COMMENTARY | A bit more time is something we can all use. With the daylight-saving time change on Nov. 6 this year, we all have the chance to gain a bit of useable time. One possible hack to gain time in your day is to get up at 5 a.m. after the time change. Your body is used to it, and for a while at least, you can use that time to get more things done. Three excellent ways to use that time are increasing exercise, improving organization, and learning a new skill.
For most of us, fitting in a few minutes of increased exercise is very difficult. Children, work, and significant others all require and deserve our attention. While the prospect of a hard workout is not necessarily inviting at 5 in the morning, light stretching, yoga or calisthenics can help get one moving towards the day. A recent article in the Lancet (Oct. 2011) identified the addition of even 15 minutes a day of exercise as adding three years to life expectancy. Adding additional time beyond 15 minutes a day was identified as further extending life expectancy, and even reducing the risk of cancer by 1 percent per year.
Organizing the day for oneself and family can take time itself. Use those extra minutes from daylight-saving time to put together healthy lunches, lay out clothes, or taken to an extreme even overhaul a problem area of the house. The hour before one would normally get up is an excellent time to review budgets or pay bills without distractions. The time change itself can be a disruptive influence on family life, so with a little further organization, that disruption can be reduced or eliminated.
Lastly, while one’s body is still used to getting up early during daylight-saving time, it is an excellent opportunity to spend in learning a new skill. The mind is fresh in the early hours, and probably better equipped to tackle such a project then, rather than at the end of a long day. Spanish or French language lessons may be infinitely easier to do in the morning quiet, so too one could practice writing poetry or learning a new computer code. A study of student learning styles indicates that approximately 40 percent of the population has a high affinity for learning new concepts in the morning. While some people are definitely not “morning people,” one could test their own ability to learn something new.
The resultant advantages of making use of the early morning hour from the time change to daylight-saving time may well allow one to get more exercise, and improve organization, and learn new skills.
Dunn, Rita, and Kenneth Dunn, Teaching Secondary Students through Their Individual Learning Styles. Allyn and Bacon, 1993.
Dr. Chi Pang Wen, Jackson Pui Man Wai, Min Kuang Tsai, Yi Chen Yang, Ting Yuan David Cheng, Meng-Chih Lee, Hui Ting Chan, Chwen Keng Tsao, Shan Pou Tsai, and Xifeng Wu. Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study, The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9798, Pages 1244-1253, October 1, 2011.