There is a running joke (no, I have not caught it yet) about how being an adult is basically being tired all the time. Obviously when it comes to raising children and working hectic jobs, it’s unavoidable. But it seems there may be many of us that do not need to be so tired. Sure, there is the necessity of finding an appropriate sleep schedule and eating right, but that’s only part of the equation for battling tiredness.

How do we combat it?

Recently I made a startling discovery: through conflicting schedules I had started to fall behind on some of my homework schedules. But on Thursday I found myself with a little extra time, and hammered away at all the little tasks to put me back on schedule. I had just a few more minor tasks left for the following day, and then everything would be wrapped up. It seemed like everything would turn out simple, right?

That next day, I suddenly felt a lingering sense of being overwhelmed that I should have felt day before on the busy Thursday. I double and triple-checked my to-do list, and could not figure out what I could be forgetting. Then it dawned on me: Because of the sheer amount done, and the effort put into making sure there was a large shrinkage on my list, I had both mentally worn myself out, as well as programmed my subconsciousness to think that I would have a comparable amount of work to do Friday as I had done Thursday. This realization came when the last Friday task was complete. Though I had only three remaining tasks for that day, and they would not be all that hard, my mind translated it otherwise.

Essentially what this all funnels down to is that people in modern society are doing too much. Everyone who tells me about their tiring day share the simple connection of how big a list of things they knocked out. Thanks to modern convenience, we can be washing dishes, washing clothes, cooking, watching a show, and cleaning the kitchen, all at the same time; all thanks to modern technology! Because getting things done usually requires effort, our minds may be telling our bodies that they should be tired after accomplishing so many things, even when the effort was minimal. Essentially our subconsciousness is trying to think about everything we are getting done, even if it is done automatically in a clothes dryer or dishwasher; and because the human mind cannot easily multitask, it starts to wear us down faster. Just because we can do so much at once does not mean we should.

Perhaps camping the simple way once in a while will help.