There are a lot of different ways that you can gain an “extra hour” in your life to use any way you want.
- A meeting at work gets cancelled.
- The traffic to or from work is randomly gone.
- Your favorite show on TV is a re-run.
- Daylight Savings Time
The list goes on, but the more importantly, what you do when you gain an extra hour?
Do you waste this extra time in your day by filling it with a meaningless chore, surfing the web mindlessly, or sleeping it away?
Or, do you use the extra time to work towards your undying, ever-present goals for your life?
Do Something With It
Instead of wasting the extra hours of the day that you get to spend doing what you want to do instead of doing what you have to do, work towards accomplishing the next big goal for Y-O-U.
- Train for a Half-Ironman like Joel Runyon
- Learn to be Expert Enough in a New Skill
- Start a Movement
- Practice Parallel Parking
Whatever you choose to do, crush it. Even if what you choose to do is take a nap, snore the crap out of that nap. Then wake up fully rejuvenated to finish the day strong.
So, what do you do when you get an extra hour in your day? Do you use it to be productive or do you waste it?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Depends on the day
Sometimes, finding that extra hour is the only time I have for “me time”, so I’m just as likely to kick back on the couch with a beer and a book as I am to crank out some extra work on a pressing project. I probably should be using the hours for more productive purposes, but you better believe I’m enjoying the hell out of that book and beer when I choose to go that route!
Also - meant to say congrats on the new site design! Looking pretty snazzy
And thanks! It was time to make my site look how I’ve wanted it to.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with taking that extra hour to just catch your breath sometimes. Consciously using your time is the key.
I def need to improve on this. One of the things I try to do is have a list of small tasks that I can take care of when I have small blocks of time. That way, if I unexpectedly have an hour of free time, I can at least pay bills or take care of something else and don’t have to waste my productive time later on these small tasks.
That’s a good idea. I always have my to do list on me now b/c I use the reminders app on my iPhone. Or I’ll spend some time reading articles I’ve saved for later on my reading list within Safari.
This time I thoroughly disagree with you. An extra hour is a luxury, therefore can and should be wasted on completely unproductive things. Sleeping it away is great, since we usually don’t get enough sleep, but doing something for the fun of it is even better.
What’s so bad about doing what you want to do when you have this wonderful gift of one free hour? You have all the other hours for what you have to do. Extra time is a gift, let’s enjoy it as such. And I’m not talking about practising parallel parking!
If you need the extra hour to recover or rest than by all means I think you should take a break.
On the other hand I think that we (myself included) often waste that “extra” time and then complain we don’t have enough time to get everything done that we want to accomplish.
Just read the parallel parking article, I thought your suggestion was absurd, but apparently many men simply don’t know how to park this way?! I feel like a very good driver all of a sudden.
Personally, I am bad at parallel parking and could use a good hour of practice.
A great post. I have a list of important but not urgent things to do when free time opens up. Some are active and some are more about relaxing, but it’s making use of the time with a purpose. Thanks