December 18, 2004
The fallacy of free time

I haven't been attending a full time job in the last few weeks, one might think that should give me quite a few hours of free time, right? Not so! It appears I'm far more busy now than I ever was working. I just don't get paid as much doing it.

I think I found a new disorder:

Out-of-work-so-I-have-tons-of-time-for-all-kinds-of-projects-itis.

I wake up in the morning with the idea that I have all these free hours to do all these things I have always planned on doing, except it turns out once my day fills up.. well, it fills up.

I need a job so I can start to relax again!

Posted December 18, 2004 09:11 PM in Geek Stuff
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Comments
On December 18, 2004 09:59 PM Greg Wilson added:

I quit my job at HP in mid-September to work on a couple of books, and do some teaching at the University of Toronto. I've been busier in the 13 weeks since than I was in the year before; always am, when I'm doing things I _want_ to do. Of course, watching my bank balance do the "down and to the right" thing isn't fun... ;-)

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On December 19, 2004 02:26 AM Luis added:

Yeah, tell to me.
I was tired of desinging-coding non-stop marathons till I managed to get out there, now I'm more busy than ever... too.

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On December 19, 2004 04:17 AM david added:

Then again, when you find a job..you won't be able to do any of that other stuff anymore..

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On December 19, 2004 01:02 PM Kris Johnson added:

I took a year off from work, voluntarily, after getting burned out at a past job. It took me about three weeks for me to really start to "relax", meaning that I was able to stop thinking about the last job. Then I had about a month of peace where I did nothing but take long walks and watch old movies. But then I had the itch to start doing things again.

It's important to set some goals and constraints for your "free time". Don't overplan, but make sure you set aside some time every day for chilling out. Get plenty of sleep, exercise, and all those other healthy things you didn't have time to do when you had a full-time job.

Think about what your real goals are for your projects: are you trying to learn new things, to create something that will help you get a paying job, or are you just trying to have some fun? You also need to prioritize. Having lots of free time doesn't mean you can do lots of projects. Make some decisions about what you really want to accomplish, and put everything else on the back burner.

Also be sure to set aside some time for non-work-like projects. In other words, don't spend all your time programming: develop some hobbies. During my time off, I learned to sail, learned to use Photoshop, and composed and recorded some music. (Now that I have a job, I really miss being able to do those things.)

Being without income and looking for work is plenty stressful. Don't compound the problem with too much self-imposed stress.

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On December 20, 2004 05:37 PM Paul added:

I took 3 months off from my last job before even thinking about getting a new one. I didn't even have a resume prepared!

Calling back to rants of old, there are just so many wonderful things out there with your time that you just can't get to when work is in the way! Even some household chore like repainting and fixing up a room of your house becomes a rewarding experience.

I hope you enjoy it while you can.

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