As 2017 nears I'm forming a small list of ways I intend to waste time in 2017. Until recently, I've shaped my life mostly around efficiency. That is, "what is the most efficient and purposeful way I could spend this day/hour/minute." I've mistakenly lumped purpose with efficiency, but as life unfolds day to day in a more chaotic way than I've ever been used to, I've found the pressure of efficiency causes me to be less efficient, which leads to guilt and then more pressure. Something's wrong here. Less gets done. I'm more stressed and then I'm compelled to relieve that pressure with multiple distractions and then really nothing gets done. Enough is enough.

It's still coming together, but here are a few thoughts guiding my list for 2017:

What are the top roles and/or priorities for this year?

What will I regret doing/not doing when I'm 80? Where do I want to be when I'm 80? Is today helping me get there? (I've heard this thought numerous times from Lara Casey and it's already guided some major decisions.)

For years I've wanted to perfect the art of bread making. The end result, a loaf of bread, seems so simple and so mundane a goal. Why not just keep buying gummy grocery store loaves? Having lived in CO most of my life, I usually said the altitude intimidated me, and I've had enough baking fails to keep me at arm's length from trying again.

Plus, operating from the efficiency mindset, baking a loaf of bread has always seemed a waste of time to me. Why not bake cookies or go to Target? Why get flour all over myself and the kitchen?

It's exactly the simplicity of the project that appeals to me. It's the opportunity to perfect something people have done for thousands of years--making bread--with ordinary ingredients. It's the thrill that each loaf will be slightly different, and the satisfaction that comes with serving my family something made with time and love.