What do you do when you have so much to do in so little time? What are some of the strategies you employ? Some things you make sure to have on hand? Coffee, energy drinks, comfortable clothes, noise-canceling headphones? Do you block out the outside world? Turn off your phone and plop yourself down in one spot until you’ve done all you needed for the day?

I have 10 days.

10 days to be as productive as possible. 10 days to do as much as I can.

But really, when you divide up all the time, it’s really so much less. Take out the time spent asleep, in the shower, etc. Those days are automatically slashed in half.

I only have 10 days. But it’s not really 10 days.

Some people need silence. Others need background noise. Some need both depending on what it is they’re trying to achieve.

I only have 10 days.

Earlier this week, upon logging into a streaming app to put on some visible “Muzak” in order to get work done, I saw a a white banner gracing my screen reading “EXPIRING IN 10 DAYS.” True, I can knock a bunch out while cooking for Shabbos and Yuntif, the idea that there’s an expiration date on my background noise is, for some reason, bothersome to me. I suddenly cared about plot lines and character development, worried about how I’d ever be able to feel a sense of closure if I didn’t get to the compete the series.

Then, I feel a tinge of horror as I realize that I don’t actually have 10 days to compete this mission. I can’t cross off a few episodes over Shabbos or Yom Kippur, so my available time to allot to this particular endeavor becomes even more limited. The pressure is on.

My Rosh Yeshiva would chide us that we should all commit to coming back and learning for a second full year of Torah study because there was so much time “wasted.” Not entirely frittered away, per se, but once you factor in Shabbosim, holidays when the schedule is off, and, coupled with the notion that serious learning only really sets in around Chanukah time, you’re barely left with a few months of intense dedication. The argument works well for some. For others, and many of the former’s parents, it’s not an argument that will be won.

But this is viewpoint that we don’t always realize at this time of year either. We make a mistake when we talk about the 10 days of repentance, the Aseres Yemei Teshuva. Rosh Hashana falls on the first two days of Tishrei and Yom Kippur is on the 10th. We think we have 10 full days between the two but it’s just not true. At times, when Rosh Hashana leads immediately into Shabbos, it can feel like we have even less time to complete our spiritual “to-do” list.

But the difference here is that we don’t only have 10 days to repent and reset. We have the entire year. Teshuva is not a process that we are to only think about or act upon solely during this time of the year. It’s incumbent upon us year round! Although that the calendar certainly puts us in more of a mood to seek forgiveness for our transgressions, the work we put in now doesn’t have to with such pressure. Because we can flex this teshuva muscle each and every day. We pray for teshuva three times daily in our Shemoneh Esrei.

There may be a lot to do, but there’s still time to accomplish so much.