Sunday Sundries: But Seriously, Where Does The Time Go?

This isn't going to be one of those 'OMG, it's the middle of May ALREADY?' kind of posts, because I think we've all seen enough of them to last a lifetime. Having said that, I had an actual 'how is it the 16th May already?' moment on Friday because wasn't my birthday about a week ago? No, it was not.

Here are some life things that are happening at the moment- I worked extra hours this last week because work is really busy and I'm a sucker and, more importantly, a poor sucker. In my non-working hours, from Thursday, I've been going to the hospital to see my dad who has an infection (which he gets a lot, so it's not a crazy huge deal, but it's still stressful and it was the first time I'd been back to the hospital since my nan died there, which was difficult) and, you know, trying to keep running and do useful things.

This isn't really a post about that, either. I know where this past week has gone (Work. Hospital. Work. Hospital.) but I really don't know where the 5 and a half weeks since my birthday have gone, passed in a blur where, somehow, I haven't even found the time to watch Breaking Bad, or really anything of anything. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and I like the fact that time is going faster than it did for the first three months of the year (syrupy, slow grief time) but I'm constantly asking WHERE HAS MY TIME GONE?!

I have a few explanations. Firstly, I don't live with my parents anymore. I know, DUH, but this has made a big difference to the amount of time I have because I have to do so much more life admin now. Making dinner, doing washing, washing up, putting stuff away, food shopping... all the little bits of stuff that I need to do to keep going that all eat away at the time I have to do stuff like watch Breaking Bad and, like, read stuff. I'm not complaining about this at all, because I do love living not with my parents, but this whole losing time thing does take some adjusting to.

Next- I don't drive. So this means that whether I'm doing life admin, going to work, or pretty much doing anything, I have to leave earlier than a normal person, and will return later because I have to stick to the timetables of public transport rather than my own. Again, I'm not complaining, and actually I don't mind the amount of time I spend on buses because (as long as I'm not basically asleep) I can get some reading done and make that time useful. That's really the advantage of not driving- I can do useful things whilst actually in movement, which is kind of cool.

And then, finally. I have a mini iPad now. I didn't think I'd use it that much, I thought it would mostly be a novelty thing, but actually I kind of use it for everything. Plus, The Sims is a thing on it now and that is the hugest time suck ever. I can literally wake up in the morning and lose at least half an hour of my life looking at my phone and then switching to the iPad. It doesn't feel like I'm wasting time when I'm doing it, but it definitely feels like it when it's 11pm and I haven't done anything useful in the day other than completed 5 candy crush levels and created a new Sim.

I probably had a point somewhere in there, but I don't really know what it was anymore. I guess the thing is this- I am willing to sacrifice time to make sure all the life admin stuff gets done, I don't have much of a choice about the public transport thing, but I can definitely limit the amount of time I spend staring at screens and whatnot. Not that that's not a perfectly legitimate leisure activity- it totally is, but when I'm doing it at the expense of other things that I do actually really want to do, then it becomes an issue.

What about you? How do you make yourself STOP PLAYING THE SIMS and do other things? How can I regain time? WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?! (Don't worry about that last one, I can't even answer that.)