Thursday, June 18, 2009

All the time in the world...

Chicago put it best.

Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?

But we do care. We are kind of forced to care. If we don't manage our time, we can't do the things we want to do.

But what about the things you MUST do. You know, the things that must be done, whether you want to or not? Like sleep, for example. Sure, you can shave a little off the ends, but the more sleep you lose, the less productive the rest of your time it, so there is no savings. Or what about a job? You have to earn money or you can kiss leisure time goodbye. All of your time would be "free", but none of it would be doing what you want.

Lately, I've been in sort of a black hole, right on that event horizon, where time stops. Or at least my time seems to stop while everything else hurtles past. I can't get anything done, because every project I'm working on never ends. The basement is never finished. The house is never clean. The lawn never mowed. The kids never satisfied.

I need more time.

I've heard you can buy the stuff, but I have no budget to speak of for such an expensive commodity. You can trade for it. But that doesn't solve the problem. For example, I could get more sleep in exchange for my early morning racquetball league. I could trade in my church calling for more family time. I could have a ton more time for mountain biking, canyoneering, and writing my book if I quit my job. But like I said. That doesn't solve the problem.

I want more time, period. Not just more time for one of my priorities over another. I've spent the last few years whittling down my priority list to the bare essentials in order to accommodate the increasing demands on my time due to the increasing size of my family. Priorities aren't the problem. I have those arranged the way I want them (religion, family, health, etc.) and I devote an appropriate portion of my time to each.

No, what I need is just like I said...more time. Or do I? What time is it? Oh yeah, nobody really cares. Where was I?

More time, more time, let's see. Time machines probably won't be invented in my lifetime. The eternal youth gene isn't a likely bet.

I got it. Maybe I can just "pretend" each minute I have is spent doing exactly what I want to do with it. Then at least, it would "seem" like I had more time to do what I want. Example, I'm not wasting my time blogging just now. I'm writing because that is exactly what I want to do at the moment. You are merely reading the fruits of my pasttime.

Thank goodness for my active imagination. Bye everybody, I'm going to go pretend I really want to get back to work. Maybe I can even pretend I'm doing that work on a beach in the tropics.