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An extra hour a day

I listened to a podcast episode yesterday, How to spend time on what you value, that posed this question: if you had an extra hour each day, what would you do with it?

A million times, I’ve thought, “there aren’t enough hours in the day!” But if I were suddenly given more time, would I spend it in ways that actually brought fulfillment to my life? As they talked about in the show, many of us do find little pockets of time during the day, and we often fritter the minutes away on things we don’t really care about, leaving us feeling empty instead of full.

As I age, I think more and more about time and its finiteness. I think about time running out. With our kids growing up, and driving, and one of them already being out of the house, I’m also faced with a glut of time that used to be filled with my kids needing me: needing me to drive them places, to be at swim and soccer practices and meets, to grocery shop, to feed them. Now the days and years stretch before my husband and me with few obligations other than going to work. Sometimes the emptiness ahead of us is frightening. Nothing dictates how my time is used other than my own decisions about how to use it.

With limited time left in life, I want to spend whatever hours I do have on things that matter to me. After listening to that podcast, I made a list of things I’d do in that hour a day, activities that align with what I value — love, beauty, hope, humor. I know it’s shocking, but “scroll Twitter and Instagram” were not on the list (though sometimes those are good for a laugh).

Instead, my list includes write, read, photograph; walk, see live music, go to art museums, listen to podcasts and learn; play with kitties, go out for coffee, Boba, and food with people I love; garden, hike, people-watch, hang out with friends.

I don’t need to wait for a theoretical extra hour in each day to do these things. The time is already there, in little pockets during the week and in longer expanses on the weekend. The secret is to choose these options when time presents itself.

10 thoughts on “An extra hour a day”

  2. I love this and can so relate. I’ve been reflecting lately on my energy level, and how different it is when I do things I love with my time outside of work (paint, write, go for bike rides, cook) vs. scroll IG or binge watch TV. There’s a time and a place, but it’s interesting to me to feel how certain things that are meant to be relaxing are actually draining. Whereas activities that fill the soul are rejuvenating and replenishing.

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    1. Exactly! I’ve heard the two distinguished as passive leisure and active or engaged leisure, with engaged leisure being the more fulfilling and happiness-inducing option. We may think we want to veg out and binge Netflix or scroll on our phones, but when we do that, we often feel sluggish and dopey afterwards, whereas if we go for a walk or do some other activity that aligns with what we care about, we end up feeling refreshed.

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  5. I love this post!

    The extra hour thing reminds me of the idea from Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Workweek, where many people say “if only I was rich, I could do x.” He challenges you to actually identify and write down what those things are for you. Then, you see that they are actually achievable, even if you’re not rich.

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    1. Oh interesting! Yes, that definitely sounds the same. It’s weird how we trick ourselves and make excuses to not do the things we want to do, even when we have the means to do them. It’s so bizarre to me! The intro to Laurie Santos’s The Happiness Lab podcast even says something about how our minds trick us about what we think will make us happy, but I still don’t understand why.

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  6. I find that anymore, I’m not really lacking the time but the energy. I have a few hours each day that I have difficulty filling just because I’m completely wrung out after a combination of chores and work. I think I have trouble pacing myself instead of giving my full intensity to everything all of the time. Surprising – I know :p

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