Time

I listened to a really interesting Ted Talk this morning while I was doing the ironing about how we use and define time.  You can find it here Ted Talk.   What was really interesting about this particular talk was that the main idea was that we have plenty of time all of us no matter what we do for a living or what our family commitments are.  What saps our time as we see it is that we feel we are busy with things we don't enjoy or that we feel are not of our choosing.

The point of this talk was that we always choose how we spend our time, our jobs, families and our hobbies were all the result of choices we made and we can choose to make different choices.  So this was a very different approach to looking at time rather than trying to save minutes here and there.  I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to save minutes but if you choose to cut an activity you can possibly save hours. 

This was really interesting to me because there have been many times when certain  people have repeatedly said they were too busy to make plans or whatever, while I on the other hand have said yes even when over stretched or sometimes even feeling unwell.  So yes we can all choose what we commit our time to or not.  If you are really unhappy with your career maybe it is time to move on, if you hate your keep fit class don't go! Choose a different activity, switch off the T.V, stop whatever you don't enjoy.

A lot of what we do is just habit and the sad thing is we don't always make a habit of the things we love but only the mundane.  I have been reading lots of posts by bloggers who are taking up running, swimming or retraining, I have a colleague who has just joined a gym so she can do all the different classes.  Choosing to make time for these activities will determine whether or not they become  habit.

The reason I watched this particular Ted Talk today was as a result of a little habit I have set myself that combines a dull activity with one I enjoy. So far this year I have stuck with the habit of ironing on a Sunday morning. Rather than this being a chore it has become a slot of time that I enjoy because I place my tablet on the side with my little speaker, select a theme and listen to Ted Talks on that particular subject.  I am hearing new ideas every week and it feels like a good use of my time, I know a lot of people who say they never iron but I cannot get this concept, I have a husband who wears shirts and now a working son, plus many of my clothes do not come out the wash wrinkle free so how??  I might also add I don't use a tumble dryer as they waste energy, wear clothes out  and so on.

One habit I have decided to try for thirty days is to take a picture each day, this idea also came from a talk and it will be just point the camera and shoot.  So I apologise in advance for blurred, out of focus pictures I am just going to go with it for a month then decide after that amount of time if I want to spend more time improving .

Here is todays picture, dark all day with flurries of light snow.