No Time for Life Time

I have a list in my purse. It’s written on a medium-sized, ruled fluorescent green Post-it note. Down the left side is a “Need to Do” column. Down the right side is a “Want to Do” column. The list reminds me off all the things in life I don’t have time to do.

Among the items on the left side of my note are reminders to renew my passport, organize my medical bills from an ankle injury last December, fill out a set of financial papers, mail the 10-inch ponytail of hair formerly attached to my head to Locks of Love, and return a couple of phone calls.

Among the items on the right side of my note are desires to take piano lessons, learn to surf, make progress on my book, sign up for a nature writing class, start running again, learn Spanish, and figure out how to work my digital camera. And I’ve been carrying three books I’d like to read around in my purse that I haven’t had a chance to add to the list.

A bit of progress has been made. I returned the two phone calls noted in my “Need to Do” column, although I had to leave a voice mail in one case, which essentially canceling out the progress I made by making the call in the first place.

My “Want to Do” column has seen a bit more action – earlier this week I ordered “Behind the Wheel Spanish for Your Car” from Amazon, and I found a nature writing class, although I haven’t yet signed up.

I do this every so often. Realize that the everyday obligations of life keep me from weeding through the must-dos and getting to the want-tos. Then I rebel against long work days and traffic rams and make a list of all the things in life I think I’m missing, things I believe I’ll regret not doing when I’m 90. I worried that time will pass, want-tos will get brushed aside, and I’ll end up very bored with myself once I have a moment to contemplate the sum of things.

Almost always, I manage to do some of the items on both sides of the list of the moment, but inevitably, my Post-it note gets lost in bottom of my purse as life’s daily maintenance edges its way back into prime position.

A Los Angeles Times article earlier week makes a compelling case for finding the time to take a vacation. Travel is among the things that should be included in my “Want to Do” column, but it hasn’t even made it on to the list because it seems so improbable. Instead, details of trips to Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa and Costa Rice are relegated to daydreams translating loosely to the “Need to Do” list item of renewing my passport.

But as it turns out there is a good motivation to fulfill vacation wants. Apparently, people who do are generally healthier and less likely to have a heart attack, experience lower levels of stress and depressions, and might even be happier in their marriages.

Aside from an actual vacation, even long working hours compromise leisure time and health. Those who work between 40 hours a week are 14 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than those who only work 11 to 39 hours a weeks. For 41 to 50 hours a week, the rate rises to 17 percent and goes up even higher to 29 percent for people working 51 hours of more. I hate to even think about the additional physical stress a lengthy commute to and from a job might put on health.

So, how much time away do we need? While people vary in how long it takes for actual relaxation to set it, the experts consider 10 days to be the minimum with two vacations a year offering the most benefit – hmmm, seems I have a case for lobbying the HR department for more days off.

In the nine years I’ve been out of college and working, I can’t recall even coming close to taking two, 10-day vacations in any one year, let alone finding the time to make progress on my “Want to Do” list. And my guess is I’m in pretty good company, and this probably isn’t all that uncommon.

How strange that we don’t make time to do the things that interest us and that would enrich out lives. It is way too easy to rationalize that work is more important, and convince ourselves we’ll do the other stuff when we are further along in our careers, or after this project is over, or when things slow down.

The problem is they never do. And the items on the “Need to Do” list somehow eventually get done in the moments between work and daily obligations and the “Want to Do” list just continues to get longer. Which reminds me: I need to replenish my Post-it note supply. But, really, who has the time?