I had coffee with a friend the other day, someone who also loves reading. We discussed how I now have the luxury of time to read a lot more and how he wishes he could also read more but does not have as much time.
It is common to hear this message, that time is the limiting factor these days, and we speak of it as an unchanging currency, but one thing that doesn't come up as often is the variance in the quality of time; experiencing an hour can differ greatly depending on the time of day and the activity at the time.
Though I have more time to read, it is the quality of my reading that has increased disproportionately. A couple of years ago, I had a long commute between D.C. and Fairfax. During these bus and subway rides, I tried reading some classics, such as The Scarlet Letter and Meditations. These were brutal to get through and I felt as though I was wasting time; I would catch myself mindlessly reading and forgetting what the previous pages were about. Now, I find I can focus better and for longer. I'll stop more frequently to think through ideas and to jot down notes, and after finishing a book I'm able to remember more content.
I use reading as an example, but this time quality variance applies to other activities in our lives. It requires applying some self-awareness to discover what activities at what time works for each person. I once heard of a suggestion for networking through 'breakfast meetings' and it horrified me; my mind instantly thought of the modified Sartre quote that 'hell is other people at breakfast'. But for some people, a breakfast meeting works well for their schedule and temperament.
I find that I really only have two windows of the day during which I can accomplish any writing. After I first wake up naturally at some point between 8 and 10, I have to go on auto-pilot to make coffee. While sipping on coffee and reading, my lagging brain starts to catch up, and by late morning it'll kick into active mode, at which point I'm able to write. In the afternoon, I'll get tired and will spend some time playing piano, or reading something light. I can do edits, but it's hard to write new content at this point. In the evening I'll do a long run, and then before bed I'll experience another window of mental alertness and focus where I can write or read something fairly intense.
This schedule is very different from when I was working in a 9-5 office environment, and I suspect I'm not the only one whose natural mental working rhythms do not necessarily reflect the structured workweek that evolved out of the days of industrial manual labour work.