used often by people with extremely busy schedules, which don't allow them adequate time to accomplish everything they need to. Not to be confused with people who have poor time management skills, who generally prefer to complain about the harshness of their schedules, and not the nature of time.

I've become the person who wants more hours in a day. Not many, just two or three would make a big difference. I could get all my school reading done before having to go to work at night. I might even have time for trivial things like dinner, laundry, and perhaps even noding every once in a while. How glorious that would be.

I don't like to be a complainer. I should probably just invest in some speed, and see if I can go until Christmas without sleeping. I really do love school, and I have a wicked job at a bookstore, but the time is short, and the pressure will only increase. To what end? I shudder to think.

The horrible truth is that if there were more hours in the day, people would use them to think up more things for others to do -- or else they'd just expect us to do more of the same stuff in the extra hours we'd have.

Therefore, it doesn't matter. Just as your mp3 collection will always expand to fill your hard disk, that which is required of you will always expand to fill your day. The size of the container determines the size of the contents.

There is no hope.

A few years ago, a computer game by the name of Crusader: No Remorse was fairly popular. One of the things that attracted me to it was its story line. The entire world was run by one large multinational corporation, which supplied the consumers, ran all industries, was the government, and employed the entire populace of the Earth, and the Moon. Its opposition was a handful of rebels.

One of the best parts of the game was the story line. The citizens depicted within the game were drones. 16-18 hour work shifts. 92% income tax rate. These people didn't know any better, they just lived as they were. They were raised believing that the human body only needs 4 hours of sleep per night, and that 16-hour shifts was the amount of time for work that yields maximum productivity.

If we increased the amount of hours in the day, what would happen? We'd just die quicker.

We'd be working longer hours. If there were 36 hours in a day, you wouldn't sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, and have "free time" for the remaining 20 hours. It'd be proportional to what it is now. In fact, since you now should have 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep, that could be seen as grounds for working longer shifts. The 16-hour shifts as seen in Crusader would become a reality. The long-term effects of working oneself out in such a manner are evident: more stress, which leads to chronic illnesses, which leads to shorter life spans.

More hours in a day wouldn't give you more free time. You'd probably get the same amount of free time, work yourself harder, and die quicker.

I know that when people complain that "there are not enough hours in the day", it is usually only semi-serious. But to ask that the Earth and the Sun change their cycles to accomodate your business demands, your education, your children's extracurricular activities -- is the height of small-mindedness and arrogance. Night and day are as they are, always have been, and always will be*; discontent with them is a sign of a distorted view of reality.

*Okay, the sticklers will chime in here to tell me that the day is lengthening over time due to tidal friction with the moon. But this amounts to all of 1 second every 50,000 years, small enough to safely be ignored as far as human civilization is concerned.

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