Golden Anvil

Sorry for the long post. I couldn't find a good place to cut this one...

Let's take a look at my normal weekdays. I usually wake up at 5:00am. This gives me time to get ready to leave the house, have a sit-down breakfast with my wife, take an hour to study the Bible, read whatever devotional material I'm currently going through, and pray. Then I'm out of here by just a little after 6:30am. Between commuting and work, I usually get home anywhere between 3:30pm and 5:00pm (usually between 4:00pm and 4:30pm though). Given the fact that I get up at 5:00am, I usually get to bed around 9:00pm. So, that leaves 4 to 5.5 hours in the evening that is "free" time. Knock about a half hour off that for various e-mail and website checks that seem to eat up my daily time. That leaves 3.5 to 5 hours.

But, there are some exceptions. Monday nights is roleplaying night. That means I stay at work until we play, and I usually get home around 8:00pm to 9:00pm. That means I usually end up just reading a little before going to bed. Sometimes I'll check my e-mail first. Tuesday nights I have some church ministry stuff I do, followed by a men's prayer meeting. That has me leaving the house around 6:15pm and will usually see me home around 8:30pm to 9:00pm. That leaves me an average of 1.5 hours of "free" time on Tuesdays (after my half hour of email and website reading). The remainder of the week is free of scheduled items, although starting this week I'll be starting up the Greek small group I've mentioned. That'll probably eat up 1.5 hours.

So, all that leaves me with a total of 10.5 hours of free time during the week.

Usually my weekends are fairly free. I get up early on Saturday mornings and play a computer game online with my dad, Optiker. Then I usually have various tasks to take care of (mowing or other things), but other than that I'm usually free for most of the day, other than perhaps once every month or two when I run into an all-day project. So, we'll say an average of 9 hours free on Saturday. Sunday is also fairly free, although I'll usually watch football or NASCAR in season (or watch/nap). Plus it's not uncommon for us to invite people over on Sundays for lunch and games. I usually stay up an hour later on Sundays, since I carpool in later on Mondays so that my wife can meet me for roleplaying. I'll say Sunday has an average of 7 hours free.

This gives a grand total of 26.5 hours of free time. Subtract off 1.5 hours for various inefficiencies, leaving 25 hours.

I'd estimate that lately I'm reading an average of 4 hours a week. Usually my wife and I will watch a couple episodes of one of some TV show we're collecting. That's 1.5 hours. I spend a shockingly low average of maybe 2 hours a week talking or what have you with my wife. That all leaves 17.5 hours.

...which sounds about right for how much time I spend playing computer games. Ouch! Now I feel like not posting this!

For a while I was making a habit of not playing games on the computer for more than 10 hours a week. This definitely freed up my time for other projects. Maybe I need to start doing that again... or maybe I should enjoy it while I can before a child comes along and completely screws up my schedule!

Well, there you go. Now you all know how I spend my time. It's actually an interesting and eye opening exercise. I recommend it to all of you. Really. Then you all can make me feel less bad about how I abuse my free time.