Next Practices

image from blog.madsweat.com

Here is what makes up my typical day:

• Work about 9-10 hours;
• Get in at least 15,000 steps (about 7.5 miles) as measured by my pedometer;
• Spend at least an hour in personal spiritual study and preparation for teaching Sunday School;
• Give the dog plenty of exercise;
• Clean up after the dog;
• Stay connected and up-to-date on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn during non-work hours for myself and for my company’s accounts;
• Spend about an hour blogging these daily lessons learned;
• Read multiple newsletters that come to my email inbox;
• Take part in occasional (not daily) activities with family and friends;
• Sleep maybe an average of five hours;
• And since I’m married… “other duties as assigned.”

That doesn’t leave a lot of free time to just relax.  It’s my own fault, of course, since most of those things above (except work) are voluntarily taken on.  If I stopped getting in steps, stopped blogging, stopped teaching and studying, disconnected from social media, stopped reading newsletters and nearly abandoned the dog, I would get about five hours a day back to do as I please.

I won’t give up any of those, of course.  I chose to take them on in the first place because I prefer the benefit of doing them to the alternative of “wasted” time.  Still, there is a danger of filling every hour with things that I think I ought to do without placing the much-needed item of occasional rest in that same category.  When the schedule fills up so much that not even the weekend affords down time, I finally wonder if I have committed to too much.

For now I’ll carry on with the commitments I’ve made, but I’m keeping my eye on it.  The first of the calendar year will be a natural time to adjust some of those to a better balance.  At least I put in this week for some vacation in mid-September to stay home, although I have a lot of reading and writing on my agenda for that week already.

While I’m not sure I’ve really learned this lesson yet, leap year lesson #219 is Don’t fill every hour of the day with activity.