Discretionary Time

I would like to have more discretionary time.

I wrote recently about my daily routine. I'm still getting through the whole lot most days - but it does take a lot of time. It's usually dinner time when I turn over the last card and after dinner we don't get any 'discretionary' time until Christopher goes to sleep.

If I last for another hour after that it's a good day.

So I get an hour, possibly two per day where I can do whatever I want - like blogging or reading. It's a good thing I read very fast. There are a couple of solutions to this situation:

* cut down on the daily tasks list
* get faster at the tasks so they take less time
* learn to see the tasks in a new light
* quit whining and enjoy the time I do get to myself

The first option isn't really viable - pretty much every item on that list deserves to be there, as do some items that haven't yet made it onto the list. So I'm more likely to increase the list than cut it back.

I'm practicing the second option by trying not to go off on rabbit trails. Today I finished my tasks about half an hour earlier than usual. This is worth doing, but in the end it will only shave off bits here and there.

As for the third option, the following quote really made me think:

For an experience to qualify as leisure, it must meet three criteria: 1) The experience is a state of mind. 2) It must be entered into voluntarily. 3) It must be intrinsically motivating of its own merit. (Neulinger, 1981)

If I understand this correctly, everything I do could become leisure time if I: 1) change my state of mind; 2) enter into it voluntarily; and 3) find it intrinsically motivating. How cool is that? In fact, it relates rather closely to my fourth option above, which I will now put into practice.... at least temporarily....