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I Have Exactly 20 Minutes to Complete This Post

Posted by Matt Birchler
β€” 1 min read

One thing I like to do that freaks some people out is that I very often have my free time scheduled down to the minute. "Free time is for relaxing!" they say, but I can't do that. To me, free time is a tool, an invaluable tool that can be used to either stop doing things or to move the needle forward on things you really care about. Lazing around and doing nothing has literally ZERO appeal to me the vast majority of the time.

This is why I write this blog, it's why I have a podcast, it's why I learned web design, and it's why I'm learning PHP. I do all of this in my free time because I want to continue to grow. I'm 30 and am married but I don't have kids yet. Looking down the line, there likely isn't going to be a time where I have as much time as I do now to work on whatever I want until I'm retiring at 65-70 years old.

I treasure all the time I have to work on whatever I want right now, and the idea that I could squander this time and have to wait another 40 years before I can set aside this sort of time again is a real kick in the pants. I have to do this stuff now, because it's never going to get easier than it is now.

With all that said, this is what my day looks like this morning:

7:00AM - Wake Up
7:15AM - Breakfast, coffee, catch up on news
7:45AM - Run
8:30AM - Shower
8:45AM - Secret project
10:00AM - Write blog post
10:20AM - Play Super Mario Bros 31
11:00AM - Make lunch with Beth
12:15PM - The Revenent

My alternative is to sleep in and chill on my iPad watching videos all morning. And while that has an appeal, I'm going to feel a lot better at the end of the day if I know I did all this instead. Now if you'll excuse me, it's almost 10:20 so I need to wrap this thing up and get some delightful, scheduled video game time in.


  1. I'm doing a retro gaming series on BirchTree over the coming months. More on this next week!