Sunday 18 May 2014

Sunday Sundries: But Seriously, Where Does The Time Go?

This isn't going to be one of those 'OMG, it's the middle of May ALREADY?' kind of posts, because I think we've all seen enough of them to last a lifetime. Having said that, I had an actual 'how is it the 16th May already?' moment on Friday because wasn't my birthday about a week ago? No, it was not.

Here are some life things that are happening at the moment- I worked extra hours this last week because work is really busy and I'm a sucker and, more importantly, a poor sucker. In my non-working hours, from Thursday, I've been going to the hospital to see my dad who has an infection (which he gets a lot, so it's not a crazy huge deal, but it's still stressful and it was the first time I'd been back to the hospital since my nan died there, which was difficult) and, you know, trying to keep running and do useful things.

This isn't really a post about that, either. I know where this past week has gone (Work. Hospital. Work. Hospital.) but I really don't know where the 5 and a half weeks since my birthday have gone, passed in a blur where, somehow, I haven't even found the time to watch Breaking Bad, or really anything of anything. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and I like the fact that time is going faster than it did for the first three months of the year (syrupy, slow grief time) but I'm constantly asking WHERE HAS MY TIME GONE?!

I have a few explanations. Firstly, I don't live with my parents anymore. I know, DUH, but this has made a big difference to the amount of time I have because I have to do so much more life admin now. Making dinner, doing washing, washing up, putting stuff away, food shopping... all the little bits of stuff that I need to do to keep going that all eat away at the time I have to do stuff like watch Breaking Bad and, like, read stuff. I'm not complaining about this at all, because I do love living not with my parents, but this whole losing time thing does take some adjusting to.

Next- I don't drive. So this means that whether I'm doing life admin, going to work, or pretty much doing anything, I have to leave earlier than a normal person, and will return later because I have to stick to the timetables of public transport rather than my own. Again, I'm not complaining, and actually I don't mind the amount of time I spend on buses because (as long as I'm not basically asleep) I can get some reading done and make that time useful. That's really the advantage of not driving- I can do useful things whilst actually in movement, which is kind of cool.

And then, finally. I have a mini iPad now. I didn't think I'd use it that much, I thought it would mostly be a novelty thing, but actually I kind of use it for everything. Plus, The Sims is a thing on it now and that is the hugest time suck ever. I can literally wake up in the morning and lose at least half an hour of my life looking at my phone and then switching to the iPad. It doesn't feel like I'm wasting time when I'm doing it, but it definitely feels like it when it's 11pm and I haven't done anything useful in the day other than completed 5 candy crush levels and created a new Sim.

I probably had a point somewhere in there, but I don't really know what it was anymore. I guess the thing is this- I am willing to sacrifice time to make sure all the life admin stuff gets done, I don't have much of a choice about the public transport thing, but I can definitely limit the amount of time I spend staring at screens and whatnot. Not that that's not a perfectly legitimate leisure activity- it totally is, but when I'm doing it at the expense of other things that I do actually really want to do, then it becomes an issue.

What about you? How do you make yourself STOP PLAYING THE SIMS and do other things? How can I regain time? WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?! (Don't worry about that last one, I can't even answer that.)

5 comments:

  1. I understand completely!

    I lived completely on my own for a few years so got used to the level of life stuff that I had to deal with for that... plus I was lazy, so put off cleaning/whatever until it was absolutely necessary, and only cooked really half arsed meals for myself most of the time... but yeah, working a full time job plus doing house stuff ends up taking way more time than I feel it should...

    It's even worse now that I'm married, because my husband gets home super late most of the time (and leaves before me in the morning!), so I end up having to do most of the house stuff for two people in a much bigger flat all by myself (although he does half if not more of the stuff at the weekend), and if I want to also cook properly and go shopping properly and stuff, I end up with not very much time for myself at all. I honestly have NO idea how people who have kids whilst working find any time for themselves at all! (maybe they don't?)

    To make sure that I actually have time in the evenings now I've had to enforce a no messing around on my phone on weekday evenings rule, which gives me much more time to read/watch stuff that I am choosing to watch, which makes me feel like I am actually enjoying my evenings rather than wasting them. I completely waste the time I have at home at the weekends though. Such is life!

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    1. I'm soooo lazy about household things (I basically only do washing when I run out of pants) but I still need to feed myself every day and that takes time and it's all just time taking up! I would actually say it's worse with housemates because it's like 'people! People to talk to!' and that ALSO just steals time (not that I'm massively complaining about this because I like my housemates most of the time. But STILL.)

      I believe it is a general thing that parents don't really have any time to themselves haha. I do have quite a lot, really, but I just piss it all away and have nothing to show for it and it annoys me!

      This is a very very good rule. To be fair to me, I do usually leave my phone upstairs quite a lot, but then I have my ipad with me quite a lot, so I'm just not good. I will say that Tivo has been amazing to my life, because it means that when I'm having my breakfast, say, I can watch something that I actually wanted enough to record, rather than just what's on. It's pretty great.

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    2. Haha, yeah making food (especially if you're trying to be healthy!) and cleaning up afterwards takes wayyyy too much time. Especially if you're just making it for yourself.

      Yeah, one of the really good things about being in Japan is that I have to actively choose everything that I want to watch, so I end up being wayyy more selective than I am when I'm in England. I could obviously just watch whats on on Japanese TV, but contrary to the idea that everyone has about Japanese TV being completely insane and weird, most of it is just celebrities talking about other celebrities (and I don't know who any of them are), or people eating food and going "WOW this is so delicious", or them bringing on some kind of cute animal and everyone going "Awwwww!!".. not so interesting.

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  2. *fist bumps Laura* *goes back to Candy Crush* Dude... I hear ya. Screen time is a HUGE time suck for me. 'Just one more video' on YouTube, 'just one more cute post of GIFs' on Buzzfeed, 'just one more article' on HuffPo, 'just one more try at this level' on Candy Crush... BOOM. Another two hours gone.

    I swear, the year really has kind of disappeared this time around though. :(

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    1. Literally... I both love and hate the internet SO MUCH. I get to write things and be all creative, I can read books on a screen, I can watch Netflix in bed. But ALL THE OTHER STUFF is just evil, but also awesome. I can't deal. Except that I can and will continue to do so haha.

      I usually feel that years have gone fast, but yeah, not so much this year. I think it's that I want a faster transition from feeling like I've been kicked in the emotions to feeling less like that, but I'm not sure that that's a thing that happens quickly. Well, apparently not, anyway!

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