I think a lot about how I spend my life and what I might be able to do to get more out of it. The problem, however, is that change is hard.
I'm not content with how society wants us to spend our time and money: getting iPhones, going out to eat constantly, going on weekend vacations, buying things on the internet, watching TV, etc.
I try to analyze what I do... but like I said, it's hard to change it.
My life consists of the following:
Waking up: I get up in the morning, my wife has already left for work/school, I get my morning cup of tea and eat a bowl of cereal. While I wake up, i sit down at the computer and check my email. I fiddle around on the Internet for abuot 15 minutes until I'm fully awake. I get ready for work, usually only doing the absolute minimum to walk out the door with self-respect. If i don't have to shave that say, I won't. I used to dress nice to go to work, but these days it's shorts, flip-flops, and an old shirt. I just don't care anymore.
At work: I ride the bus, try to get irritated with the chronicly homeless and crazies, and then arrive at the office. I sit down, turn on my computer, and check my email. I then start "working" which usually consists of one monitor of actual work, and the other monitor of personal email, JWD, or some other blog/forum I routinely visit, or the news. Depending on the day, I do anywhere from 8 hours to 0 hours of actual work. Sometimes I have to get something out the "door" by the end of the day and I actually enjoy working hard and getting things done. It's the days when I'm not productive that kill me.
Going home: In any case, I go home around 4:30-5:00, check my (real) mail, and then begins my favorite part of the day. I do some cleaning of the house, getting things orderly, turn on the radio and listen to NPR, and then maybe start cooking. By then my wife is home and we cook together. Alternaively, before cooking, we might go on a run/walk up through a nice 3-mile pathway near our apartment. Then we get back and start cooking. That's the absolute BEST part of my day. After dinner, we usually go over to the flat screen and watch a TV show on the Internet, like House, Mary Tyler Moore, or This American Life. Then it's pretty much done. At night, she falls asleep within 5 minutes, and I stay awake in bed, read, and then toss and turn for the next few hours.
What the hell am i missing? I have a cushy job, i make a decent living, i have a very easy and relatively carefree life. But it's driving me insane.
For one, i spend WAY too much time on the internet doing the most mundane things ever. Like Facebook. What a complete waste of time. Email is good, but general internet surfing is a huge waste of my time and energy. But it's hard because my lifestyle is completely built around not being productive at home, not having any space to be productive or creative. Just eat, sleep, work, and live your life on the Internet.
My ideal lifestyle would be to live and work at home, making things, growing a garden, cooking with fresh foods, working around a ranch/farm, going into town once in a while, but most of the time just keeping to my own business.
I just don't think city/suburban living is for me.
So what about your life? What kind of lifestyle do you have? And is it simple enough? Are you happy?
