Times Again

I've already looked before at the difference in amount of spare time before and after leaving the brethren. After another relaxing weekend, I was in the mood to go through the calculations again - I'm never averse to a counting of blessings. In this case the blessings have been reckoned on a weekly basis.

My old schedule was never the most arduous compared to brethren in other areas, so it might be a useful guide to the lower limits of brethren time-management. For example, although work-times are getting more and more standardised, mine is still on the lenient side, and I don't have to go as far as some to get there. Similarly, journey times to meetings were almost as low as anywhere in the world.

So firstly there are some things which haven't changed.

Sleep takes up approaching thirty percent of my life (depending how I feel, that could be a scary thought or a cosy one). That hardly counts, so the remainder can be called "waking time".

Work and associated activities accounts for something over forty percent of my waking life, which isn't too bad, considering. I bet a lot of people, brethren included, spend more than half their time on work. I'll call what's left over "personal time".

Then, in my old brethren life, came meetings (the brethren's version of church-going, which is less formal and more insistent). I've included the enforced socialising in this, as it tends to all roll in together as part of a routine. That used to take up around a third of my personal time.

Beyond that, I'm guessing random compulsory activities accounted for another two or three hours per week on average, and again that's a low estimate because I always counted fewer things to be compulsory than many others.

Then into the realms of the theoretical as far as I was concerned. Reading the bible and ministry of various kinds was supposed to take three hours per day for males of responsible age. In my case, the real figure was never quite zero because I still look up scriptures when I think of them, but the time taken would barely register on the brethren scale. Come to that, I suspect only retirees would devote the full three hours to the bookshelves. If somebody in my position fufilled their duties to that extent, almost half their remaining time would be accounted for.

Already there is very little time left in the week, and what time remains is hardly useable for any personal activities because it's spread through the week in fragments - and I haven't taken all the other day-to-day things out of it, such as mealtimes, washing, all the human necessities.

What made me revisit this - and I'm sorry that I seem to be rehashing old postings instead of bringing out new revelations - was that I've had a few days which seem to have been mostly defined by deciding NOT to do things, and it makes a blissful change. I still have obligations, and probably have very little more absolutely free time than I had before. But if I decide not to go shopping today, the only consequence might be a bit less choice for lunch tomorrow. If I decided I couldn't spare the time for a meeting, I'd have had no end of concerned questions.

Some people seem to like having their life organised for them that way. It's been mentioned to me as one of the benefits I'm leaving behind. As far as I'm concerned, they're welcome to it.