Got my mind on my time and my time on my mind

First of all, at the bottom of this post are a few baby pictures to tide you over until I get a decent baby post worked up.

For the last 5 year, I've dedicated considerable efforts to my finances. Using a strategy oddly resembling A Christmas Carol, I worked on the financial problems on my past, evaluated how I was today, and tried to protect and set myself up for the future. Thankfully, I've succeded - for the most part, anyway, and learned a lot.

Earlier today, I was reflecting on similarities between my past (read: ignorant) spending habits and how they resemble how I spend some of my freetime during weeknights.

Time and money have always been closely connected, from cliches to how we get paid in money per time ratios. I had never really lent much thought to this connection until today. Time is spent, just like money, and should be controlled and managed so you can realize it's fullest potential. I suspect you're with me here, so I'm not going to go all "infomercial" on you - save for a few ideas I had.

For now, I just want to focus on weekdays. Most of my day is accounted for. From the time I get up, which is as late as possible but still in time to get to work on time, to the time I get home - usually around 6-8 at night, I have little control over my time. At night, however, I have many hours, usually three to six hours, that I have to work with. Let's average that out and say I have a budget of 4.5 hours each weeknight. Here's how I usually spend my time now:

Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.75
Chores, errands: 0.25
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 0.75
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 2.75
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4.50

Clearly, I don't need almost three hours of vegging out time. I used to spend money on things like computers, movies, restaurants for the same reason: I had extra resources and I wasted them because I made lazy and "American" choices. Nowthat I fixed that with my finances long ago, it's now time to work on my time budget.

Here's my new time budget for the evenings:
Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.50
Chores, errands: 0.50
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 1.00
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 1.50
Studying 0.50
Sleep! 0.50
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4.50

I'm investing a small percentage my time for the future by studying more than I usually do doing during the day. I also am spending more time sleeping and working on my household. Doing these household thing (cleaning, bills, fixup projects) wont' be fun, but will reduce my stress and make me happier in the long run, I expect.

After two months, I'll take a look at how this went and maybe even start in on my weekends.

For fun, try see if you can translate financial terms like CD's and interest into time matters. This is particularly effective if you're trying to fall asleep at night.