When You Don’t Have Enough Time – How I Block Time For Yoyu

Blocking Time for Yoyu

Our time is important to us. And we all know how lacking time can make us feel panicked and flustered. How can we look for ways to adjust and replenish our time reserves?

Let’s discuss how we can control our time while still managing other responsibilities so that we can cultivate more yoyu.


I heard Akira, my husband, coming down the hall as I savored the last sip of my morning coffee. He was up earlier than usual and already dressed when he came out into the living room. 

“What’s with the suit?” I asked.

“Faculty meeting.”

“Today?”

“Yep, I’ve got to be out of here by nine.”

Suddenly, my plans for the day had to change. His father, Otosan, had a doctor’s appointment at 11:30. Akira had obviously forgotten about it and now, I’d have to take him instead. 

I felt my whole body radiating anger. I exchanged a few unpleasant words with Akira before he left for the university a few minutes later. 


This might sound familiar to you. You’ve likely felt frustrated or taken for granted after a last-minute change or struggled to adjust your schedule.

Not having abundance or yoyu in terms of time is uncomfortable. At a very basic level, when you don’t have yoyu, you’re in some state of overwhelm.

What can we do when we feel we lack time?

Block Off Your Time

If you’re struggling to meet your time needs and show up for others, block off your time.

In my case, after my husband left for work, I tried to dissect our conversation. We had both assumed the other would accompany Otosan to his appointment. I had to come up with a new plan to prevent this kind of miscommunication in the future. 

The morning miscommunication with my husband made me realize we couldn’t share the responsibility of caring for his father. One of us needed to be in charge, and that’s when I became Otosan’s primary caregiver. 

Though I felt behind with my business and didn’t think I had enough time, by being in charge, I could make a plan.

This was my new plan – chunking my day into blocks of time for different purposes.

The early morning before breakfast would be my time – for reading, writing, and meditating. The hours after breakfast and before lunch would be for my business. The afternoon would be for visiting my mother-in-law, Okasan (which means mother in Japanese), and taking care of Otosan and his appointments. 

Your time blocks will look different. After looking at your average day, you may find chunks of time to focus on things while your family is away, without disrupting their routines. Identify what you value and when you can spend more time on it.

By deciding what parts of the day or what hours are for you, you can initiate changes that serve you well. 

Prioritize Yourself

If you’re struggling to figure out how to block the time, then start with yourself.

After the argument, I remembered a lesson from one of my animal spirit guides. A spider.

One night, she built her web in the window frame outside my bedroom window, and the meticulous way she attended to it was beautiful. It took time, but her web worked for her, and she rebuilt every night without fail.

If Spider took time daily to rebuild her web, I could, too. And I vowed to save the morning hours for me to tend to my own webs. 

What if you did the same?

Respect Your Time

After you choose your time blocks, be sure to respect them and allow them to take up space in your schedule.

You might struggle to adjust. Remember, all of this is to preserve your time blocks. Take your time.

For me, this meant I stopped taking on new clients unless they could meet in the morning. I was also careful to schedule personal appointments in the afternoon. 

Sometimes, there will be a last minute change. But we can still try to do what we can to set ourselves up for the day.

When we don’t have control over our time, we might feel like we don’t have yoyu. And when we’re already overwhelmed with responsibilities, we often take it out on the people we love most, including ourselves. 

However, when we can designate an amount of time for ourselves and honor it, even if it’s less time than we might’ve had before, we can replenish our time reserves.

Just knowing we have our own chunk of time goes a long way toward creating a feeling of yoyu. 

FAQs and Challenges

What is yoyu?

Yoyu is a Japanese concept often used to express whether we have enough of something. Whether it’s time, money, energy, or even emotional energy. If you’re not familiar with this concept, learn more about what yoyu is here

Or, if you want to know more about Japanese, I break down the meaning of yoyu and explore the two two characters or kanji that make up the word yoyu.

What if you feel guilty for blocking time for yourself?

If you’re struggling with blocking off your time because you feel guilty, remember it is okay to take time. Take what is yours and take what you need.

A few years ago, I worked with a client who struggled to find enough private time to work on creative projects. You can learn from her experience about taking time for yoyu here.

What if you have no consistent schedule or things change on a daily basis?

If your schedule changes or isn’t often consistent, a half-day of work one day and a quarter of work the next might not seem like enough. But if it were uninterrupted, it could be. 

We underestimate the power of small chunks of time to move our lives forward.

Subscribe to the Finding Yoyu Updates - and get a free chapter of my upcoming book. I usually send an email once a week with ways we might find or cultivate more yoyu.

Subscribe - Free Chapter

About the Author:

Hi! I’m Marci. I’ve lived in Japan for over 30 years, blending tech, language, and healing in my work. Through caregiving for my father-in-law with Alzheimer’s and supporting my husband’s cancer recovery, I discovered the importance of yoyu—having the time, energy, and emotional reserves to thrive. Now, I share these insights through writing, coaching, and creative projects. My upcoming memoir, Otosan, tells the story of those five transformative years. Let’s connect and create more yoyu in our lives!

marci.kobayashi.round.profile