Idle Time

ClockOne of the more difficult things in life to manage is time. I continue to struggle with it myself. Hands down the most challenging aspect of our lives to apply the principles of minimalism, is in how we spend our time. And to be truthful I have no hard-core formula for how to apply the principles. Only what I have said before time and again: Cut out the fluff. Eliminate all the activities in our lives that add no value to it.

Easier said than done, I know. After all, we are people of temptation, and all around us are time-wasting activities that are very attractive. Often because they are pleasing to the senses and require little to no effort.

AH, but I can give some small tips and tricks to avoid idle time pitfalls:

  • Plan out our day. Use our time intentionally. From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep. This doesn’t have to be a minute to minute plan (that’s a bit much). But even just a very general guide will help us avoid idle time.
  • Limit, or completely avoid couch time. Lets face it, the majority of our wasted time is spent there.
  • Reduce our snacking. So many of us snack just because we are bored. It’s time filling entertainment. Surely we can be doing something more constructive then packing on calories.
  • If we have some idle time that we don’t know what to do with …… go for a walk. Walking not only has an abundance of health benefits, but it tends to get the mental juices flowing; we can come up with wonderful ideas of how to spend our idle time in the future (as if going for a walk wasn’t already just an awesome way to spend time as it is).
  • Avoid social gossip activities. I hope I don’t have to explain this one.

While time is the most difficult aspect of our lives to apply minimalist principles, it is also the most important aspect of our lives to apply minimalist principles. After all, time is the most valuable commodity we have, and we have such a limited supply of it.