10.22.05
How much of your day is wasted?
None, I hear you cry, every second meaningfully used in the pursuit of a full and successful life. Well personally I have quite a bit of time within mine which isn’t put to good effect, and to be honest I am not sure there is anything I can do about it. Right now I am willfully wasting valuable time when I could be cleaning my house or shopping for food and other consumables, but it is my progative to sit here lounging around blogging away. This time isn’t really wasted as it is Saturday morning and if I want to chill out I will do, after all it is my time to waste; the same can’t be said of the time I spend journeying to work each day.
I have to admit I am getting a bit fed up with spending quite so long in my car. Now of course if you are an eco-friendly type you will be wondering why I don’t ‘get on my bike’, get a train, walk or heaven forbid jog. Well actually the journey is 25 miles each way and my home town is not on the same train line as my work town, meaning I have no choice but to use my car to get to work. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my little car (a similar version is pictured above), but I didn’t buy it to live in it!
James Richards reports on his work-related blog and news site, that British workers are keen to be freed up from the wasted “dead time” they suffer each day while commuting. I have seen people on trains doing just this, laptop perched on their lap or the little table infront of them while they simultaneously play with their blackberry gadgets and bellow into a mobile phone. I have also heard people running their businesses from a poolside in Cyprus and to be honest none of that stuff appeals to me.
While I am definitely wasting my life sitting in traffic on my journey to work, I do not desire, even if it were safe and possible to continue my working day into my car. I just want to feel less bored during it and less tired after it. I listen to the radio or a CD, and love a good sing along, but to be honest there is a limit; particularly if the radio station I am listening to is a talk radio. I can also reflect (see previous post) on the days events and often do, reflecting on my breakfast contents is less useful to me in terms of my emotional well being.
Well enough of this innate drivel, I am off to do some meaningful housework!
Thesisville said,
October 23, 2005 at 11:30 am
Although I only teach on 2 days a week, I spend almost 4 hours in the car getting to and from work, which is about 40 miles from home. I actually quite enjoy to travel because I can listen to the radio and music and feel no burden of ’shouldn’t I be doing something more productive?’ because in a car all you can do is drive and passively recieve aural entertainment. It’s actually quite a nice break from all the rushing about of the rest of the day! Sitting in traffic can be nasty due to other people’s attitudes and selfishly bad driving. I only get bothered if it means I’ll be late to teach a class - I’m lucky to have understanding students and to have only been 10 mins late so far!
Julie said,
October 23, 2005 at 4:20 pm
See that would feel fine to me too. It is just the whole day after day thing which gets me down. Maybe I need to re-evaluate!
Thesisville said,
October 24, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Yes I know what you mean - I used to travel in and out of London several times a week and that was a real drain!