Carving Out Time

Well, I’m glad that’s over with for another year. Are you?

It seems as though there’s never enough time to get everything done at the end of the year. Even when you don’t have a lot to do, and don’t participate fully in all the activities you could do.

Last year I read Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. The title is based on the idea that four thousand is about how many weeks there are in an average human lifespan. I did the math, that’s a shade under 77 years. Obviously lots of folks have more than 4000 weeks in their life, and many have much less. His point is, nobody can do everything they want/need/have to do. They just don’t have enough time. Not even with the most sophisticated time-management app. Everybody’s got to give up something, all the time. It comes down to, what is your priority?

And that brings up something that has been on my mind lately – why do people say they need to “carve out” some time to do something? Why not say “set aside”? Or “make time”? Or “save time”? To me, it sounds like carving out anything takes effort and maybe hard work. But if it’s something you want to do, why should that be so difficult?

But maybe that’s the point. It is difficult to set aside/make/save the time to do everything. So some stuff, you have to let it go. It just doesn’t get done.

Unfortunately, oftentimes what gets let go is the stuff that isn’t a “need to” or a “have to”. It’s the “want to”. It’s not critical to your health and well-being, you just want to do it.

Like taking the time to read for pleasure. Playing with your pet, not just doing the necessary day-to-day taking-care-of. Taking a nap.

And you know what? I would say that the “want tos” are critical to your health and well-being.

?But it’s hard. You don’t really have the time. So even though it’s hard, you do the work to “carve out” the time from your busy schedule.

And that, dear reader, is why we say we have to carve out time to do something. At least, that’s what I think.

Be sure to carve/find/make/save the time on January 8 to Clean Your Desk. National Clean Your Desk Day is the second Monday in January each year.

If you feel the need to multi-task while doing it, wear a pair of argyle socks in honor of Argyle Day, which is also on January 8. It honors the pattern that was inspired by the tartan, or plaid, of Clan Campbell, from Argyll in western Scotland.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next Tuesday.