What Would You Do With an Extra Hour?

Jen Shoop

9 hours ago

I wrote in my diary this weekend about the discomfiting feeling of arriving at the end of the day feeling behind. “…Then I browbeat, or scuffle around my room in shades of frustration. How are there not more hours in the day?“

I wondered to myself after writing that line:

what would I actually do with an extra hour in the day?

Would I fritter it away doing more of the to-dos on my list, or would I carve some lines around it, dedicate it to something particular? When we were just-married, my in-laws used to give us cash for our birthdays. On the surface, this might seem a little impersonal, but it was the best luxury and I have cosseted this idea away as the perfect gift for my college-aged children: $200 to do with exactly as they please, at a time when $200 would normally go to groceries and gas. I remember Landon always kept those two crisp bills in a separate part of his wallet, as a visual reminder that it was “his special birthday money.” He wanted to be intentional about its use, not trifle it away on bandaids at CVS and a haircut down the street. Or, perhaps trifle is the antonym of what I’m looking for here; the point was to spend money on something just for him, just for fun, just for celebration, that he might not normally treat himself to: a new putter; a really fancy bottle of bourbon; a date at a high-end restaurant; a plane ticket.

I’d like to think that if I had an extra hour in the day, I’d treat it like birthday money. I’d make bad art outside; I’d play a new board game; I’d drive to the Crescent Trail and walk for a good, round sixty minutes; I’d take up swimming at the adult pool; I’d sit outside and read. I’d do something just for my own pleasure.

Then I sit here and think — surely, Jen, your life is not so crowded-in that you can’t find some “birthday money time” in it as it is. Even thirty minutes; even now. Stand and stretch. Walk to the end of the block. Doodle on your notepad. Etc.

What about you, Magpie? What would you do with an extra hour in your day?