For a lot of people, 24 hours is barely enough time in the day to do all the important things that need to get done. In which case, it makes no sense to pass time.
We have regular jobs with their usual demands, have businesses we want to start, have businesses we need to sustain, have families to take care of, have piled up work to tackle, have all manners of errands to run, have personal projects to manage, have the present and future of Nigeria to fathom, in addition to ours, and finally we try to sleep for a few hours each night, and then there’s never any time to ‘pass’.
Whew! Catch your mental breath.
But, the reality is, even after you take out a minimum required 5 -7 hours of sleep from your 24 hours, there’s no way you’re steadily cracking all day and night for the remaining… I don’t think I have time for maths.
Plus, if you are indeed steadily cracking all day and night, I also don’t think you should be doing that.
Having to pass time on leisure of any kind might seem like a luxury or wishful thinking in a world like ours that’s constantly racing against itself. Yet, it’s our perception of the idea, and our thought that it has to be a total, separate element of our day or life that begets the problem of not treating it as important, or knowing what to make of free time when we ‘stumble’ upon it.
It starts from within us. A lack of internal structure and discernment, perhaps largely assisted or even controlled by external factors as well.
At every point in our busy days or lives, there are those few moments, or even whole hours sometimes, when we can actually look up. It could be when we’re in transit, at night when we finally get home, when we’re waiting for a bus or a flight, on the weekends, or when we’re really just tired.
What do we do with this time?
Because of a prevalent culture of workaholism – whatever it is that you do – or that lack of discernment I mentioned, some of us are either so brain-fried when those times come that we just sit there, numb.
Others don’t even realise we have some free time on our hands, however little or mildly inconvenient. In fact, we keep trying to make time for free time, and feeling more hopeless when it doesn’t happen.
Some others feel they are undeserving of free time. So they use up that free time worrying about the other things they have to do, but are presently not in the appropriate frame of mind to do. What a loss.
Worse still when you look back and go, “What did I spend the last two hours really doing?” Well, you didn’t pass time, that’s for sure.
Believe it or not, you can pass time constructively. By this, I mean that however you pass your time should be deliberately directed towards relaxation, recovery, self-development, and ultimately the improvement of your personal well-being.
Therefore, the way you pass the free time you get can affect your overall productivity, motivate you, and help you develop the right attitude towards your study, work, personal growth, and life. All of which are important. You only need to give it some thought and structure.
Although, we’re already super busy, right? So, passing time should never feel like the stress you’re probably accustomed to. Not for one second.
A better approach…
Did you just luck out with a few golden minutes during the day? At the very least, use it to design the ‘bigger leisure picture’. Make notes and plans for the immediate or distant future, indulge in a brief but stimulating or gratifying activity. Decompress. Recharge.
If you work a nine-to-five, you can pass time by maximising your lunch break, for starters. Do you want to read, eat in silence, take a short walk, take a short nap, or chat with a colleague? Structure those sixty minutes.
On the weekends, do you want to go somewhere, finish up some work, have friends over, catch up on some sleep, catch up with loved ones over the phone, make even more plans for the future, get on social media, try something new, binge-watch movies? You should. Just be deliberate about it and ensure it’s ultimately beneficial to you.
Basically, passing the time is not necessarily when you do nothing. It’s when you slow down, idle, say hello to yourself, and then accelerate at your own renewed pace. Like hitting the refresh button, it’s truly crucial, and it cannot be overemphasised.
As stated before, for some of us, the challenge is even recognising when we have any kind of free time. This is where I’ll recommend working on attaining a healthy dose of self-awareness.
Do you catch yourself just walking or sitting around waiting, or doing nothing you can exactly account for? Are you lacking motivation or enthusiasm to tackle your current task?
That’s free time that can be passed using any of the suggestions above, for instance. Or, as a matter of fact, that’s a great opportunity for self discovery and reinvention.
And, if you completely do not want to feel like you’re doing anything at all, not even basic thinking with your free time. Enjoy that! As long as you recognise it for what it is, and you come out of the exercise – sorry, activity… Sorry, laze – content and revitalised.
Because, maybe we’re right about there not being enough time to pass, but we’re wrong if we’re not approaching it from a stance of relaxation, recovery, and/or self-improvement.
YOLO is not even a joke, people.
So, what should you do when you catch yourself just… There? The answer is, you shouldn’t. Pass that time well!
Signing off to go pass sometime myself.
