Organic Mutant

I once heard (or read?) somewhere that our metaphor for time (e.g. ’spending’ time) is a somewhat false analogy, in that time is not something that we spend, for we cannot save it either. In fact, time passes whether we do something or nothing, whether we are moving fast or slow, if we are asleep or awake, having sex or doing dishes.

In my current crusade to lead a more satisfying life, I have taken a number of steps, all motivated at least in part by the notion that I was not using my time as effectively as could, or as I want to. Here’s a partial list of things I’ve done in the last month

• Canceled my cable
• Got rid of my TV
• Made a list of goals
• Bought a digital watch
• Put up a cork board / white board above my desk
• Committed to waking up when my alarm goes off
• Start work days at 8 (not 9)
• Made daily lists of Big Rock tasks

Predictably, my life has changed measurably since I first embarked upon this path. Most hugely, without the teevee as time sink, my evenings and weekends suddenly seemed longer. After weening myself, and suffering mildly disturbing withdrawal symptoms, I have since rehabilitated and the addiction is gone! I do not think to myself “Man, I wish I could watch ——– tonight.” The urge is purged. The benefits are huge. For example, this past Saturday was spent almost entirely out of the house, errand running, dog walking, park chilling, and in general enjoying my freedom. As it turned out, Saturday was NFL draft day and my beloved Oakland Raiders were picking first. In my teevee days, this would have formed the perfect recipe for stay-home-all-day-and-veg-out behavior. But no more. In fact, I did not even realize it was draft day. Victory!

Still, all is not perfect in Wellsville. As I noted previously, I remain concerned about wasting time, whether napping, reading, or surfing the interwebs. Ironically enough, thanks to one of my favorite time wasters, I came across this nifty new online time tracking tool, Toggl. While Toggl is actually meant to focus on billing time for users with billable hours, I set it up with a few personal categories, which I will use to keep track of the key varieties of my time online: reading, blogging, researching, and watching videos. Also, I have a couple of categories for work and projects that I am working on, as that stuff is important too. The notion here is that by keeping a record of the hours I log doing this or that, I will be aware of how my time is ’spent’ and then be able to make better judgments about my online activities.
None of these tactics is a silver bullet. But I feel that spending even a little bit of time reflecting on my own life, taking small steps to improve, soon ads up to tangible difference. Simple. And I do have aspirations for much greater achievement. But this is the beginning. And just being more aware of my activities has helped me use my time in more satisfying ways. Let’s see if Toggl keeps moving that bar higher.