What Does Daylight Savings Time Mean to You?

This has always been among my favorite days of the year.  The day we turn the clocks back an hour is the day that gives me more of what I value most ~ TIME.

At the risk of sounding weird, the old time-starved me always looked forward to this day with the same anticipation as a kid looks forward to Christmas morning.

While other people accepted this gifted hour as an opportunity to get some extra sleep, I saw it as so much more!  It was an hour to do something I didn’t otherwise have time to do.  That something might be fun like drawing or reading a book, but more than likely it was catching up on whatever I was behind on.

In an unusual twist of fate, I was actually granted not one, but two extra hours this fall: One, a week ago in Rome, when Italy moved their clocks back and one this morning, when we moved our clocks back in Ohio.

This is the Piazza del Popolo where Mike and I walked early on the morning of Italy’s time change. It was a wonderful way to spend that extra hour granted by the Italian government.

I was at peace during that walk.

I was unhurried during that walk.

I felt an incredible sense of what I’ll call time balance during that walk.

If you’ve been a regular reader, you know I’ve been focusing on minimizing my stuff and my commitments in my life. My lower stress level reminds me daily me that my life is much less hectic and more balanced than it was before the process of minimizing began.

More recently I’ve noticed three signs that I’m achieving what I’ll call time balance.

1. I’m actually getting around to projects I’ve always wanted to do, like: taking significant steps towards a paperless filing system, creating and maintaining a vegetable garden, and finally starting the once dreaded photo sorting and scanning project.
2. I’m paying more attention to my health and taking the time to more fully address chronic conditions, as well as incorporate more exercise and healthier eating into my life.
3. Most importantly, I’m relaxing more. Though some people still accuse me of being the Energizer Bunny, I’m now able to shift the bunny into low gear in the evening and hang out reading, watching sports or listening to music, instead of responding to emails, doing client write-ups or writing blog postings.

Today is probably the most significant evidence to date for me of achieving time balance because for the first time in as long as I can remember, I don’t have a plan for my extra hour.  I find this slightly ironic because, still struggling a little with jet lag, I woke up at 4AM, so I actually feel like I was gifted a couple of hours.

After what seems like a lifetime of being pressed for time, it feels amazing to wake up on this day without a plan for my hour and without a pressing need to catch-up on something.  It’s like a different type of Christmas morning.  The type when the kids are older and aren’t up at the crack of dawn.  The type that’s slow and relaxed.  The type that’s enjoyed in a different way.  I guess this is the new, on-going, gift that minimizing makes possible.  Whatever it is, I know that I like it. : )

What does Daylight Savings Time mean to you?  What kind a value do you place on having an hour added to your day?  What might life be like for you with more time balance?  As always, I love to hear your thoughts.