The experimental "time audit"

“Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don’t rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what you’re doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out with Perry?

You’re cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but you’re stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today you wasted is gone forever. It’s now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you, but now you’ll never know.” -Jerry Spinelli-

 

So I've been doing a little experiment this week that I’ve dubbed a "time audit".  Basically I have kept track of every minute of my day to see where exactly I spend all my time.   I don't have all that much on my plate these days and yet I have a perpetual laundry list of things to do (including the laundry!), I never seem to get any of those things done, they pile up, I get tired, the list remains long and overwhelming.  I just don't seem to have the time.

Or do I???

This time-tracking experiment has been a bit of an eye opener.  Only took a couple days to see a pattern developing and its one that I'm not terribly proud of: I waste A LOT of time. I'm a procrastinator.  I'm lazy.  I lack focus. I sleep far more than the average person and I work far less than my bank account requires (the subject of another "audit" and a blog post for another day.)  I was already aware of some of these bad habits but the surprising part was how much time all those less-than-productive activities consume in a week!  And how little time I actually spend on the things that make me happier and healthier.

“Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.”- Benjamin Franklin -

In my younger days I worked a full-time job (plus OT when there were deadlines, which was pretty much all the time), took University night classes, played volleyball 2 or 3 nights a week (plus tournaments/parties on weekend), went on the occasional date, had a decent social life and for the most part, nothing was suffering too drastically.  Fast forward 20 years ... not so much ambition these days.   I'll save the pity party for another time because pity-parties are in the less-than-productive waste-of-time category ... the exact thing I am trying to banish.

“She worked her toes into the sand, feeling the tiny delicious pain of the friction of tiny chips of silicon against the tender flesh between her toes. That's life. It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very, very good.” - Orson Scott Card -

Ironically, on one if my aimless YouTube surfing sessions a few months ago, I came across this video about proficiency of a new skill in 20 hours rather than the oft quoted 10,000 hours to master it and just yesterday I watched this  one about language learning.  I am a bit of a learning junkie (luv the TED talks ... but they're a double edged sword for chronic procrastinators like me!) so the idea that I could become proficient at something in 20 hours is kind of novel and exciting ... but who has that kind of time???  Turns out that I have at least that much time!  Every week!  The time audit spreadsheet says so!

“We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.” - Maya Angelou -

One of my many "to-do" lists is my "Life's to-do list" (aka a bucket list) and one of the items on that list is to "become a polyglot".  I've always felt a bit sheepish that I am not fluent (or even conversant ... or even anything) in our other official language.  I've signed up for Spanish classes several times but the only phrase that stuck in my little brain was, "dos cerveza por favor!"  I took Arabic language classes when I lived in the UAE and although I spent far more than 20 hours (more like twice a week for an entire year!) I was barely an advanced beginner.  And despite my best intentions to continue on with my Arabic learning, its pretty much gone.  So when I saw this little gem at the library yesterday, I had a light bulb moment:

My next experiment: learn French.  And at the same time, channel all that time spent (wasted!) into something I can be proud of.  So je parle français in 20 hours or less? Mais non ... but its worth the time and effort to try!

 

“You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it.” - Robin Williams-

Footnote: I haven't yet decided what category blogging falls into yet :-( For now, I'm calling it "recreation".