Time flies

So, I'm more than 1/4 of the way through this challenge. I meant to make a big deal out of 25 posts, but time flies when you're having fun and I missed it.

Four weeks ago today, I just decided to extract the digit, get my skates on and Just Do It. I guess I'll celebrate that milestone instead.

There are varying ideas of how long you have to do something for it to become a habit. Some experts say two weeks. Others say a couple of months. From my own experience, the past couple of days are in the 'dangerous complacency' phase.

I've used up the emergency stash of short posts I had on hand for when inspiration failed. Haven't yet come up with more.

I no longer have the urgency to post as soon as I come home so I don't forget - I'm confident I won't forget. Over-confident, in fact: last night I was getting into bed when I remembered I hadn't posted!

Four weeks is a long time even though it's really no time at all. As a music teacher, I found dailyness could become the enemy. Familiarity does seem to breed contempt, at least it can turn something joyful and special into same-old same-old. You would think a positive experience would get richer with each iteration - and it can, if we let it.

Little rituals can keep us alive to what is happening each day. That's one of the ways the 100 days challenge is working for me. Because time flies fastest when we're not paying enough attention.

This is post 28 of 100 posts

Our dysfunctional relationship with time

The old saying goes, 'money is a good servant and a bad master'. The same concept applies to time. Do you master time, or does it master you? Isn't it annoying when someone fails to deliver on time? Aren't we sad when our loved ones are "too busy"? Quite different from when - regrettably, unavoidably, through not fault of our own - we are unable to deliver on time? Or have to tell a loved one that we are "too busy"?

Stating the obvious, everyone has the same amount of time in a day: 24 hours. That's 1,440 minutes, or 57,600 seconds. Every day of your life except (possibly) two, the day you're born and the day you die.

We blame time - there not enough of it, it's going too fast - rather than recognise the issue is us. Blaming time: the ultimate ego defence! We don't own our choices in time expenditure. Perhaps we don't want to acknowledge the painful double-edged truth of how much time we really have, and how little.

Our perversity about time encourages us to live in total denial about how long almost any human activity will take. We use best-case scenarios based on a fantasy that we will always be in peak condition. We come unstuck when faced with reality. We aren't machines, we don't work at the same pace throughout a day, let alone a life, and yet few of us have to the courage to admit this, and take action. Go on, admitting it is half the battle.

"I didn't have time to..." As excuses go, this is an all-time loser. Sorry, but if you're alive when making this excuse, you had time, you chose to use it elsewhere. When you fail to deliver please, please, please do not tell me you just 'didn't have time'. Instead, just say: "I didn't finish..." or just "I didn't do..." I suspect that the only one listening to our excuses is our feeling of guilt.

Ready for a challenge? Try this thought experiment. For a day (a week is better but so hard for us serial procrastinators) do not blame time. Time is a good servant, but a bad master.

This is post 18 of 100 posts in 100 days.

How much time do you need?

"I didn't have time to..."

We say it all the time.  I do myself, so I don't exclude myself from this.  My students say it whenever they haven't done their homework this week.

It's not really true though.  The fact of the matter is, platitude notwithstanding, we each get 24 hours in a day.

So it's not that we don't have time, it's that we choose to spend it on something else.

Some of our choices aren't exactly voluntary - I do realise your boss won't be happy if you "choose" not to go to work tomorrow in order to pursue your musical interests.  Ditto for your school teacher.

Still, how much time do you waste?  

I waste time a lot, but not as much as I used to.  I had a health scare last year, and it forced me to really look at where I put my time.  Along the lines of, "if this is all I have left, is this how I want to spend it???"

I spent a lot of my time being tired.  Tired, and too tired to do anything about it.  So I forced myself to slow down, and do one thing at a time.  More often than I used to, anyway.  I also learned to order take-away.

I spent a lot of time watching TV or DVDs, because I was too tired to amuse myself.  I still enjoy watching movies, but I don't just zombie out in front of the box.

I used that time to teach myself some new music.  I used that time to go for more walks.  I used that time to write, so I really notice what's going on around me.

When I try to "blob out" to relax with TV (or surfing the net ;0) I actually feel more tired, and less relaxed when I'm done.

When I practice my music, I feel less tired,  and more relaxed when I'm done.

So maybe you could choose to spend 5 minutes making some music today.

After all, how much time do you need to be happy?