Work/Time

The other day I was early for an appointment. Properly, 15 or 20 minutes early. This hasn't occurred in possibly 18 months or more.

To use up a bit of time, I grabbed a takeaway coffee and went for a short stroll. While I was admiring the neighbourhood and generally giving myself a pat on the back for being so damn organised, it occurred to me how nice it was to have nothing to do. Nowhere to be. No-one to see. No rushing. For at least 15 minutes.

Temporary tattoo from my favourite, Tattly. For some reason, this one really took my fancy.

The tone of a normal day could best be described as 'churning'. Churn through the morning. Eat. Repeat. Make billable hours. Make appointments. Churn through 30 minutes of exercise. Home. Churn through dinner and stuff to get done. Sleep.

I imagine that this must be fairly normal, but it occurs to me that the enjoyment factor inherent in this routine (outside of enjoying work) is minimal. 'Joy' takes an additional effort and more often that not, it requires time. I'm not just talking about "time out", or time for a massage, or even time to chat on the phone (although these are all great). I'm talking simply about time to languish in a thought, time to finish what you're doing properly or time to wake up slowly of a morning. These things take almost no time at all, but they take the edge off the rush. I try to make enough 'me time', but I still find myself missing 'thinking time', time to waste time, and 'plenty of time'. At the moment however, I have no practical solution to this conundrum - save for the weekly slow Sunday morning - and being early to appointments a bit more often. Perhaps its time to consider a bit of a life-change...