Chapter 2 Time Flies Whether You’re Having Fun or Not

Have you ever considered how much time you have in your whole life, and how much time you’ve spent on various activities? Suppose you graduated from college at the age of 22, and in the course of your life expect to work about 48 years, bringing you to age

70. Over the course of those 48 years, how much time would you suppose you spend on routine activities such as working, sleeping, watching television, recreating, eating, and commuting?

Here’s the typical breakdown, based on various demographic studies and my own calculations:

It’s amazing when you look at the cumulative total of the time you’ll spend engaged in these activities during your productive work life, isn’t it? Suppose that you’re already 30-something and on average will live another 45 years. Thus, you have about 30 waking years left, and about 20 years to accomplish whatever you’re seeking to accomplish. That realization alone may help you focus your time.

If you’re thinking, “Hey, I’m 35 now, but I don’t expect to reach age 80,” think again. The Society of Actuaries estimates that if you’re female and you’re 40 years old, your life expectancy is age 85 (see Table 2.1). For males it’s slightly less: age 80.3.

Table 2.1 Life Expectancy of Americans

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that every 25 years since 1900, the life expectancy of both men and women has increased by about five to seven years. The increase in life expectancy for people born between 1975 and the year 2000 may be as much as nine or 10 years (see Table 2.2).

Table 2.2 Life Expectancy of Americans (from Birth, by 25-Year Intervals)

On average, most people are likely to live longer than they think they will. If you think you’re going to reach 75, you may well reach 85. If you think you’ll reach 85, you may hit 95!

The realization that you may live much longer than you think necessitates developing some longer-term perspectives about how you want to spend your life. (I’ll cover these in greater detail in the last few chapters of the book.)

Do More Because of Limits

With decades to go, it’s easy to get caught in the trap of delaying the activities and events you promised yourself you’d undertake. Whether life seems short and merry or long and boring, there’s only so much of it. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once observed that people build “most nobly when limitations are at their greatest.” You can use the limits on your time or resources to achieve your most desired accomplishments.

Consider how productive you are, for example, before you leave for a vacation, or consider how well you do on a task when a deadline’s been imposed (even though you might not enjoy having the deadline or like the person who imposed it). As the author of many books, I can testify about deadlines. Each time I signed a book contract, I had to deliver a specified number of manuscript pages in coherent order and accomplish what I said I would do by a certain date. These contracts with their deadlines imposed limits that actually helped me be productive.

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 Time Out! Whether you have 30 or 60 years left, it will be to no avail if your days race by, you wake up thinking “I’m already behind,” you stay late at work night after night, or you let stuff pile up and then feel exhausted because you can’t get to it.

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These limits may not always appear helpful or supportive, yet you undoubtedly have many of them confronting you. Here are some examples of limits you may be facing right now:

• You have to pick your kids up by 5:30 p.m. each weekday.
• You have to turn in a work log on Fridays.
• The author of this book said you need to leave the office most days by 5:00 p.m.
• You can work about nine hours daily before your mind turns to mush.
• Your hard disk is almost full, and you have no intention of spending more money for disk space.
• Your contract is ending in 11 weeks.
• You have only 24 minutes left on your lunch break.
• The post office closes weekdays at 5:00 p.m.
• The oil in your car needs changing after another 300 miles.
• A loved one is nearing the end of his or her life.
• You get paid every two weeks.

What limits do you face in your career or personal life that you could employ to propel yourself to higher productivity? When you learn to harness these for the benefit they provide, you begin to reclaim your time. I suggest that your daily, primary limit be finishing your day so that you leave work at the normal closing hour.

Wanted for Time Theft

After examining the problem for many years, sifting through extensive research, interviewing dozens (even hundreds) of people, collecting articles, and tapping the minds of many learned people, I found that the No. 1 element that robs people of their time can be boiled down to a single word. (Please be sure you are seated in a chair that can support your full weight in case you slump over when the answer is revealed to you.)

Okay, if you’re ready, take a deep breath, because here’s the revelation of the ages. The No. 1 activity in society, in your life, that steals your time is (here it is . . . I hope you’re ready for this):

Is there anything I can say in a couple of pages that will help you reduce the amount of TV you watch? Consider the findings of TV-Free America, a public service organization in Washington, D.C., that has compiled some rather startling data about television viewership in America.

The average American watches more than four hours of TV each day, equal to two months of non-stop TV-watching per year, and equal to more than 12 solid years of non-stop TV-watching in the life of a person who lives to age 72. African-Americans on average watch 50 percent more TV than that. (You, of course, watch less . . . or so everyone self proclaims!)

• 66 percent of Americans regularly watch TV while eating dinner.
• 49 percent of Americans say they watch too much television.
• 19 percent of Americans say they would like to read or visit friends but have no time!

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 Chronos Says More than 90 million adults watch television at least two hours on any Monday and Tuesday night—that’s at least 360 million viewer-hours. These viewer-hours, if applied elsewhere, could transform the nation. Ah, but you can choose to watch TV whenever you want, can’t you? Or can you? Television is a drug, with many of the same side effects. And as the Internet becomes an even more dominating aspect of more people’s lives, it will compete (or merge!) with TV, to claim your time.

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The Road to Oblivion

In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Dr. Neil Postman says that entertainment is the dominant force in public discourse in society, affecting the arts, sciences, politics, religion, and education. Certainly entertainment has a necessary function in your life: It stimulates thinking. It can be liberating to your soul. It can give you a break from the monotony of daily living. Of note, entertainment can free you to explore new ways of thinking, new ideas, and new possibilities.

The harm in being over-entertained—which everyone now faces—is that your daily life seems to pale by comparison to what you view on the screen. What is the true cost of entertainment? Certainly your time, and usually your money. You’re willing to trade these because entertainment expressly is not reality. It’s designed to be “superior” to reality—it’s more titillating and more engaging. Fantasy sells almost as much stuff on TV as sports, and a lot more stuff than reality ever could. In a 1978 lecture at Indiana University, the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, boldly stated: “TV does not exist to entertain you. TV exists to sell you things.”

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 A Stitch in Time Don’t make the erroneous assumption that watching brain-drain TV or listening to shock-talkers on the radio has no impact on your time. They vacuum up time you could have used doing something worthwhile. Turn ’em off.

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When compared to what you see on the screen, your own life may seem dull and plastic. Instead, it is real and holds great potential. Ultimately, the quality of your life and your memories will depend on what you actively did, not what you passively ingested (such as seeing Titanic for the fourth time). What will you do in the next month to enrich your life—actually enrich it? Who will you meet? Where will you go? What will you risk?

Consider how much time and energy you’re willing to spend with your favorite TV personalities. Now contrast that figure with how much time you actually spend with any of your neighbors.

Neighbors. You know, those near-strangers next door. Do you even care about their lives? They are, in fact, flesh-and-blood people with real strengths, real weaknesses, and real lives. They could even become your lifelong friends. Do they offer as much pleasure to you, however, as the fantasy heroes on Star Trek, Nicolas Cage in his latest role, or Kate Moss simply posing in garments you’ll never own? You might have a reason to like your neighbors: Consider all the expensive stuff they’re not trying to sell you.

Hey, Bud, I Tune In to the News to Be Informed

I know people who habitually watch the nightly news believing that this will make them informed citizens. The problem is, most of what passes for news on television isn’t news. It’s merely a constant rehash of the same stories, over and over.

I’m sorry (and truly, who isn’t?) that there’s drug infestation in society and that too many teenagers get pregnant, or that there are homeless people roaming many cities. Unless you’re going to take action on any of this stuff, however, watching another report about it doesn’t count toward your status as an informed citizen. So the time you spend watching it is largely wasted.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch any news. I’m saying you need to understand the context in which news is presented. News shows are designed to attract viewers so sponsors can sell things, the same as any other show; they heighten the emphasis on some stories and completely ignore others. As long as you understand the limitations of TV news, watch away! Just don’t turn off your brain when the news comes on. And remember that there are probably many more productive ways you could be spending that time.

A Bad Mix: Kids and Too Much Television

Maybe you didn’t watch as much television as kids today are watching, but you probably watched a lot, and the habit is ingrained. Kids today, however, are going to set some all-time records. Here’s what TV-Free America found about children’s television viewing:

• The number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children is 38.5.
• The number of minutes per week that the average child watches television is 1,680.
• 50 percent of children ages 6–17 have television sets in their bedrooms.
• 70 percent of day-care centers use TV sets during a typical day.
• 73 percent of parents would like to limit their children’s TV viewing (but apparently they don’t or they can’t).

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 Time Out! Dr. James Twitchell, author of The Carnival Culture, notes that most American children begin watching television before they can talk. A child by age 6 will have invested more hours watching television than in speaking with his or her father over an entire lifetime.

 

So sad.

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As if you’re not watching enough television, what are the chances that you’re turning on the radio, cluttering up your mind from that source as well? I know, I know, if you listen to the radio on the way to work, how can that possibly be stealing your time? Well, it is. Consider a friend of mine who liked to listen to a West Coast shock-jock in the morning. Year after year, my friend Bill was titillated on his way to work by the shock-talk.

In essence, he settled for an electronic fix, another type of drug, if you will, that briefly took him out of his own life and into some form of contemptuous humor that got him through the next 10 minutes (or however long) on his way to work. After all the years of listening, my friend is not empowered, energized, or any better able to face his day. Obviously, however, he isn’t alone; this particular shock-jock has become a multimillion-dollar media franchise with strong ratings for more than a decade.

If you listen closely to the shock-jocks of the world, you can sometimes detect that they are angry people. They vent their anger through a form of broadcast that has (for whatever reason) become a socially tolerated route to riches.

Okay So What Would You Suggest?

Instead of listening to the radio on his drive to work, Bill could contemplate what he’d like to achieve for that day. If he has meetings, he could consider some of the points he would like to make. He might visualize having a pleasant lunch with a coworker. He might put on some classical music to ease his mind as he makes his way through the otherwise-unforgiving rush-hour traffic.

If he consciously chooses to play the radio, maybe he’ll switch to a provocative newsmagazine-type show where important issues are covered with some depth and perspective. Perhaps he’ll tune into something else that truly stimulates his intellect.

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 A Stitch In Time Question: How many shock-jocks does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Three . . . one to throw the bulb away, one to stick his finger in the socket, and one to yell about it on the air.

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Of course, he has the option of playing CDs or cassettes. He can listen to famous speeches, motivational programs, or entire books on cassette. He can play cassettes of famous old-time radio programs or listen to the Bible on cassette. By applying a modicum of creativity, he can turn his commuting time into something special. He can turn his use of the television into something special.

My friend has many different pockets of time available. He also has many options to determine how he spends them.

So do you.

Jeff Davidson’s 10 Steps to Kick Electronic Addiction

Okay, I can hear you wailing, “I’m not giving up television. There are some worthwhile things on TV, and I can turn it off whenever I want.” If that’s so, then fine. If you’re hooked and you can’t admit it to me, however, perhaps you can admit it to yourself. Here are 10 techniques you can use to get yourself unplugged:

• Go a whole weekend without turning on a radio or television.
• Call your friends (both local and out-of-town) one evening per week instead of watching any television.
• Return to hobbies such as stamp collecting, playing a musical instrument, gardening, or playing word games one other weeknight instead of watching TV.
• Allow yourself to selectively watch two hours of programming each Saturday and Sunday for one month.
• Permit yourself one high-quality video per weekend during another month. The video has to inspire, inform, reflect history, be biographical, or be otherwise socially redeeming. Stop watching shoot-em-ups, chase scenes, and films that titillate but add little to your life.
• If you walk or jog with a Walkman, undertake these exercises three times in a row without such a device so you can experience another way to jog: naturally taking in what you pass on your trip.
• Look for others seeking to wean themselves from electronics. Is there a book discussion group? How about a bowling league, outing club, or biking group?
• Attend sporting events rather than viewing the same type of event on television. Watching a good high school baseball team or women’s collegiate tennis match can be as rewarding as watching major-league baseball or Wimbledon, respectively. And you visibly support the athletes by being there.
• Recognize that the number of videos, CDs, computer games, and other electronic items competing for your attention exceeds the time you have in life to pay homage to them.
• Recognize that rightly or wrongly, you’ve been programmed since birth to tune in to electronic media for news, information, entertainment, and diversion. It’s by no means your only option.

New Math for Reclaiming Your Time

While the cumulative impact of being hooked on electronic media is considerable, the cumulative impact of doing what you don’t like to do, such as household tasks, is equally insidious.

Recall the example of your 48-year career—graduating college at age 22 and working until age 70. Here’s a quick way to see that you need to delegate or cast off those things you don’t like to do. Any activity in which you engage for only 30 minutes a day in the course of your 48-year productive work life will take one solid year of your life! Any activity in which you engage for only 60 minutes a day will take two solid years of your 48 years. How can this be so?

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 A Stitch in Time Identify those activities you currently handle yourself that could be handled some other way.

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Think of it as a mini math lesson most of us never had in school: Numbers That Really Mean Something. One half-hour is to 24 hours as one hour is to 48 hours. That’s true by the good old commutative principle of arithmetic. Likewise, one hour is to 48 hours as one year is to 48 years.

For you math buffs, here it is in equation form:

When you consume one-forty-eighth of your day (only 30 minutes out of 24 hours) the cumulative effect over 48 years is to consume one year of your 48 years. There’s no way around it. If you clean your house, on average, for 30 minutes a day, then in the course of 48 years you’ve spent the equivalent of one solid year, nonstop, cleaning your house.

This immediately tells you that if you can’t stand cleaning your house (or something else you don’t like) for an average of 30 minutes a day, stop doing it. I don’t mean let your house get filthy; hire somebody to clean your house, clean it yourself less often, or find some other alternative. Why? Because the time in your life is being drained; the cumulative impact of doing what you don’t like to do, as illustrated above, is that your precious years are being consumed—time you simply cannot reclaim under any scenario.

“Well,” you say, “that’s fine to pay somebody to clean the house, but ultimately I’ll be paying people for all kinds of things I don’t like to do, just so I can have more time.” Yes! Exactly. In Chapter 6, “Supporting Your Priorities for Fun and Profit,” I’ll get into this in spades.

What can you list as those things that you know you need to stop doing because they are taking up valuable time in your life? For openers, here are some suggestions:

• Cleaning the house.
• Reading the newspaper every day. If it makes you late for work or prevents you from handling higher-priority activities, only do it now and then.
• Cutting the grass, or any other yard work. (See Chapter 7, “Money Comes and Goes—Time Just Goes,” about when it makes sense to pay others to do it.)
• Fixing your car.
• Cooking.
• Reading junk mail because it’s addressed to you. (Don’t laugh. I know many people who feel compelled to read their junk mail: “Gee, somebody took the time to send me this.”)
• Reading every godforsaken e-mail message zapped over to you.
• Answering the phone.

Cutting Through the Confusion

If you enjoy some of these activities, hey, by all means keep doing them. Perhaps you can do them a little less; perhaps there’s another way to proceed. Your goal is to delegate or eliminate those tasks or activities which you can’t stand doing. One author advises, “Don’t manage something if you can eliminate it altogether.” Not bad advice.

My contact-lens routine was becoming a bore—taking them off, cleaning them, lubricating them, and so forth. I was able to save several minutes per day by switching to a new type of contact lens that’s thinner, requires little maintenance, can be worn 16 or 18 hours a day with no irritation, and after several days, can simply be chucked.

What have you been putting off that you could handle right now, knowing you would simplify your life? I won’t be offended if you stop reading for a moment, close the book, and give this question the full consideration it merits in your life . . . unless, of course, a Seinfeld rerun is coming on.