If I had to pick a favourite between the “Spring Forward” and “Fall Back” time change, the winner has to be “Fall Back”. Not only do we regain the hour that we lost in the spring, but in the days that follow, in feeling sleepier at bedtime and falling asleep faster, it seems to make for a more restful night’s sleep.
The downside is that we are thrown back into darkness earlier in the afternoon. Losing that hour of natural light late in the day seems to make those winter months feel like they drag on and on, thus invoking the urge to curl up on the couch with a pillow, a blanket and the remote… or is that just me?
But on the upside, that extra hour holds so many possibilities for things to do. Here are ten ideas:
10. Catch up on the things that weren’t completed when the hour was taken away last spring
In our time-starved, busy lives, it can be pretty amazing how much we can miss that hour in the spring. At a time when we are itching to shed our winter parkas and fling the windows wide open to welcome the new season with open arms, deducting an hour from the spring cleaning, gardening or outdoor sports training agenda seems counterintuitive when there is so much to do.
9. Adjusting the clocks
Thankfully, many of the clocks in the house take care of themselves now and reset automatically. But for the ones that are not connected to computers and that need a little manual intervention (and sometimes require a refresher from its user manual), it seems that a good 15 minutes can be gobbled up just on clock detail.
8. Debating the merits of the time change
Between the recent reports on regions looking to remain on Standard Time year-round, to the articles weighing the pros and cons or speculating on the actual savings of Daylight Savings Time, a reader could easily use up that extra hour just reading up on the extra hour.
7. Writing a blog post about the time change
In four years of blogging, I hadn’t written one yet. It was time!
6. Explaining the principles of Daylight Saving and Standard Time to children
With the prospect of sleeping in an extra hour, how does one convince small children to not wake up the house when their internal body clocks tell them to “Rise and shine”?
5. Explaining the principles of Daylight Saving and Standard Time to pets
With the prospect of sleeping in an extra hour, how does one convince pets to not wake up the house when their internal body clocks tell them to “Rise and shine”?
4. Replacing the batteries in the smoke detectors
For the sake of safety and security, while doing the tour of the house to reset the clocks, replacing the batteries in the smoke detectors seems like a pretty good idea. By coordinating the battery change with another major recurring event, the batteries are always fresh and doing their job.
3. Listen to Cher’s “Turn Back Time” 14 ½ times
Why not?
2. Catching up on fall TV shows accumulated on the video recorder
While an hour won’t necessarily make a huge dent, it can certainly help alleviate the bottleneck created by the networks when they schedule several good shows in the same time slot.
1. Live in the moment: relax and enjoy
If items 2 through 10 don’t appeal, the other option is to simply take it easy and enjoy that extra hour with unstructured play time, whether that means sleeping, lounging, sipping a favourite beverage, reading or enjoying quality time with loved ones.
With the list of ideas above, it is easy to cram in more than one hour of activity into the reclaimed hour. But ultimately, that banked hour can be a bonus and whether you choose to use it to get things done or to simply live in the moment, enjoy it to its fullest! Cheers!
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
It's the Journey 