I don’t know about you, but I am rather dependent on my computer. It’s ridiculous how much I depend on it to do so many different things. What ever did we do before computers? We hand-wrote letters, and stuck them in an envelope and actually mailed them. We waited for responses and carried on with our life in the meantime. We did the checkbook by hand and we picked up the phone more frequently when we had a question.

Well, a few weeks ago my computer went into the computer hospital and it felt like I was donating my right arm to science for a few days. I’m sure I probably held my breath slightly while I handed it over. Within a few hours without my computer, I learned a few things.

I learned I really can still write long hand. It may not be as fast as I can type, but I used old fashioned paper and pen to do my writing. But more importantly, I learned I waste more time than I realized on the computer. The first day, I automatically walked back to my office frequently to check email or to research items on eBay or something similarly mindless. The first few hours, I actually found myself wandering through the house at times like I didn’t know what to do. Unbelievable!

That’s when it hit me that I have more “free” time in my day than I thought I did. I just didn’t realize how much time I wasted doing mindless things that didn’t really matter. It wasn’t huge blocks of time, but just little five and ten minute blurbs here and there and in between teaching or grading school work. For a mom, little blurbs of time in a day add up to be many much needed sanity-regaining-moments!

Since I’ve gotten my computer back, I’ve been more mindful of my time and how I spend it … even the blurbs. It’s sort of like gaining an extra hour in your day without daylight savings.

With today’s technology we are so plugged in and as a result it’s easy to not see how time savers become time wasters. So if you need a push to discover your extra free time, just ship your computer or iPhone off to the techno hospital for a few days. You’ll be amazed!