Sleepless Occupations – Open Book Blog Hop #173

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

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Topic #173

If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

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Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

There is so much I would do if given more time. I think we all would. It’s a common conversation around the watercooler, the kitchen table, over the phone with mom. I’d love a few more hours to my day. Yes, indeed.

First, I’d flip my schedule so that I work over the night hours, then I’d start with getting the cleaning done on a regular basis. It can be very relaxing–meditative–and reenergizing. Next, I’d exercise more. If I weren’t so tired by the end of the work day, walks and other workouts would be great. I’d even walk to the grocery store near me, instead of driving. My dog would be thrilled by all the activity (probably not with the more frequent grooming—read that as baths). After that, I’d work more diligently on my garden. With all of that done, I could while away the hours on my art, and I don’t just mean my writing. I could bake/cook, sculpt, arrange jewelry, draw, paint, and design my heart out. 

Outside of those things, which I manage to fit into my schedule on a small scale, I would work on two of the most important things in my life: spending more time with my daughter, and working on marketing my books effectively. Not a day goes by that it doesn’t bother me that I have to go to work instead of spending time with my toddler. She’s in a great daycare getting the early education she needs to be successful. That is a great comfort to me, but I wanted to have a child very badly and I feel like I am betraying that truth by not always being there. My own mother assures me that feeling isn’t unique. She hated having to work, instead of giving her children her time, but the way the world works is that we have to earn money to survive, and we have to do that at least on a 9-5 schedule. 

It would be amazing to have more time, without worrying about getting the basic 8 hours of sleep each night. But, I would miss my dreams. My books have mainly come from those forays into other worlds. Without dreams, I may not be able to write. Instead of less sleep, I’d prefer to have more hours, whether that is an even number dark versus light doesn’t matter to me, but I think it would be best to let whatever is necessary for the earth to

function best. But, anyway, wouldn’t that be great? To have 8 more hours tacked onto the day, so we could get sufficient sleep, and still have time to both work and spend time with family and friends…I can’t imagine anything better. Now, those extra 8 hours might not be enough rest with the extended day, but I think it would provide almost enough. You might need 12 hours, but that means you’d only lose 4 hours out of the current amount of time, instead of at least 8. That would be a net gain of 4 more hours a day and that’s actually quite a lot of time. 

What if employers extended the work day though? You know they would likely try, because it would mean greater profits for them. If we allowed it, that would be terrible, because that would certainly be a zero net gain. And, we wouldn’t likely make more money, just work harder and longer. I can’t imagine that there would be a shift that would compensate with earlier retirement, either. 

Let’s hope that somehow our days get longer, the world gets healthier, and that employers don’t make us spend all that new time slaving to earn them more money they don’t need. 

Hop on over and see what the other authors would do with more time on their hands… 

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