We all say we want and need “more time.” Well, tomorrow we get it. Because this is a leap year, February has 29 days instead of 28. What will you do with your extra day?
Use the day to enrich yourself. Start by thinking about some of the things you claim never to have time for. Whether that means spending more time with family and friends, grabbing your camera and going to the park or the zoo, reading for pleasure, etc., use your leap day to do something that will help your heart and soul.
Take on a project you can complete in a day. That might mean cleaning out the garage, writing a short story, building something in your workshop or taking a one-day class.
Start something. You know that thing you keep meaning to do? Use the day to get a head start on it. Pull out the language CDs you never listen to and start immersing yourself in French. Start writing your book. Sign up for a sports league, and get the equipment you need. Throw away the junk food and stock up on healthful foods. The hard part of each of these is getting started. Use your extra day to start, then just keep going.
Finish something. How many projects have you started and abandoned? Maybe you had a reason for not finishing, but in many cases we just get distracted or busy, or afraid of finishing, and we let things fall by the wayside. Pull out that needlepoint sampler you “almost” finished, or the photos you “almost” organized into albums, and get them done. Go back to the product you have been working on for six months but can’t seem to get done and finish it. Completing something gives you an incredible feeling of accomplishment that leads to accomplishing even more.
Stop something. Make leap day the day you end a bad habit, such as smoking, spending too much money, procrastination, or whatever your bad habit is.
Get something unpleasant out of the way. Do your taxes or something else you dread doing. Once it is done, you can move on to things you like to do, and you will not have that icky task hanging over your head.
Do nothing. You work hard, right? Do you ever take a day and do nothing? Try it.
Before you email me, I know that this is not really extra time. The extra day is added to the calendar every four years to adjust for the fact that it takes the earth about 365-1/4 days to make a revolution around the sun, not 365. But if thinking of February 29 as a “free” day motivates you to use it in a special way, why not take advantage of it? In fact, why not set aside a day every so often as a day to do the things you don’t normally do?
