Reclaiming Time

When I quit a regular job in 2008, taking out more time for myself was not one of the things I had planned on. It mostly happened as a result of, well, actually not having a lot to do at times. Eventually, I started travelling a bit, tried going for walks regularly, but it was still not something I had counted on doing long term. It was an interim thing, that is all.

I was recently looking a the list of things I wanted to do in life and it occurred to me that some of those things had been on the list for years now. I have not had as much free time as I have had in the past three-years. If I could not make even a minor dent on that list in that time, the problem really was elsewhere and it has everything to do with distractions.

It was not until I quit Facebook on a whim last year the realization of how much time I would waste on a daily basis. I would mindlessly click through albums, profiles and so many other things. Looking back, I can see the same pattern in almost everything else. I have done the same thing with people, problems and anything else as long as I did not have to really deal with my own things.

After Facebook I quit almost every other social network I have been on. I have not used Twitter in a week and often times I feel this is what rehab probably is like. The elusive fix is even harder to deny myself when what I am trying to work on is not easy. Sometimes it is immensely frustrating when I manage to do little of what I am supposed to do and I can’t get around to my fixes that would otherwise give me the feeling of having done a lot without having done anything of any significance.

The good part is that as a result of all these shenanigans I am slowly reclaiming time. I have not been proud of saying “I don’t have time” for a while now. I can no longer say that. Now it is a matter of making good use of the time that I have found. I’m still working on that one.