10 000 hours of nothing to do

I write this blog from the hallowed depths of my son’s tae kwondo classes.

Little Pencil loves tae kwondo with the same passion that I love chocolate.  That is a LOT.  I like to encourage him in all his pursuits especially tae kwondo because he is good at it and it is good for him.  It increases his confidence (and street cred), he is nimble and agile and can do a spinning kick better than most children his age and it also teaches him great focus and determination.  It also occupies a lot of his time. And I mean a lot of his time.

There are some weeks that Little Pencil persuades me to take him to four classes IN ONE WEEK.  Yup – there is a reason that he is so good at it.  I recently read a book by Malcolm Gladwell called The Outliers. In this book Gladwell talks about the 10 000 hour theory.  The theory states that the requisite amount of time to make you extraordinary at your chosen pursuit is 10 000 hours.  I’ll save you some maths time – 10 000 hours is 416 days of straight practice.  No meal breaks and no toilet break (unless your chosen pursuit is being really good at eating or going to the toilet)

When you are 8 years old it is pretty extreme to think that you can achieve this huge amount of hours – it is after all, over one eighth of your entire life.  Problem is Little Pencil does not get this, he just gets that he wants to go to Tae Kwondo classes and he wants to go often.

So while he is learning focus, dedication and a deadly left upper jab I am learning what I can achieve in bursts of 45 minutes (the duration of one class).

45 minutes may be enough time to teach the blue belt pattern or even an awesome turning kick but it is not enough time to achieve anything that is actually useful to me.
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I have tried to do the shopping.  This invariably ends in disaster.  Even tears.  The closest supermarket to the dojo also happens to be the slackest place on earth. The queues at the checkout rival only the queues at Medicare (which I have also tried and failed in a 45 minute block).  So while I race through the aisles (sometimes avoiding friends) I am conscious that I still have to contend with the check out queue.  What do you do when your child is waiting for you to pick him up, the trolley is full and the queue is not moving?  Well that is where the tears came in.  Little Pencil’s first (fear I would not pick him up) then mine (guilt).

I have even tried to use the time to get my nails painted.  It was actually quite relaxing being forced to spend the time pampering myself.  I chose a colour I really liked – unfortunately it was not the most subtle colour.  Unfortunately only because when you smudge a “non subtle” colour in an attempt not to elicit any more late pick up tears it is very noticeable. Put it this way – 45 minutes is plenty time to get your nails painted.  It is not enough time to let them dry properly.

Sometimes I try and read, but unfortunately I have gotten to that age where if I have a book in front of me and a quiet spot to read – I fall asleep. This is embarrassing for Little Pencil (apparently I have been known to let out a very delicate little breath – otherwise known as a snore) and bad for me because I always get woken up and I REALLY need the sleep.

I have tried to use the time to do some exercise of my own – even if it is just a walk around the block.  That doesn’t work because I am just lazy and very disorganised so I often turn up at Tae Kwondo wearing completely inappropriate exercise clothes (actually I do  that on purpose).

So now I turn to you. Short of actually joining the class myself (and apparently I am too old by 30 years or so) how can I use my 45 minute blocks effectively ? And remember I have 10 000 hours to fill.