“Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” ⏤Benjamin Franklin

Companies housed in large buildings in large cities can hire architects to calculate how many square feet of space they “lose” to all of their hollow infrastructure⏤their vents, pipes, and ducts⏤and then petition for a zoning variance to add square feet to make up for this lost space. That’s a very interesting, ingenious, and clever way to get around building restrictions and zoning ordinances that restrict the physical size of structures in crowded cities. All of that space lost to hollow ducts and pipes is a lot like the little fragments of time lost to the flow of a hectic life: The fifteen minutes here and half hour there that just come and go, day after day, without much thought. 

They say that time moves in only one direction (forward), and for all we know, this may be true (doubtful). While it is true that there are only so many hours in the day, much of that time floats by completely unnoticed and potentially available to be used in creative ways. The idea here is not just to “hack your life” for better time management or efficiency but to look at your time as a valuable asset that you don’t want to waste. This is simply getting every drop of peanut butter from the jar of Time.

Time Reimagined

Reimagining time is simply asking yourself if you still want to use your time the way you are currently using it. If you sleep in every day, would you rather reimagine that time by getting up early to write? If you go to bed in the early evening, would you rather reimagine that time by staying up later and practicing guitar? Do you want to switch your TV and movie time for time with friends or for learning something new? Probably one of the easiest pockets of time to reimagine is the lunch break. If you have a half hour (or an hour) lunch break five days a week that you currently use for eating, consider eating at your desk while working and then using that time for walking (or some other personal goal) instead. That’s 2.5 (or 5) hours of time a week, or 130 (or 260) hours of time a year⏤not an insignificant amount of time!

Double Time

Doubling time is looking at where time can be stacked without lessening the pleasure you receive from that time. A wonderful example is walking to work. You have to go to work anyway, and you likely have the desire⏤but not the time⏤to exercise, so combining the two is a fantastic way to double your time. Another example is to listen to educational or inspirational podcasts while driving or, counterintuitively, to use driving time for complete silence. Silence is a gift many people forget to give themselves.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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