I did not get much chance to promenade today, what with shopping and sorting out my sick leave taking up most of my day. I did, however, find myself surfing to zenhabits, by chance really, whilst browsing my favourite social bookmarking site, digg.

99% of my hebdomadal visits there are are to peruse the gaming news, but today, for some reason, I clicked on the ALL [news] button, and found an entry entitled “How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals”.

At this precise juncture I feel there is a lot to be gained from Zenning up my life. I went through a period about a decade ago reading self-help books, books about Tai-Chi, breathing techniques and the like. From that time I remember two such books that made a deep impression: “Tao According To Pooh” and the “Conversations With God” trilogy (of which the third in the series failed to appeal).

The medication I’m currently taking, Sobril, allows me to live the days with little or no feeling of time-stress, and I am actually able to concentrate on one thing at a time, something which has been very difficult these past months. These tablets have enabled an abundance of blog entries the last few days, and will undoubtedly give me the chance to focus on decluttering my mind, the idea of which came from zenhabits.

I have already started work on my first task, choosing four or five free-time activities I wish to pursue, ditching the rest. A preliminary list, then:

1. time with family
2. videogames
3. writing
4. reading

So, with my priorities figured out, I need to look at other past-time activities to see how much time/money/effort they take away from my priorities, if I can add them to the list, take them away from my life, or if they can be enjoyed without detracting from my goals.

The first casualty will be to stop following my football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers. I currently pay about £20 a year for the pleasure of listening to them play; however, most matches are played on a Saturday afternoon, which takes away (important weekend) time from the family. Either I listen to them on the headphones (totally asocial), or I cannot hear the match because of Freya and Jo doing things together (which means a waste of money).

Another reason for giving up Wolves is for their frustrating lack of success, even against teams they should beat. Wolves are depressingly shite, and I do not think it prudent for my general well-being to involve myself in their failures.

Secondly, an activity which I enjoy immensely, but takes up far too much of my time: ebay.

The last month I’ve managed to get lots of bargain clothes, games and DVDs, stupidly cheap. This has only happened because of the amount of time I’ve invested in browsing through page after page after page of unsuitable auctions to find something I like, and, at the same time, is going dirt cheap. It is a thrill to get these items for very little money, but I need to become more efficient and limit my time spent searching. Coupled with this I need to set myself a spending limit per month, which will certainly decrease my ebaying activities.

This is as far as I have come, which isn’t bad for only having the idea an evening. I think I’ll assimilate the concept for a day or so, and see if it’s possible or even desirable.