Thursday, February 14, 2013

Time Becomes Elastic

As I continue to transition from the "go to work, get paid" economy to the "work for yourself" economy, I'm facing this weird psychological syndrome.

Time has become somewhat elastic.

I have a call in to do a job which will probably earn my living expenses for the month. It means that, for the first time, my small business shall "make payroll". Never mind that I have an employee staff of exactly one ... me. There IS apparently an "I" in "Team".

It will take me two days to do the job. I can't start until the customer tells me I can, and then I've got to wait 48 hours while the utility power line people make sure I won't accidentally kill myself or others while doing the work. Then I'll probably have to wait a few days to get paid.

This is a lot of waiting, and right now I don't have a lot to do while waiting. I can work in the knife shop, but I don't particularly feel like doing that each and every day. The early garden veggies are in and growing and there's not a lot of maintenance to do there. I can sit and read a book, or nap, or stare up at the sky. It's still too cold for fishing.

The old Ernie, still enmeshed in the corporate western culture, thinks I should be busy earning money each and every waking minute of every day. Yet a big part of our adoption of this lifestyle is so that we do not NEED much money. I can pay for our complete living expenses with only 12.5 hours of work per month. In an entire month I only need to work a little less than 2 days. That's pretty incredible.

But I've yet to figure out what to do with the rest of the time and certainly haven't learned to enjoy the leisure.

2 comments:

Recycled Cottage & Garden said...

I'd be happy to trade with you. I always have more to do in my off hours than I have off hours. I'm tired of 40 hour work weeks but am not to that wonderful place you are. Maybe one day.

Maybe you need another hobby or two? Then you can swap your time around more. You'll get through this and soon you'll be busier than you want when the weather warms up.

Gorges Smythe said...

Maybe you could use that time to learn new skills.