In my new job, I have more free time available to me than at any other time in my life. Add on top of that all the Coronavirus limitations, and I have hours at home to use up.

A recent podcast highlighted the reason why bingeing a TV show during the pandemic would be a waste of useful time. Game of Thrones is roughly 400 hours of content.

That same 400 hours could be used to learn a fair amount about graphic design, UX, or music theory. It got me thinking and reflecting on what I’ve been using my time for recently.

I’ve studied and learned a great deal about amateur radio, including lots about the scientific principles upon which radio communications work. (That’s just a nerdy hobby of mine). I’ve played a lot more music and made a conscious effort to spend time deliberately practicing making music in Ableton.

I’ve been spending time trying to understand more fundamentally how Bitcoin can have value, how blockchains work, and understand better how the 2008 financial crisis occurred.

That got me interested in markets and investing, and I’ve been spending hours listening to experts give lectures and speak in debates in educational settings, give keynote speeches, and reading.

I’ve also been spending time thinking philosophically about how my reactions to things colors life more widely. For example, if I allow myself to get pissed off at something, that raises net anger in my life. I don’t want to be angry and anger is not a motivational factor for getting my work done.

So, instead, making conscious choices not to let things out of my sphere piss me off means there is space for other reactions, musings, and freed up emotional space and brain power.

For many years, I’ve been interested in learning what things are so there is less mystique, I guess, or it’s just genuine curiosity.

I taught myself to weld and then designed and made a wood stove out of scrap pieces of industrial steel. One of those heats my parents’ house to this day. I’m confident with the right inspiration, we’re all capable of learning new skills at any stage in life.

Mosquitos breed on stagnant water but rivers in the mountains teem with life.

So, as the pandemic drags on, and the hours of possible time mount, I can’t say I’m feeling especially anxious about how I’ve used this time. I can recall at the beginning of all this, we were posing the question: you’re home now, a lot more, what are you going to do with that time? It’s been almost a year now. What have I done?

It’s hard to remember it all, but I took time to relax and recreate as well as learn new skills for work and life.

Making up on time in the forest I was remiss of in my last job.

Gratefully,

Gabriel Malikian

Gabriel’s Newsletter

Practicing being wise with time