Reflections on spending time

What would you do if you had an abundance of time?  I know; it’s a ridiculous question.  Since when will any of us have more time on our hands than we know what to do with?  Time has always been the most elusive and valuable asset for me.  No matter how much I tried to organize, I would always come up short on time.  I was famously known, or maybe infamously known, by my friends and family for double booking my schedule.  I somehow thought that if I tried hard enough, time would magically be created and I could “fit it all in.”  It never worked out that way.  As William Penn once said, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

When we moved from Massachusetts to Alabama, we were pretty busy the first few months setting up the house, spending time with Emmett’s daughters, seeing/meeting Emmett’s old friends, visiting with family, finding furniture, best places to shop, exploring the area, working part time jobs, interviewing for full-time jobs and the usual household chores.  Our days were filled up quickly.  I was not as busy as I had once been, but I was still fairly active on a daily basis.

Now, the house is (for the most part) set up.  All our boxes are unpacked and pictures hung.  We have most of the furniture we need and the major repairs have been made.  We have Kiera (Emmett’s oldest daughter) living with us full time and Kylie (the younger daughter) visits on a regular basis.  We have established Sunday cookouts so that family and friends can catch up with us as they like.  Emmett has found a full-time job as a GM for Baumhower’s (an Alabama restaurant chain) and is currently in full-time training so that he can take over his own store.  My work schedule is only a handful of hours a week.

So, I find myself with the long-desired abundance of time.  Let me tell you there is only so much Face Booking one can do without feeling like a creeper.  I check my Yahoo inbox about 20 times a day.  I go on job sites – rereading the same postings time and time again.  My house is cleaner than I had ever thought possible (though honestly it will never be impeccable – that’s just not me).  I have planted a garden; learned to use a weed whacker (or is it a weed eater?  I suppose there’s a difference but I don’t really know what it is).   I have even organized my bills and created a system for saving our receipts; things I had always said I would do.  I’m eyeballing my photo albums now.  There truly will be too much time (if that is possible!) if ever I get to that looming project.

I’ve never had this much availability.  Not that I’m complaining (or bragging) mind you.  It is the circumstances of moving from one state to another and setting up a whole new life, which has created all of this free time. Think about it.  If you were to remove your full time job and 90% of your social/family obligations, wouldn’t you have an abundance of time?

If you had free time how would you spend it?  Would you be creative and do things like paint or write?  Would you be practical and reorganize your bills?  Would you be motivated and finally take that time to exercise and get fit? Would you dip into that pile of unread books beside your bed? The great thing is that you would have time to think of things to do with your time!

Over the last few years, due to the sluggish economy, many people have found themselves laid off from work, thus creating a time void that work once filled.  I am sure they are not all sitting around watching TV and eating bonbons.   I am hopeful that many of these people are using this new found abundance of time to become entrepreneurial and finally make their dreams a reality.  History shows that during times of economic hardship people become creative.  The Great Depression saw the inventions of the electric razor, the car radio, the supermarket, the cotton tampon, the chocolate chip cookie (invented at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts!), the Laundromat (or the washateria, as it was originally known), Monopoly and the first Xerox copier.  It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.  I would like to add that father time is the other parent of invention.  Personally, I can’t wait to see what inventions are born from this combo.

What I’ve learned about time is that you will always make time for the things that are truly important to you.  If you spend your time watching TV and eating bonbons then, then that is your choice.  If that is what gives you pleasure, who am I to judge?  If you get out there and light the world on fire with your innovations, then good for you. As for me and how I spend my time, I have a blog to write, a family to look after, a career to reinvent, friendships to maintain and adventures to begin.  That is what is important to me.

I leave you with the words of the great innovator Steve Jobs who once said this about time:  “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions draw out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.”