Experiment Six-to-Six

No, that's not a typo up there. That's what I call an idea Mom had about keeping track of time and how we use it. Basically, from Six O'Clock in the morning to Six O'Clock in the evening, I'm going to keep an hour-by-hour record of what I do today, and probably for the next several days. Why 6am-to-6pm? Because 6am is when I wake up and 6pm is about the time everyone gets home. Plus, it allowed me to use a silly, copyright infringing pun for the name of the idea. And come to think about it, there's a pretty good reason Mom came up with this idea now.

Last Sunday was our Ward Conference, in which our Bishop gave a talk. As part of his talk, he shared this quote from Elder Dalin H. Oaks' talk, Good, Better, Best:

Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in viewing television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books or magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it.

Bishop Adair placed emphasis on the phrase "the portion of our life we give to obtain it." There are only so many hours in a day, and we only have so many days and years to live. Time is a precious and finite resource. We don't seem to have a whole lot of it, and our supply is always being depleted, like water draining out of a sourceless lake. Eventually, the lake will run dry and our lives will be over, and we'll have to give an account for how we spent our short time here. Did we put a paddlewheel in it and put it to good use, or did we just watch it all flow downstream?

Watching TV, playing games, and surfing the internet are great ways to let time slip by by the hour. Sometimes, you get a little bit back from the time you spent on it. You might learn something new, and you'll almost certainly have a little fun, but is that really worth the portion of your life that you gave to obtain it? Aren't there more efficient ways to learn new things and have fun in less time, or while doing other things? I just sang a few songs as I washed dishes. I got something done and had a little bit of fun while I was at it. Productivity for the win, and it only took me about half an hour.

So, today, I'm going to keep track of my time. I'm going to try to do some more productive things than usual, and that is the ultimate goal of this experiment, but mostly I first want to just see where my time is already going. I'm curious. I know I waste too much time on the internet, but exactly how much time do I waste? Today won't be such a good measure of that, since I have plans to do stuff today, but what about tomorrow? Or Friday? I've got to admit, I wasn't too excited about this idea at first, mostly because I knew I wouldn't like what I knew the record would show, but in this experiment, I'm allowed to change my numbers simply by changing how I spend my time. If I want to write down that I did loads of productive stuff on a given day, I can do that - All I have to do is do loads of productive stuff first. That, in fact, is the whole point of the experiment, and I think it's going to be a success.