Gap Year @40 — What I Learnt By Doing Nothing for First 2 Weeks?
I am on a gap year in 2021 to explore how I want to spend my 40s and craft my Life 2.0.
I started my gap year on 4th Jan 2021, Monday. In my Life 1.0, I worked in corporate life for 17 years (More on ‘why gap year @40’ given at the end of the article).
Typically, first week back at work after new year meant craziness. Instead, now I had an empty inbox and calendar! The day lay ahead like a blank slate. Beautiful!
I felt time affluent, i.e., the sense that you have sufficient time to pursue what is personally meaningful to you even if it means to do nothing. I first read about this concept in an article on ‘The Science of Well-Being,’ the most popular course ever at Yale (available free at Coursera).
Time affluence felt wonderful, yet I also felt uncertain. Now that I have 10–12 hours of free time on weekdays, how should I choose to spend it?
The first claim on time was automatic and welcome. Kids were resuming their online classes. The wifi was not working. Kids wanted to jump around, play, chat in between classes and were generally happy to see me hanging around at home beyond the morning and evening rush hours.
What about the remaining 6–8 hours? My first instinct was to fill it with many activities —…
