The Grasshopper And The Ants

My grandmother was a busy lady - or so she felt. In reality, as far as we could tell, the two things that would fill her day were walking Croc (her dog) and washing her hair. This isn’t a judgment, just a comment on how we fill time - the more time we have, the longer it takes to do something. Just as we take up more space and spend more money when we have it.

I remember during my one year in the military realizing there is always time for tasks. They kept piling on more things for us to do, yet after the initial griping - things would get done. Obviously there is a human limit and schedules sometimes genuinely conflict, but much like physical endurance, the ceiling for productivity is much higher than we generally believe. Occasionally we run into people who seem to get more shit done in a week than we do in a month…the only difference is that they take on more work understanding that there is always time…

Despite a busy start to my adulthood - I would say - generally things have remained pretty simple and uncluttered. Maybe even getting more so - perhaps I am not the best guy to be commenting on this. What I do know is that I know a lot of ‘busy’ people. Everyone seems to want to be unnecessarily busy…or at the very least appear so (even worse!)…and then bitch about it.

Fuck that.

I’ve managed to “free up” at least four hours of my life since moving into Walden. My rational being, that my days start earlier (a couple hours there) and my computer time is more deliberate; meaning I’m not burning hours on Netflix, Youtube or Reddit etc.

I understand money must be made and chores be done - I still do this (I still allocate a lot of time towards my job), however, I am productive not busy - the distinction being, there is always time to see my friends and do what I want to do. People conflate having free time with being lazy. Then use filler activities to feel productive - like TV or the internet (Canadians watch 20-30 hours of TV per week on average alone…)

If you are working yourself to exhaustion to maintain a lifestyle - perhaps it’s time to objectively reevaluate your lifestyle. A simpler life leads to more time. I don’t, not yet at least, need to mow the lawn, take the kids to soccer or rearrange furniture. So what exactly do I do with my time?

If you imagine that with all my free time, that I sit idly in my van staring at the steering wheel - remember what I said about my grandmother. I pretty much am doing what I’ve always done with fewer distractions - living deliberately with more time to do it. More meat, fewer potatoes.

The effect of this, leaves something exposed, unsatiated. It currently manifests itself as a desire to drive. At first, I felt living in a van was a ‘hammer in hand’ scenario…however, as my brother pointed out - it’s something internal. A desire to do fill my time - something I’ve felt for as long as I can remember. It’s not ‘boredom’, it’s the inability to slow the fuck down. Even with an uncluttered schedule, I satiated it with oversleeping and the internet.  The internet is particularly insidious. It’s filler wrapped in utility. The utility is the excuse, the filler is what you gorge upon.

Time > money.

A life free of distraction and manufactured busy-ness forces you to answer a very important question: What do you want to do with your time? What do you do with your time?


(Remember…read only blogs of the highest quality and entertainment value ;-) )

Went for a run then, ate supper and read until sunset.