On Time, its Use, Matthew Kelly and Physical Chemistry

My lovely fiancee has turned me on to a fellow by the name of Matthew Kelly. Mr. Kelly is a Catholic thinker and speaker who has written a series of wonderful books, both audio and printed, on living a more meaningful life. I've listended to two of them in the car and they have changed the way I see the world. Here's a tiny tidbit.

Our blogging friend Scipio scribed a tongue-in-cheek lamentation the other day about how he wishes he had more time.

Christians are told that in times that this we are to pray that God magnify our hours. I will so pray today. Maybe He in His mercy will stop the sun to give me another day.

I used to feel that way, too and frequently fought insomnia because I was so eager to get up and get going on the things I needed to do that I would wake myself up at 4AM or earlier to get going. I used to average about 5 hours of sleep a night. Matthew Kelly is big on taking care of yourself, particularly when it comes to sleep. He made one simple argument that changed my behavior instantly.

Everyone has the same number of hours in a day, whether that's Thomas Edison in his lab or the drunk chick in the Las Vegas casino staggering off to her room at 6AM. The difference is the amount of energy you have when you're awake.

Having taken a few physical chemistry classes in my day, it made me think of the classical chemical reaction energy graph.


The chemical reaction can't occur if there is insufficient energy to get the reactants over that hump. Similarly, if you want to accomplish something significant in a day, you can't do it if you're exhausted. You need energy in order to do more than simply survive. No matter how long you let the chemicals sit around together, they won't do anything if you don't add heat. No matter how much extra time you give yourself by eliminating hours of sleep, you won't do anything worthwhile with it if you're dragging around all day.

So thanks to Matthew Kelly and my wonderful future wife, I now get enough sleep and I don't fret about having 2-3 fewer hours to work. That's turning out to be a good trade off.

Image used without permission from this Texas Tech website.