Redundancy

Merriam-Webster defines redundancy as, “an act or instance of needless repetition,” and since some might question the word needless in this definition as too harsh of a word, let me substitute the word with another word that is more sterile - ongoing.  Merriam also uses the words superfluous repetition which I personally find has too much prolixity to it that simply put means unduly.  But, however you slice your bread, our lives are pretty much redundant.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that, we live for 80 and work half of those years and that our lives, on average, are pretty much like everyone else.  Here is what that looks like:

• 232,960 hours are spent sleeping
• 80,000 hours are spent working
• 13,440 hours are spent on vacation during 40 years of work
• 72,800 hours are spent eating
• 15,000 hours are spent getting ready for work (includes exercising) for 40 years of work
• 10,400 hours are spent driving to and from work
• 81,120 hours are spent watching TV during the 40 years of work
• 12, 480 hours are spent working in the yard on the weekend during 40 years of work

I am sure that you would have to agree with me now that our lives are, in fact, filled with unduly or ongoing repetition.  And, while some of us spend more than 8 hours a day working or more than 1 hour a day driving to and from work and spend more/less than 8 hours a day sleeping and/or read a book instead of watching TV, this is pretty much how our lives unfold.  In fact, on a daily basis, it looks something like this:

24 HOURS to start

-8 hrs sleeping

-8 hrs working

-16 hrs

8 HOURS remaining

-2 hrs driving/lunch

-1 hr for dinner

-1.5 hrs getting ready for work

-4.5 hrs

3.5 HOURS remaining

So, each of us has approximately 3.5 hours each day with which to play; of course, these hours could be diminished, if work continues past 8 hours or if our drive time to and from work is more than an hour, our daily free time could drop down to only an hour each day.

How do you spend your redundant “free” time?