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Pique N Your Interest

The mystery of time
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In the good old days, people had a little something called “time”. They had time to bake cookies and pies, time to make elaborate family dinners, time to read books and newspapers, time for family, time for family vacations, time for friends, time for hobbies, time to play Maj Jong, or Bridge, or Pinnochle, or whatever game was popular in the day. Time was the gift of the post-war boom, when unions were strong, companies felt indebted to their workers, health care and social security were firmly entrenched to fill in the gaps, and most jobs paid enough to buy a home and keep a gas-guzzling V8 on the road.

Then something happened. Some blame globalization, which led to the commodification of workers and the steady outsourcing of high-paying manufacturing jobs. Others blame the decline of unions, facilitated by politicians in the pockets of big business or by the greed of the unions themselves. Still others will go back further and blame the ultra-conservative roots of our western nations, laid by ultra religious types fleeing the growing liberalism and freedoms of Europe in order to create stricter theocracies in the New World.

Whatever happened and whoever’s to blame, we’ve fostered a society where people are overworked, underappreciated, stressed out, constantly rushed, and going slowly insane in lines and behind the wheels of their cars. The crux of it all is time — nobody seems to have enough of it, or know where it all goes. Time equals life, literally and figuratively, and a lack of time is killing us.

According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, the average work day has increased from 8.4 hours in 1986 to 8.9 hours in 2005. Over 260 work days that equals about 130 hours or the equivalent of 16.25 additional eight hour work days — mostly unpaid for people on salary.

And that’s just the average. A lot of people are putting in 10 hours a day at their desks, not taking morning breaks, eating lunch where they sit, and making work calls from their cars during their commute.

While some people seem to take a perverse, competitive pleasure in seeing how many hours they can work, most people hate the status quo, and long for the good old days when employees weren’t in constant fear of being laid off, and didn’t feel the need to risk a heart attack, ulcer and/or nervous breakdown to prove their dedication to their jobs. And since more time at work means less time at home, maybe the increase in work hours could also be responsible for the increase in the divorce rate, and all kinds of youth issues like attention deficit disorder, depression, obesity, and brat-iness.

But while we may be working more hours than ever before, the reality is that we still have lots of time. Our biggest problem is that we waste it, which means it is possible to get some of that time back. It’s pretty simple really — make a list of all the things you wish you had time for, then make another list cataloging the way your time is actually spent.

A recent StatsCan study shows that the average workers’ commute has increased to 63 minutes a day — probably about right for the average Pemberton resident commuting to Whistler, but low for someone commuting from Squamish.

If you commute 63 minutes to work every day, that equals five hours and 15 minutes a week, and 41 hours a month — more than a standard 40-hour work week, and all of it wasted time. If you want that time back, then do what I did and find a place to live that’s two minutes from where you work. Or find a new job close to where you live.

And that’s only the beginning. On average, Canadians watch about 22 hours of television every single week, a statistic that is probably on the low side for most people. That works out to more than 88 hours a month, and 48 full days a year — one seventh of our lives if you take the long view.

Granted, I do watch a bit of television. I like movies, a few shows like The Simpsons and Colbert Report, and spend Saturday evenings watching hockey, but I’m nowhere close to 22 hours a week. Recently I got a cable tuner with a built-in recorder that allows me to watch my shows when I want, which is usually when I don’t have the energy or desire to do anything else. All of us have, and need, some downtime.

By living near work and keeping your TV time to 10 hours a week or less, you can easily find another 88 hours of free time a month. Cutting down on the unpaid overtime, if you’re on salary, can net you another 17 hours or so for a total of 105 extra hours a month. If you can’t get that work time back, and time is that important to you, then maybe you need a new job.

Altogether, taking these simple steps can net you an extra 1,260 hours a year, or about 79 full 16-hour days if you don’t include the time we spend sleeping. Add that on to our weekends, stat holidays, and two full weeks of vacation time, and most of us have more time than we know what to do with.

That time has always been yours to use or waste — what’s it going to be?