Chap­ter II of “How to Live on Twen­ty-Four Hours a Day” intro­duces a dia­logue around the per­cep­tion of time and the uni­ver­sal desire to max­i­mize dai­ly liv­ing beyond the appar­ent con­straints of a 24-hour day. The author starts by pre­emp­tive­ly address­ing a poten­tial objec­tion: the claim of an indi­vid­ual who feels ade­quate­ly sat­is­fied with how they uti­lize their time. This char­ac­ter, depict­ed with a hint of sar­casm, is some­one who has appar­ent­ly mas­tered the art of liv­ing with­in the dai­ly tem­po­ral lim­it and still finds time for leisure and per­son­al pur­suits. The author express­es a long­ing to learn from such a per­son, acknowl­edg­ing their exis­tence yet not­ing the unfor­tu­nate real­i­ty of nev­er hav­ing met them.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, it delves into the com­mon sen­ti­ment of aspi­ra­tion and the per­sis­tent unease that accom­pa­nies the swift pas­sage of years. This rest­less­ness, described as a skele­ton at every feast of joy, is attrib­uted to an ongo­ing sense of expec­ta­tion, the con­tin­u­ous look­ing for­ward to future achieve­ments. It’s sug­gest­ed that this incli­na­tion towards per­pet­u­al striving—despite life’s obligations—is innate and varies in inten­si­ty among indi­vid­u­als.

Using the metaphor of a jour­ney to Mec­ca, the author illus­trates the dis­tinc­tion between unful­filled aspi­ra­tion and the tor­ment of stag­na­tion. The com­par­i­son con­veys that the attempt, the act of set­ting out towards a goal, holds intrin­sic val­ue, con­trast­ing sharply with the despair of those who nev­er embark on their pur­suit due to per­ceived time con­straints.

Towards the end of the chap­ter, there’s an explo­ration of the under­ly­ing cause of this uni­ver­sal rest­less­ness: a deeply root­ed desire to engage in endeav­ors beyond rou­tine oblig­a­tions, described as a call to some­thing “out­side their for­mal pro­gramme.” This ambi­tion is framed as a nat­ur­al part of human evo­lu­tion and a vari­ant of the eter­nal quest for knowl­edge. The chap­ter clos­es by posit­ing that gen­uine peace of the soul is attain­able only through efforts to sat­is­fy this pro­found and uni­ver­sal yearn­ing for advance­ment beyond one’s con­ven­tion­al duties.