What Exactly is Spare Time and Does It Matter?
Each Sunday I sit down with my calendar and review the past week and plan the next. There are some standing appointments and meetings that are automatically there but balancing and juggling many different projects means planning and protecting resources for them.
There was a time when I didn’t think I was ready for my week until I had accounted for every hour of every day for the coming week. Everything was scheduled. Not on the calendar? Odds weren't high it would happen. The needed white space for breath and balance was nowhere to be found.
That approach changed for me when I realized that all that scheduling of my time was in fact robbing me of the best of my time. Time to reflect and create with a clear mind and heart.
I discovered that spare time wasn’t something I could spare. It was something I needed.
Without it, even though I am its architect, my day runs me vs. me running my day.
When thinking about the idea of unclaimed or “spare” time and how to illustrate its true power I came back to the white space of visual design and music. Why music? Because without silence, music isn’t possible. Music begins with silence. Silence holds it together. Without it, it’s just noise.
In design, white space is the canvas. It’s not just the background. It is in fact what holds all the elements of any design together. It’s what makes what we look at consumable. It helps us understand what the artist is saying to us.
And just like with music and design, our schedule needs white space for it to make sense and for us to not miss the beauty of the moment, of our days.
Let's face it. This isn't as easy as it sounds. It may even go against the grain as it were. It did for me.
We all want to achieve productivity. There are more programs and courses on the topic of productivity than anything else. We’re driven to that and it’s a normal desire and celebrated skill.
However, productivity isn’t about how detailed and exacting our time is. It’s true meaning stems from what we produce from our time - not how we schedule it. Sometimes our most productive time is when on the surface, it may appear as if we didn’t accomplish anything except spend time in thought. That's where our best and most creative ideas live.
How then do we create that spare time we can no longer spare?
What I have learned and embraced is the importance of partnering with time as an ally. Seeing time as our most valuable resource and loving it for what it allows us to do creates a powerful partnership with it. But to see it – just as in musical scores or the best visual designs, you need white space.
To achieve the music and beauty of life, spare time indeed isn’t something we can spare.
“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
