This week I was asked one easy question: What would you do with ten extra hours per week? and one hard one: What are you willing to give up this week to get those ten extra hours?
It was easy to think of things to fill the time. I'd exercise, and learn Ruby (a computer programming language), and volunteer, and catch up on my correspondence....my list of things to do quickly overflowed its container. Finally, I settled on one thing for now: learning Ruby.
The second question seemed much harder, but once I focussed, I started seeing lots of time that could be put to better use. Could I read the Ruby guide on the train instead of playing Texas Hold 'Em on my phone? Sure. Could I use mail rules and the mighty 'unsubscribe' to give myself less email to wade through? Absolutely. Could I watch my beloved--or is it just 'addicted'--L&O every other night instead of every single night? Getting harder, but okay.
Before I knew it I had my ten hours and a realistic plan for how to use them, and most importantly, I felt more free. So I'm issuing the same challenge to you: What would you do with ten extra hours per week, and what are you willing to give up this week to get them?
Photo credit: Sands of Time, originally uploaded by reaperman.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Would:
Paint apt.
Get guest room ready for parents
Willing to give up:
TV (easy)
AT (NOT so easy! But perhaps I can go cold turkey for one week)
view gekko's profile
Compelling questions. I put a lot of thought into my own answers, too: http://boliyou.blogspot.com
view boliyou's profile
With ten extra hours a week I could attack some of the projects I have been putting off:
Regrout my bathroom;paint;learn a new language; finish writing a business plan for my home staging biz........
What I am willing to give up:
TV(no brainer-TV sucks in the summer);working late hours for a boss who doesn't appreciate or reward my sacrifice.
view urbanopulence's profile
Want:
Time for my own stock picks.
Willing to give up:
We're considering having me stick with my current part-time job (where the boss is super about seeing that I get broad and useful hands-on experience in the investment field) and study for the Certified Financial Analyst exams (which I'll have to take eventually anyway) rather than my starting the MBA in August. An awful lot of MBA hours turn out to be devoted to material that I already know (and in some cases, published on; in one case, taught at the MBA level -- why do these people even want me as a student?).
Damn, reading about portfolio management by the pool sounds good.
view wende in the twin cities's profile
hmmm
want:
time to repaint the bathroom and a few random walls in my studio
do a sealed cork tile backsplash in my small kitchen
finish the room dividers im making out of fabric
willing to give up:
tv
boredom
frozen ice pops that keep calling my name in the freezer.
view bellaknollie's profile
10 extra hours of sleep
Give up:
The pillow
view right angle's profile
would paint more.
willing to give up work ...
view bud smith's profile
I'm not even going to try because I know as soon as I free up 10 hours I'll just waste them away laying on the couch. :)
view Pete's profile
sort of like the sleep/pillow exchange.
work on personal writing projects and going to the gym
give up time on the Internet and dining out
view JonathanB's profile
I just stopped by your blog for the first time and I'm already challenged with a question, I like it already :)
Would do: Get up earlier to work out in the morning and work on my website after work.
Give up: Online chatting and obsessive checking of email/social websites and just give myself an allotted time to do these tasks to give time to focus on larger, more important tasks. This way, I'd be more productive online and by not chatting as much, wouldn't stay up as late so I'd wake up on the time the next day.
view mellowbeing's profile
i would make art, cook good meals for myself, or sleep.
i am currently working on reorganizing my life in a huge way to make those things happen (wish me luck, the deciding factor will make itself clear this week, eep!)
view Meg's profile
With ten extra hours I would start to:
Finish tiling my balcony; Repot some plants; install my kitchen hood; replace track lighting; pull out stock carpeting and install roll of sisal that has been in my hallway since February; Wallpaper and paint bedrooms; install closet systems that have been under my bed since February; form and pour concrete vanity in bathroom; tile bathroom; finish bathroom; finish other bathroom; finish guest room; furnish and decorate entryway; build entertainment center/nook; organize and consolidate two storage lockers into one storage locker; start food blog; start restaurant; relax; etc.
And, contact Wende for advice on how to allocate savings in Roth Ira and savings in money market.
What I would be willing to give up?
Another day working for someone else.
view art's profile
10 hours? easy; sleep.
give up? the insane amount of online reading i do. its pretty tough, though.
view olya's profile
Do: start running again, design a screen-printing frame, unpack our last few boxes into the new place before it's already time to pay the second month's rent.
Give up: Time online, going home from work to eat lunch, maybe even that extra half hour of morning snooze time.
view Tessa's profile
Do with 10 extra hours: Find new boyfriend.
Give up: Current boyfriend.
view Maryja's profile
DO: work on my poetry, work on my sewing projects
GIVE UP: tv
view Kat1's profile
Do: Ameliore mon francais
Give up: mental nail-biting activities (solitaire, net surfing, sudoku)
view KarenH's profile