Lately, I’ve been trying to make better use of my downtime. Growing up, I could use my evenings for homework, and in college, I often had hours of free time to get work done. Even after I graduated, I seemed to have some blocks of time—an hour and a half or more—to work on projects outside of my regular duties.
Cal Newport’s deep work theory recommends 1.5 undistracted hours to complete meaningful and concentrated work, accounting for the time needed to gain momentum and enter the zone. Once upon a time, I had those kinds of blocks to play with in my schedule regularly.
But no more. Nowadays, and for most of my adult life, this no longer feels true. As I’ve progressed in my medical career, I’ve found fewer opportunities for long periods of undisturbed time. Between my obligations to patients and mentors, and the needs of my family (and myself) while juggling X, Y, and Z as life rushes by, the minutes to spare have become fewer and farther between.
Perhaps even worse, if I do have an hour or so before bed, I often find myself too exhausted to pick something up after a jam-packed day.
I have noticed little bits of time during the day with nothing to do though…
5 minutes here…
15 minutes there…
And occasionally a half hour or more, typically from unexpected delays and wait time…
All of this, hypothetically free to use before my next obligation. I’ve often spent this time twiddling my thumbs or doom scrolling on my phone, but after adding all the minutes up, the hours squandered leave me ruminating. I can’t help but think I could be using this time better.
This isn’t to say that turning off your brain and relaxing is a bad thing. Finding time to take a breath and relieve stress can do wonders for you in the long term. And perhaps it is a bit “grindset”-ish. But sometimes I want to find something to work towards in these minutes that otherwise slip away like sand through my fingers.
So what do I do?
Sometimes that little green owl gets me to open my Duolingo app for a Spanish lesson. Other times I find projects to work on… often starting but not finishing. This time, I got the inspiration to start this article, even if I couldn’t finish it in one sitting.
Usually, efforts like this end with my partial creation promptly left alone to rot in the labyrinthine graveyard of my computer files (an issue to address another day), lost to forgetfulness.
As I write this sentence now, however, I have actually resumed my work the following day—a break from the norm. I’ve heard that some successes, from music to money, are a sheer numbers game: whether it’s landing a hit single or finally founding a profitable startup, the more times you try, the more likely you are to accomplish your goal. Maybe this rule applies here too.
So then, cheers to new beginnings!
Even if there are ideas buried deep away in the recesses of my digital storage, I see a benefit to practicing the starting of things. Some say beginning is the hardest part; I bet if I get that down pat, I’m likely to finish some hits someday.