Jun 24 2009
Free Time
How little free time I have these days – time when I’m free to do anything or nothing.
Which isn’t to say I’m not having any fun, that I’m not kicking back occasionally, it’s just that there is always something that I have to do.
We all seem to have this mental “To Do” list that never goes away.
There’s the Do Right Now List: fill up the gas tank, pack lunch for the kids, Yikes! Rent’s due!
Then there’s the Get To It Soon List: Change the oil, return a phone call, make a dentist’s appointment and mow the lawn.
There’s the Should Do This List: Write a will, plan for retirement, exercise, eat more vegetables, spend more time with the family, remove the clutter, and recycle.
The Nobody But Us Thinks We Should Do This List: Catalog Grandpa’s 38 years of newspaper clippings, return the library book that somehow was packed up when you moved out of state 3 years ago, restore your deceased aunt’s 1971 Pinto to its former glory.
The Why Is This Always On the List of Things To Do List: Taxes, organize the closet, clean the refrigerator.
There always seems to be something that we have to do. If we don’t have to do it now, we have to do it soon.
The thing with soon is that sooner or later, it becomes Now.
I hear so many people say that they need more time to “catch up.”
Why do so many of us feel slightly guilty or lazy for enjoying some Free Time?
Why do so many of us feel we have To Do something with our time?
Free Time is Free to do anything time – it’s all open, unplanned, I could do 15 things or nothing at all.
I could use a little more Free Time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
You’re back!
nice to see you were able to make some time to get back to this. free time is nice, but i agree, we let the “to do” lists intrude an awful lot into spending that free time doing what we want. I like to sit and read, and have been able to make a lot of time for that. (getting a ton of time for that now, but that’s another story that i’m hoping changes soon.)
and yes, i feel it is that we let those things intrude into doing what we want. i think people would be better off if they chose to do what they wanted rather than relenting to something they felt pressured into doing, be it from their family, friend, work, or social pressure.
ack: Yep, I managed to squeeze in some time to write! The freest time I have is when I feel like I can’t DO anything about my To Dos so I don’t worry about them! Going away …far away (South Africa!) has been the way for me to let all those To Dos go.
I agree about people being better off doing what they chose to do. I’ve been thinking quite a bit of how most of our To Dos are just self-inflicted! We need to change the car oil because we have a car. We have a car because we need to buy groceries and those groceries aren’t within walking distance because we choose to live in some planned community and on and on. I enjoy having a home and a car to get me around but it doesn’t prevent me from thinking about a simpler life.
I read somewhere how having too many choices can create stress for people. It’s true! We are given so many choices these days it’s overload. You’d think soy sauce would be simple. Nuh-uh. There’s dark, light, lite (low-salt), black and I can’t recall what-all different kinds. And I’m not even including the various brands of soy sauce.
Such a thing as free time still exists? I need to get myself more organised so that I can get free time to do things that are just for me or nothing at all. Reading through this post makes me want to get more organised. Thanks!!
What a great post for a return visit to your own blog. Yay!!!
I’ve had the liberty of a lot of free time these days. Of course, that free time is at a price to my pocket and the fact that extra funds aren’t coming in. But with those missing funds I do have more time to rest and do nothing. Although, I try to limit my laziness. Somehow I feel bad if I lay around when I could have been in the gym. Aside from that, I don’t feel bad at all.
I have a Nobody But Us Thinks We Should Do List but nothing on it is as interesting as restoring a 1971 Pinto to its former glory. For a while I was restoring a 1980 motorcycle to its former glory — then one day I pushed it into a corner and hardly looked at it … last summer I gave the motorcycle a guy I know to store in a corner of his garage. (Which is *sort of* like recycling if you think about it, AND reducing clutter. Both of those items are on you “Should Do” list. Assuming the Pinto has no sentimental value you could donate it, then, if you were to eat a salad while watching the guy from the Salvation Army tow the it off you could tick three things off your Should Do list.)
Gerri: Free time does seem to be scarce although I’d rather be busy working than…not! Thank you for stopping by.
UT: Hmm. Now you have me wondering at the reason for your free time! I’m glad you don’t feel bad except for not going to the gym. I also feel “guilty” if I don’t workout every day – I feel like I’ll turn to a marshmallow instantaneously or something! Yeesh!
delmer: You sound like you have plenty of lists out there but many inventive ways to cross items off of them!
You have been pretty busy. I was afraid your blog would be closed for good. Glad you can work in the occasional update.
Ricardo: It’s been rough not having time to write. I felt okay for a little while but I’ve been getting antsy. I even have a post in mind about creative outlets but …not enough time! I’m happy that I still want to write and have lots of ideas.
HEY! Ms. Q!!! You’re BACK!!!!!! I didn’t even know, because my subscription link broke awhile back and I never bothered to fix it since you weren’t posting anyway!!! I’m so happy! I thought about asking you to start posting again, but that just seemed too cult-like.
I have extra time because YAY! It’s summer vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still haven’t made those dentist appointments though…
I came over here looking for that post where you said you like had dinner twice with a friend and he said something along the lines of “you have no idea what’s happening do you?” and you found out you were on a date. I wanted to link it to a post I have done & (I figured out how to do this!) scheduled to post itself on Saturday.
Anyway, glad to see you.