Essential Slack Time

I write this thinking of my niece, not-to-be-named-here, who is smart, sharp, capable, good looking and could have the world as her oyster (Shakespeare).

We are living in very exciting times. Change is coming faster than ever before and is accelerating.  And it is everywhere:

• look at the latest happenings in the Muslim world (protests rage);
• look at the recent discoveries regarding the human microbiome (The Human Microbiome - big news in biology);
• look at the vast information archives you can access from your smartphone or PC (Digital Revolution Part 1); 
• look at the shifting of the world economies  (Wikipedia article ); 
• look at Germany's, Japan's and other countries' shifts away from nuclear energy (Bloomburg article)  
• look at the growth of alternative energy sources  (Renewable Energy)!

Its easy to become overwhelmed by the change.  It is easy to become so caught up in it that you don't leave yourself time enough to absorb and use the new stuff to your benefit.

Take just a minute to think about it.  With all of the new gadgets, access to information,  the advances in science and technology and the advances in communications we should have more leisure time than ever.  More time to invent, more time to enjoy.  More time to philosophize.  But do we take the time for those things?  No. On the contrary, most of us are running around like chickens pecking at everything that moves.  We gorge ourselves on news and information, the latest gadgets, the newest toys.  Most of us take less time than ever to sit back in leasure, to relax and to think.

The cure?  You know how people schedule daily, weekly and  monthly activities to fill every available bit of time.  Well, DON'T DO THAT!  Instead, we need to set aside some essential slack time.  Essential?  Absolutely - that is, if you ever want to do anything creative.  Or if you ever want to get ahead in the world.

Getting the knowledge, information and new devices that enable new opportunities is one thing.  Pursuing those opportunities is entirely another.  If you don't set aside the time for the pursuit, then the opportunities will never be realized. 

How much time?  I think 4 days per week of unplanned and available slack time would be ideal.  More realistically, as a starter I suggest:

1. 1 hr per day
2. plus one 4 hour period each week
3. plus one two day period each month
4. plus one one month period each year

This ought to be a good start. But don't forget. This is slack time - time for philosophizing, time for experimenting, time for thinking things over. Be sure to set aside the time, but just as importantly do not plan anything to fill the time. Go into it as a writer would if he were just handed pen and a blank sheet of paper.