All the flavors of time

There are many flavors of time.

There's work time and there's wander time.

Work time should be measured, evaluated, and analyzed.

Work time should be bounded, reflected on, and made more efficient (usually measured in terms of units of work/time). The main focus during work time is to get the best work done in the smallest amount of time. To do this, you make tradeoffs between the quality, quantity, and time to finish the work.

Wander time is the time you use to enlarge yourself or satisfy yourself in some way. Reading, tinkering, experimenting, painting, hanging out with friends, playing with children, partying-- all count as wander time. Wander time isn't supposed to be optimized. You cannot measure it in terms of getting the most satisfaction in the least amount of time. You could time-bound it though.

Then, there's chore time-- time you use to sustain your existence. Brushing, exercising, showering, sleeping.

And lastly, there's dead time-- time you're in a mental fog or just doing things out of compulsion. We've all been there.

Let's ignore the last two types of time since it's inevitable that they will take up some of your life.

A balanced person is one who allocates roughly equal amounts of their life to work and wander time. Whenever I've had too much of either, I've noticed something off. Too much work and I miss my friends and hobbies. Too much wander, I crave meaningful work.

One way to ensure this balance is to schedule activities that fall into both categories in advance. I'm trying to do this more.