by beermat » Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:38 am
by beermat
Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:38 am
I'm with Dirty on this one. I have a lot of friends who often say to me 'how do you find the time to do X....', and I turn it around on them with 'how do you NOT find the time?' These are people in the same position as me and the same draws on their time - job, commute, no kids - and, given I work longer hours than them, again, how can they NOT be finding time?
It's all a question of what you want to do with your time. Many of my friends just veg out on their commutes, sleep, stare out the window, etc. I read books, ROBOT magazine, ponder about spinning saw blades, etc., doing the thinking 'up front' about what needs to be done, and so on. I already got 90 minutes a day on them. Then when I hear them mention the TV shows they have on TiVO they have to catch up on with a resigned sigh, then I see that they have been taken over with the idea of continuing to watch a show because, well, they've always watched it, but its now a chore to be done rather than a fulfilling experience. People have a hard time cutting a TV show loose because, well, then they can't 'waste' a further hour of their day talking to friends about the latest episiode
And when you factor in a US TV show that lasts an hour has only 35 minutes of content and 25 minutes of commercials, even more 'waste'......
Just those two things give me hours a week on my friends, time to do something productive on a hobby. It doesn't take many hours a week to achieve quite a lot, but in those water cooler coversations about how American Idol is down to the same 32 lookalikes from last year and I throw in 'oh, BTW, my robot owned my Dalek last night', out comes the 'where do you find the time?'.
Don't get me wrong; some people need to switch off on commutes or watch TV shows such as American Idol to wind down and get some non-interactive, none brain stressing, one-way entertainment, and that's fine for them and I respect them for that choice. I have even fallen into the trap of not cutting off a TV show myself - I'm watching the Sopranos until the bitter end, even though it's been poor for two seasons now!!
So, have a think about things you do yourself before you ask someone 'how do you find the time'....for instance, do you fall into the YouTube or MetaCafe hole - you follow a link to a video a friend wants you to see, and you see other (related) video thumbnails on that site and you watch them too, and that has more related links and before you know it, you've spent 30 seconds watching DirtyRobotos Sonar moves and another 60 minutes watching crap 15 second videos of dubious quality and limited entertainment
So, I guess the question is, are you a 'busy' person by disposition, and jealous of people who appear to have the time? If so, have a long hard honest look at what you do in a day, because there just might be some waste!
I'm with Dirty on this one. I have a lot of friends who often say to me 'how do you find the time to do X....', and I turn it around on them with 'how do you NOT find the time?' These are people in the same position as me and the same draws on their time - job, commute, no kids - and, given I work longer hours than them, again, how can they NOT be finding time?
It's all a question of what you want to do with your time. Many of my friends just veg out on their commutes, sleep, stare out the window, etc. I read books, ROBOT magazine, ponder about spinning saw blades, etc., doing the thinking 'up front' about what needs to be done, and so on. I already got 90 minutes a day on them. Then when I hear them mention the TV shows they have on TiVO they have to catch up on with a resigned sigh, then I see that they have been taken over with the idea of continuing to watch a show because, well, they've always watched it, but its now a chore to be done rather than a fulfilling experience. People have a hard time cutting a TV show loose because, well, then they can't 'waste' a further hour of their day talking to friends about the latest episiode
And when you factor in a US TV show that lasts an hour has only 35 minutes of content and 25 minutes of commercials, even more 'waste'......
Just those two things give me hours a week on my friends, time to do something productive on a hobby. It doesn't take many hours a week to achieve quite a lot, but in those water cooler coversations about how American Idol is down to the same 32 lookalikes from last year and I throw in 'oh, BTW, my robot owned my Dalek last night', out comes the 'where do you find the time?'.
Don't get me wrong; some people need to switch off on commutes or watch TV shows such as American Idol to wind down and get some non-interactive, none brain stressing, one-way entertainment, and that's fine for them and I respect them for that choice. I have even fallen into the trap of not cutting off a TV show myself - I'm watching the Sopranos until the bitter end, even though it's been poor for two seasons now!!
So, have a think about things you do yourself before you ask someone 'how do you find the time'....for instance, do you fall into the YouTube or MetaCafe hole - you follow a link to a video a friend wants you to see, and you see other (related) video thumbnails on that site and you watch them too, and that has more related links and before you know it, you've spent 30 seconds watching DirtyRobotos Sonar moves and another 60 minutes watching crap 15 second videos of dubious quality and limited entertainment
So, I guess the question is, are you a 'busy' person by disposition, and jealous of people who appear to have the time? If so, have a long hard honest look at what you do in a day, because there just might be some waste!