time is on my side
I would like to solicit your ideas and feedback regarding a newly acquired surplus of time. This week, I changed locations for my place of employment. Details aside, my total daily commute went from about 90 minutes to 20 minutes. That’s 70 extra minutes! I did some rough calculating, subtracted weekends, holidays, vacation days, average sick days, and came up with a number for the additional time I will have this year. I just gained 11 days, 17 hours, 10 minutes, and 12 seconds!
I must now decide how I will spend this wealth of moments. A friend of mine asked, “Why do you even need to decide? You can just sleep more.” This is exactly my point in being intentional with this specific amount of time. I could just sleep more. I could just watch 2 additional re-runs of The Simpsons daily. I could just take time for granted. I don’t want to do any of these things….but I will. Unless, I make some plans and steward this time with care. That’s where I would like your help.
I wrote down some ideas. I want you to tell me your favorite (or least favorite) ideas, expand on them, and offer others that I haven’t imagined. All thoughts are appreciated! Here’s my initial list of potential doings in no particular order:
- Pay it forward. Give my wife extra time for herself.
- Make loads of rubber band bracelets with my daughter.
- Watch only 1 re-run of The Simpsons.
- Edit and chop the Star Wars prequels down to one 50 minute film, and call it episode 5 ½ . To be viewed as a flash back at the end of TESB and before ROTJ. Read this for further explanation.
- Exercise a bunch and get super ripped!
- Sleep.
- Learn some sweet cover songs on the guitar and play them at open mic nights. Any song suggestions?
- Make silly movies with my son. Like this, this, and this.
- Read those classic works of literature that all my smart friends talk about.
- Become a regular at a coffee shop.
- Start drinking coffee regularly.
- Join my neighborhood council.
- Buy a fixer-upper 70’s Camaro and put it my garage.
- Learn how to work on old cars.
- Grow a huge tomato garden, and give all my friends and family awesome tomato sauce.
- Invent a diet fad and license the publishing rights.
- ?????
So many great options! How will you choose?! Personally I would go with growing tomatoes and reading. In fact, that is exactly what I will be doing with my extra time. Here’s the reason: growing tomatoes gives you time to enjoy being with your family and something to give to your friends; reading gives you time to be alone and reflect. Great balance! If I could sing I would also want to do the cover song thing.