Quote: There is Not Enough Time to Do All the Nothing We Want to Do

25% More Convenience Expense

Just about any item has a price threshold of acceptability for me (although I often don’t know what that specific price is until faced with a price tag and have a gut reaction). Somehow an extra dollar or even ten cents can make an item no longer desirable for me, yet sometimes I’ll just need something and will buy it regardless of the price.

For example, the other week I went to the no-frills supermarket and they didn’t have the milk I always get in the size I always get, so I didn’t get any milk. A few days later I went to the nearby “regular” supermarket that’s more expensive and bought my milk for 25% more. Granted, fifty cents isn’t a great amount, but because I know the price difference exists, it irks me. I don’t like feeling like I’m getting a poor deal but sometimes it’s a trade-off.

The much busier no-frills supermarket is worth going to when buying many items, but not really worth going to when buying one or two items—it just takes so much more time and energy to drive to, shop in and check out. So I went to the nearby supermarket and paid a little more so I could save a little time. And it was worth it... sort of. [Pause.] What do I want more of, time or money? Ideally, both.

Quote: Lost Time is Never Found Again

I drew this quote (fairly quickly) this afternoon; it seemed appropriate to ring in the new year.

Time-Saving

Often it seems as though you don’t have the right amount of time during the day; you have too much time or not enough. You kill time waiting in a supermarket checkout line or waiting for a bus or waiting for a doctor’s appointment or watching some terrible TV show. Or time just flies while you’re busy at work or running errands or cooking dinner or being with friends. And even though time itself is rigid and doesn’t change, it feels as though it’s flexible, where time becomes longer or shorter depending on the situation.

Time is a valuable commodity. We want to use our time well and be efficient. And while there are many “time-saving” activities people do, often that “saved” time just means it’s replaced with more work. But wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could save actual time? If only we could save time the way we can save money; if time was tangible and physical and we could squirrel away those unwanted minutes when we’re bored and save them for a day when we’re busy and would love to have some extra time. That would be wonderful. [Pause.] But sadly this is not the case. Each day has the same number of hours, whether wanted or unwanted—but I bet most people want more.

How-To Fill Two Minutes

Like most people, I find TV commercials an unhappy interruption during my TV program. It’s rare to find a TV commercial that I will watch of my own free will. [If it’s an amusing one, I may actually pay attention…but how often does that happen? (Pause.) Practically never.] No, most commercials are dull or stupid or repeated so many times that you can’t bare to watch it one more time.

To me, commercial time means that I have a couple of minutes to get a drink or I might check to see what other shows are on. But most often I’ll just mute the TV until my program comes back on. Silence is sweet when the alternative is hearing about “consulting your doctor about the side affects of this drug” or something equally riveting.

If it’s one of the few TV shows that I actually watch (rather than half-watch while I’m doing something else, like cooking, knitting, drawing, crafting, etc.), then I generally have a book nearby to read during commercial breaks. Because if I’m watching a TV show in its actual time slot (that lasts an hour), then a good quarter of that time is filled with commercials. That means I have at least fifteen minutes to kill, and reading a book is an easy way to fill a couple of minutes until my show comes back on.

I’m sure advertisers hate people like me, who try to avoid their very expensive commercials. [Pause.] My response is: make it better. If it’s not interesting, then I’ll just find some other way to amuse myself to avoid the white noise that is most commercials.