A day is made up of 24 hours and that gets divided, roughly, into 3 parts. We sleep for one part, we work for one part, and we get to play for the remaining part. People sleep anywhere from about 6-10 hours a day, leaving about 14 to 18 hours for work and play. If a person works an average of 8 hours a day, he’ll have between 6 and 10 hours left to play. However, most people work at their jobs at least 8 hours a day, and then they have work to do at home – dishes, laundry, weeding, mowing, mopping, cooking etc. If we figure another 2-3 hours a day of more work, that only leaves about 3.5 to 7.5 hours to play. But wait, what about doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments, haircuts, oil changes, grocery shopping, and getting to and from work and all your appointments?!? If we knock another hour, hour and a half off the playtime, we’re down to like 2 to 6.5 hours of time for fun each day. Add any other sort of work and that playtime is either very minimal or completely gone.
So, essentially, we sleep for 1/3 of the day, we work for most of the rest of it, and if we’re lucky, we get a little time to play, here and there. Sleep is essential and we’ve got to have it, so there’s no negotiating there. Everyone’s gotta do some sort of work to support their life, so that’s non-negotiable, either. If you want to have things and take care of them, they also require work, so that is also non-negotiable. It seems the only thing we can keep getting rid of is our playtime.
And we do. We work and work and work and work and work and work and work and then we sleep and then we get up and do the whole thing over again. Day after day after day after day after day after day after day. And, we wonder why we’re depressed? It’s because we’re not leaving ourselves any playtime!
Playtime is as important as sleep and work and it must not be neglected. The easiest way to make sure you get playtime into every day is to try to make your ‘work’ as much fun as possible. If you are working a job that you absolutely hate, you need to seriously consider changing jobs and do something that will sufficiently support you, but that will also be fun and rewarding sometimes, too. Too many people feel like they are ‘trapped’ at horrible jobs that they hate. Usually it’s because they have accumulated so much debt that they cannot go any time without a paycheck and really look for a job they’ll enjoy or take some training that would prepare them for a better job.
If you’re in that position, working a job you hate to support debt you don’t need, start clearing the ‘things’ out of your life that are not necessary. Bring your expenses down, then focus on yourself and get yourself a job you can really enjoy doing. Or, if you like your job well enough, but you have to work lots of hours to get money for all the things you’ve brought into your life, consider downsizing your lifestyle so you can give yourself back some of your playtime. It’s great to have lots of ‘toys,’ but if you never get to ‘play’ with them, what good are they?
