Welcome to the sixth installment of The Non-Consumer Advocate Book Club. We are discussing David Wann’s Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle.
The first week we discussed the preface, introduction and first chapter, Taking Stock: How Foresight Can Cut our Losses.
The second week we discussed the second chapter, Evolutionary Income: An Instinct For Happiness.
The third week we discussed the third chapter, Personal Growth: Creating a Rich Life Story.
The fourth week we discussed the fourth chapter, Mindful Money: More Value from Better Stuff.
The fifth week we discussed the fifth chapter, The Bonds of Social Capital: The More We Spend, the More We Have.
The sixth chapter of David Wann’s Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle is titled, Time Affluence: How to Save Time, and Savor it.
The chapter begins with Wann writing that:
Time is a natural resource. Like copper or oil, there’s only so much available of it available — eighty-five years for each of us if we’re lucky, divided into twenty-four-hour (sometimes frantic!) parcels. When some new time-consuming activity comes along, like deleting endless spam e-mails, creating new passwords we’ll soon forget, or waiting in line for three-dollar gas, we don’t usually ask ourselves where the time come from to do these extra things. The truth is, time is often borrowed from important life functions, such as maintaining string relationships or cooking healthy meals from fresh ingredients. The more time we need to borrow, the less time is available for the things that make us feel great.
I have often thought about how everyone the world over gets the exact same 24 hours per day to live their lives. When there is someone whom I find to be highly accomplished, I think about how they’re simply using the same 24 hours in a different manner. Maybe they’re spending every waking moment in a productive manner, or may they’re just working smarter not harder.
There is a John D. MacDonald book called, “The Girl, The Gold Watch and Everything.” In this book the main character comes across a watch that can stop time. When my kids were little, I used to fantasize about what I would do if I had a possessed such a time stopping watch. Unlike the fictional characters who used the watch for excitement and hijinks, I simply wanted to stop time so that I could nap and maybe read a book. I felt like I could face the day a little better if I could just get some alone time to rest and rejuvenate. (Keep in mind, I was working nights shift at the time in addition to parenting two tiny boys.)
Wann quotes social commentator Jonathan Rowe, who writes that:
“Water left in a river or aquifer is working all the time. It sustains fish, forests, wildlife, and ultimately humanity, so it is with time. When we aren’t working for or spending money, we often are doing more genuinely useful things, like working on a project with our kids or attending a town meeting, or fixing a banister for an elderly neighbor. We might be sitting on a front porch or stoop, providing watchful eyes that help keep the neighborhood safe.”
Do we need to be productive all our waking hours?
In the section titled, “Where Time Goes” Wann writes that:
With credit cards on our pockets and 20 cubic feet of cargo space in our huge vehicles, we spend a large portion of our time hunting and gathering consumer goods.”
This, of course resonates with me, as I feel one of the unsung benefits to living a Non-Consumer lifestyle is that I am not spending much time shopping or even just browsing. I am someone who has a huge amount of free time, which is due to the decisions that I’ve made in my life. (Spend less, work part time, cook simply, not be a slave to a perfectly clean house and think twice before taking on extra commitments.)
The section titled, “Taking Back Our Time” focuses on how Americans take very little time away from work as compared to Western Europeans. Examples are given of people who were able to job share and work less, thus becoming less burned out and actually becoming more productive in the work place.
The chapter then addresses “Time or Quality” or what to do with all this newly found free time?
“Having lots of time available but not knowing what to do with it.”
“High quality leisure time takes creativity. We need to know ourselves well. What do we like to do? What are we good at? Do we want to fill our time or just kill it?”
I find this point interesting, as we’re all given those same number of hours in a day to fill. Sometimes I’m a very productive person, and sometimes I’m a slug-and-a-half. But aren’t both of these valid in their own way?
The last section in this chapter is titled, “Time to Let Go” and Wann writes about letting go of clock watching.
“Many days, it feels like everything is happening all at once. “I just don’t have the time” is the standard lament, and it’s literally true. We don’t have time — it has us. (Think about the word ‘deadline,’or the phrase ‘Drop-dead date.’)”
I am very much aware of how our days can fill up so much as to turn relaxation into misery. My family’s Fall season is dominated by soccer. There’s practice four nights per week, (two per son) and then two games every Saturday. Add to that school, homework and jobs and the stress of trying to pull dinner together and I am a very frustrated Non-Consumer. Our Summers are deliberately as unscheduled as possible, which makes the Fall season that much more of a shock to the system.
Although I give an overview of this chapter, I highly recommend that you actually read this book. Whether you check out a library copy, or invest in the author and buy your own, this is a great book to keep on your night table.
Discussion Questions:
- Do you feel like you’re in control of your free time, or is it in control of you?
- Do you value the time you spend doing non-productive activities, (Reading napping, socializing) or do you feel like these times are without merit?
- Do you feel that you spend so much time related to your work (commuting, buying work clothes, etc.) that it’s almost not worth it?
- Would you take a less than full time job if it were offered and you still got to keep your benefits?
- Do you feel like there are enough hours in the day? Why or why not?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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