Time

[Neal Clayton]

"The sun is the same in a relative way but your older"
"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death"

-- random British guy

[Gary Yoder]

Time is only wasted by those tasks you don't value. If you value doing laundry at the laundromat, it's not a waste of time -- I don't value sitting at a laundromat doing very little, so i bought machines i can keep in my home that do it while I can do other things without having to sit there and wait for it.

If you value hand cutting marquetry, then it's not a waste of time. If you value restoring machines, it's not a waste of time. The only judge of your time is yourself (or the person you trade ownership of that to like a boss). If you are enjoying the process and the journey, anyone who says it's a waste of time is narrowly viewing it from only their perspective.



It's your time, don't let anyone else tell you you're wasting it if you're enjoying yourself.

Well said. Time is what you make of it. Efficiency is great, as has been said, but I'm learning that letting every delay in my life make me sour really ruins the time I have. Waiting in line for food isn't so bad when you open your mind to the world around you and try to brighten someones day. Why ruin the time you have by being uptight about the seconds. I'm not saying to not be efficient so you have more time for enjoyable activities, but I've also seen people so obsessed about getting all the stuff, and doing all the things that will make them happy that they end up miserable. Try enjoying life, and if you can add a few more enjoyable things as well, that's great.

[John M Wilson]

Tired of lying in the sunshine,
Staying home to watch the rain.
You are young, and life is long,
and there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find,
Ten years have got behind you,
No one told you when to run,
You missed the starting gun...

-- R. Waters

I post these lyrics in a prominent place in my classroom for the high school students to ponder, and hopefully take to heart.

Time may be relative, but they're not making any more of it.

Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Pope Francis, and I each only have 24 hours a day to use, spend, or waste as we see fit.

Makes ya wonder...

[John Bomment]

I pose this question. Are we actually gaining anything by "saving time"? If so, what is it?

Time is a man made concept.
We live in the here and now,in between the future and the past.
I live in the country,this morning lady was telling me she saw a dog chasing a Goose. She bent down grabbed a rock and threw it at the dog.
She hit the goose instead.
Many a friend and relative have died,they don't care about time.

[Shawn Pixley]

Moses,

I have thought about your post for a couple of days. I am going to express seemingly contradictory thoughts:

1.) As others have said, time spent doing something I have to do is time taken from what I want to do.
2.) Spending each moment in the present ("Mindfulness" in current venacular) is its own reward.

So, I must work and doing so, I try to perform it with excellence. This can be some long days, but I can be proud of what I did and more importantly how I did it. I strive to make my long departed grandfather proud and more importantly be able to look myself in the mirror. When I go home, I can leave that behind and go do what I enjoy at that moment.

What I enjoy doing, I try to do that with excellence as well. Like you, I really don't care too much how long it takes. If a project takes hours, days, years, or a lifetime but I enjoy it, that is its own reward. And while I am a finisher, that is not the end to itself. Life is a journey not a destination. I don't see a completion of a particular project / effort / book / etc… as the culmination of my life. They are milestones in my journey.

I don't see a conflict in the way I treat these contradictory thoughts. Thank you for your post as it forced me to confront and articulate my feelings on the issue.

If you enjoy the restoration and it takes a long time but you are happy, why should I do anything but celebrate your journey?

[Mike Wilkins]

I once made a statement that had my wife looking at me like I had lost my mind; I would rather waste money than time, because once time is lost, you cannot get it back. You can usually find more money.

[Moses Yoder]

I think Shawn said it very well; on the one hand I am using hot water right from the tap for washing dishes and putting my clothes in an automatic washer which are all time saving devices. And later today I will spend time cleaning up and refurbishing some old lanterns and maybe take the grinder apart which is a different time zone.

[Brian W Smith]

"Timing" is more important to my shop and my sports than the time itself.....from a zen standpoint.

Time = money in the shop and the sports.Timing is what gets me there.