3000 hours
Don't tell me who you are, just tell me how you spend your free time
I’ve long been haunted by the question: where did all the time go?
More specifically, free time.
I just ran the numbers and was surprised to find that each of us is allotted about 3000 hours of free time a year.
Assuming we work the standard 40 hour week and sleep 8 hours a night like Andrew Huberman tells us to. That still leaves us with 8 hours of free time a day to do as we please.
Somehow that feels like a ton and not that much at the same time.
How we choose to spend our free time says a lot about us.
If we aren’t careful, it can be frittered away on useless activities that bring (approximately) zero fulfillment.
I used to fool myself into believing I was far too busy to be a writer.
I figured I’d need to quit my day job, win the lottery, and go lock myself in a cabin tucked away in the woods. Or be willing to struggle as a starving artist, who toiled away in obscurity for years, as I spent every waking hour honing my craft.
Now I know this is completely false.
Over the past two years, I’ve spent one hour a day writing. For a grand total of 700 hours. Or about 10% of my free time.
Which has resulted in 100 published (yet far from perfect) essays exploring the serious business of living with a pinch of humor that goes out to a decent sized auditorium of over 500 real humans, including you my dear reader.
All without quitting my job, winning the lottery, or ever stepping foot inside a cabin. That last one still sounds fun.
It’s tempting to think if you can’t dedicate a huge chunk of time to do something you’ve always wanted, it’s not even worth starting.
That was my reason for not writing sooner. But it’s a big fat lie.
I bet if you checked your daily screen time on your phone right now you’d discover that you somehow make time for several hours a day spent mindlessly scrolling.
I know I did.
What if you stole one of those hours for something more meaningful to you?
You don’t have to wake up earlier or stay up later to find this time.
It’s sitting there in plain sight.
By reserving one measly hour a day for writing, my life has forever changed. It’s the second best decision I’ve made, the first was marrying my wife of course.
And that still leaves me with 7 hours a day, or about 2500 hours a year, of free time to do whatever the hell I want. Which allows me to still get my fix of mindless scrolling.
By carving out one hour a day for some meaningful activity (to you), you’ll have found the equivalent of nine full 40 hour work weeks a year.
What could you do for one hour a day that your future self would be grateful for?
I bet some pretty cool shit.
Or you could continue to spend it watching a few more cat videos or reading some more tragic news articles.
Up to you…
Your thoughts? Please leave a comment below.
Loved this Arman. Like you, I feel a lot of pressure to use my free time well. I maintain a religious respect for people who use their time to build skills and cultivate interests outside of work
For me, carving out that 1 hour a day became easier when I focused on what I shouldn't be doing instead of what I should be doing.