I wish I could say my exploration of time had to do with time travel. It would be so cool to be able to go back in time to meet grandparents, see a sibling again, or just experience a great period of history. Going forward would also be fascinating. Would we have mastered flying cars, ended world hunger, or would we have done ourselves in by ignoring climate change?
My exploration of time has been a fascination lately on how long a minute actually is, or 10-minutes, or even the “loss” of time.
For the past week or so, I’ve become more mindful of how long something actually takes to do, how much can be done in a certain amount of time, or how getting into the flow of a project causes one to “lose” time.
For example, each morning, for our very spoiled dog, we warm up some bacon grease for her to have a little with her breakfast. When I do it, I set the microwave for 20 seconds. In that 20 seconds I can open a cabinet, get the peanut butter out, open the peanut butter, put some of it on the pill she must take each morning, give her the pill, close the peanut butter and get it back in the cabinet, close the door, and make it to open the microwave door on the first ding so it doesn’t wake anyone up.
I know it is a little weird to think about what can be accomplished in a certain amount of time, but since I started my break from the news, it feels like I’ve gained time back in my life. This is intriguing to me because I was doing things while watching, such as cooking dinner, baking, or even blogging. But recently, I’m feeling more productive in getting some projects and tasks completed that I wasn’t getting accomplished before.
The other fascination has been mainly with work related projects. We have to keep a daily log of what we are working on for our supervisor (and whomever else would like to see what we are tackling). Sometimes this log can be a little stressful because one task might take a long while to do, but someone looking at the project may not understand all of the thinking, experimenting, and revisions necessary to finish the task.
An example of this is a grant application I’ve been working on in Excel (the one I wrote about a couple of weeks ago). This application has taken a lot of time. I’ve had to dissect another application I used as the foundation. Think through what I want the application to be able to do in terms of automation, auto-populating data, and the feel for the end user, as well as for those reviewing the application. There has been much Googling to learn how to do certain formulas and protection of certain fields. And, of course, the testing of the application, both by myself and by team members. There are times I know when I started and when I glance at the time, I see I was in the flow because two hours had passed in the blink of an eye. This has been a common occurrence as well while I’ve been putting together helper documents/videos to assist the end user, as needed, to be able to complete the application as much in a format as to be accurate the first time through, thus saving time for everyone.
Not sure what the new fascination has been on my mind and reflections. But, I’m going to ride the wave until my over active brain latches on to the next fascination.
I invite you to join me in being more present and mindful about time and accomplishments, even if the accomplishment is relaxing, ever now and again. I’d be curious about your thoughts and experiences.
In the end, let’s enjoy whatever time we have left on this great planet. Enjoy it to the fullest!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 