On time

Time moves quickly. Sometimes.

But

sometimes it moves

incredibly

slowly.

The funny thing about time is that it can change speed while you aren’t looking, flying by before you know it, disappearing into the past.

There’s a riddle floating around that asks: What is always coming but never arrives?

Tomorrow

The time will pass either way, and we all have things to do, reasons to put things off until tomorrow. Using the logic of the riddle above though, that means we’ll just never get those things done - tomorrow is a day you’ll never, ever get to experience.

I’ll bend the riddle to make the point: What keeps needing to be done but never gets done?

Everything you put off until tomorrow.

This post is venturing into hustle culture - please forgive me. Ignore me if you like. Stop reading if you really want to. In fact, why not just be the best you can be, close this and do one of those things you’re putting off until tomor-

Hello again.

You’re still here aren’t you.

I guess the riddle was right then? Here are some incomplete thoughts about time and hustle culture:

24 hours

A lot of well-meaning people have said ‘we all have the same 24 hours in a day’. While it’s factually true, (unless you’re on a plane and crossing time zones?), it’s not a helpful thing to tell someone. It implies that everybody has the same routines and responsibilities in a day, which is definitely not accurate. If I work from home, I save the time that is used to travel to work when I have to be there. I don’t even have the same 24 hours in a day as myself, based on what’s happening that day. Although I suppose that it’s about the 24 hours part, not how those 24 hours are spent. It would be a fair thing to say if everybody had the same opportunities, responsibilities, income, safe housing, water, food, lifestyle, etc. etc. Only then would we be able to see how people responded to having ‘the same 24 hours in a day’. For the time being - it’s not all that helpful.

3 buckets

I remember reading a book, part of which said something to the effect of; ‘your day has 3 buckets of 8 hours. 8 hours for work, 8 hours for your own things, and 8 hours topping and tailing the day with sleep.’ (The author didn’t use those exact words, but you get the point.)

8 + 8 + 8 = 24. The question that they asked was ‘what do you do in those 8 hours that aren’t work or sleep?’ They then went on to say that if you sleep or work less than 8 hours, then the third ‘free time’ bucket grows bigger. Who doesn’t like a bigger bucket? (Note: we don’t all have the same 3 buckets in a day).

Obviously sleep is very important, so I’m not going to tell you to sleep less to get a bigger bucket. I’m not going to tell you to do anything - what you do is not my responsibility. I don’t have the time for that.

The 3 buckets view is a slightly less patronising way of thinking about time in a day, however be warned:

Warning

I’m sure I’ll write more about this in the future, (haha - there’s a little inside joke for anyone who got this far), but you should be careful if you are examining your days like this all the time. You don’t have to be a Super Productive Human Being™️. You don’t have to listen to someone just because they have a big following online and have a podcast and have written a book telling you how to be the best, most Super Productive Human Being™️ in the world.

I’m not going to tell you what to do - I genuinely don’t know what’s best for you! I try to do what feels right for me. I should be climbing into my sleep bucket now, but I’m doing something I really enjoy instead (writing this). If you are looking for some nice quotable advice at the end of this ramble I’ll write some off the top of my head, and you can ignore them or hold onto them for a while then ignore them. We all have the same 24 platitude buckets in the day, after all.

Spend more time with the people who make you happy.

Spend more time doing the things that you enjoy.

Don’t hurt yourself or anyone else.

Brush your teeth twice a day.

Drink plenty of water.

Don’t over-water your houseplants.

Get fresh air and move your body a bit.

Pay attention to what you are consuming and whether you are enjoying it or not.

Recognise when something is an advert pretending to be something else.

Buy my new guide to being the Best Super Productive Human Being EVER™️.

Subscribe to my podcast on Apple™️ and Spotify™️.

Smash that Like Button™️.

Sign up for a new mattress with a hundred day trial.

Hot singles in your area.

etc. etc.