Category Archives: Time

The real pleasures of life

February 19, 2015 6:26 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Cold and rainy days are perfect for trying out quiet and meditative pastimes. I mean there’s nothing wrong with a good healthy athletic activity.  Getting the blood circulating, moving, doing something that requires hard exertion is great too, but quiet meditative moments are meant to be appreciated too.

In the past, cold and rainy days meant just logging into some online game and trying to kill a couple of hours doing some game activity that I’d done a thousand times before.  “Level grinding” is what we would call it in online circles.  Just trying to accumulate more points to get to the next level by doing the same thing over and over again.  In many ways just like running on a thread mill and eventually just as monotonous.

But there are more satisfying and profitable ways to spend a cold dreary day.  Spending time with friends and just catching up is always good.  Doesn’t require any particular space and doesn’t have to be preplanned or special preparation.

Catching up on work.  Odd I know but I’ve caught myself actually enjoying spending time on weekends trying to get ahead or trying to catch up on those projects that would be “nice to do if I had the time” and lo and behold here we are.

Spending time alone at a tea or coffee-house and instead of going for your old reliable blend (ginger green in my case) exploring and trying some of the more exotic varieties or just sitting next to a window and watching the rain fall as you contemplate the tea leaves in your cup.

Letting a lazy afternoon drift past as you get lost in a good book and not realizing or caring how time has past until you can no longer read by natural light. Something that every person should do at least once in a lifetime.

Letting the muse strike and painting or composing a new song or writing a story or whatever creative activity that you enjoy take over your focus for an afternoon.

Point is that rather than doing the same old thing during this seeming waste of time, think of this as an opportunity for you to engage your more creative and intellectual instincts.

You may just find some hidden inspiration that you never knew existed.

 

 

Posted in: activities, life in general, thought, time

Trying too many things at once

January 20, 2015 6:25 AM , Leave a Comment ,

The year began with a flurry of activity on all fronts.  I wanted to make 2015 a better year than 2014 was.  I planned it out before the start of the year, I got things lined up, and was all set when January 1st rolled around.

But then a couple of things hit me by surprise and I had a rough start that got me all panicky. I’ve now settled down and am trying to make the plan work.

The main issue now is trying to get everything resorted and going again.  I went back and reviewed my goals for the year and came to a couple of realizations.  Firstly that it’s 18 pages long.  How did I get that complicated? So many goals and sub-goals and extended goals.  Looking at the totality of it all it seems daunting.

Secondly that although the plan is overly detailed in some ways that in other more important ways it’s totally not detailed at all. Things aren’t organized by priority or have specific dates or have specific goals or targets.  As a consequence I’ve been trying to do it all at once and I don’t think I’m utilizing my time to the best advantage.

With everything that’s happened already I feel like it should be February but I look at the calendar and it’s barely the middle of the month.  At the same time I feel that I am falling behind.  I am definitely having to review my goals more than last year.

But I think if I am going to make any progress at all that I have to step up and stress myself.  I don’t mean failure stress, that is to stress the system till it breaks down but definitely stress the system more.  Only in this way will I make any forward progress.

I have to remember that I have the whole year to get some of these things done and that things will get done.  Things are getting done.  I just have to be more patient.

Posted in: activities, goals, schedules, thought, time

these days

August 17, 2014 7:20 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I thought that you were supposed to take it easy as you got older.  It seems that I am busier than ever these days.  Where did I ever find the time to relax in the old days?

But relaxing is still vital to my life in general.  I’ve noticed how much worse my performance is if I have been pushing myself hard all week-long.  I get more apathetic and slouchy towards Thursday and by Friday I am “out of gas”.  Of course it’s on those days that someone calls up with half an hour till quitting time with some vital project or who needs answers “now”.

“que sera, sera” what will be, will be.  What a lovely attitude.  I wish I still had the luxury of embracing it but honestly if I let up for a moment, things immediately seem to totter on the edge of total collapse.  I don’t dare let up for a second, and that’s not me using hyperbole or trying to self-aggrandize my role in my life.  Believe me, I’ve tried to let up a couple of times this year and had near catastrophic results.

The little bit of free time at the end of the day and the free time I have on the weekends is golden and I must use it for all that it’s worth.  I may come off a little bit boastful on social media “I’m doing this, I’m doing that” but it’s really not.

Happy moments are far and few in between these days.  When you think about it, you have a choice whether or not to embrace the happy moments of your life. I have to grab and enjoy each and every one.  Unlike happy moments, sad moments are usually not optional.  They will impose themselves on you whether you want them to or not.

These days I have to make the most of what I have.

 

 

Posted in: activities, time

Time thieves and time sinks

January 9, 2014 7:21 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve written before about how important time is to me.

One of my relatives asked me this Christmas what I wanted and without a second thought I said “time”.  Don’t give me sweaters or boxes of chocolate, or whatever just give me more time to do what I need to do.

Of course no one can give us more time.  All we can do is organize what we have and use it as best as we can, exploiting it for all it’s worth.

My tablet computer updated some applications the other day and I noticed one of the updates was for a big time thief.  Oddly enough it’s a game about time management.  The game “plants vs zombies” is nothing more than a time management and decision-making game.  You have to organize your time as best as possible and use your resources wisely or else suffer the consequences.  Ironic as the game itself prevents people from organizing and using their time to the best of their abilities.

The thing is that even though it’s a simple-minded game and doesn’t take much effort it takes up time and you really can’t do anything else while playing it.  You can’t do work, you can’t think, you can’t read.  You’re stuck in a single activity and it’s not a particularly productive activity.

Some time sinks you can’t avoid.  Work, sleeping, exercise.  These are fixed in my life and I can’t avoid them.  These activities require some concentration and I can’t really multitask while doing them but I don’t really mind as they are beneficial to me in some other way.

But other time thieves I can avoid or sort in such a way that they don’t harm my everyday activities and long-term goals.

  • Social media.  I keep this minimized and off to the side as possible and I am also trying to reduce my time on it and use it sparingly in my off time.
  • Movies, play, sports events.  I don’t plan to cut these out but I am being much more selective as to which of these events I go to.
  • Books, art work, this blog.  Only on my off time and on scheduled times.
  • Games and television.  For the most part I am past these, especially television.  Games I still enjoy but I have less and less time for them.

Apart from this I am also evaluating all my daily activities to see which I can take advantage of and turn into multitasking opportunities.  Every second is going to count from now on.

Which reminds me I need to delete that little time thief off my tablet.

Posted in: habits, schedules, time