Why I stopped tying my shoes

It bothers my wife that I don’t tie my shoes… probably because she thinks I’m just like the kids (and most days I am).

But the reality is that my decision to leave my shoes untied has nothing to do with laziness or being a slob. It’s an intentional decision. It’s calculated. Literally.

I look at it like this. When I used to tie my shoes, it would take me about 30 seconds to tie and untie my shoes for the day. If I tie/untie my shoes just once a day, that’s 30 seconds x 7 days, or 3 1/2 minutes per week. No big deal. But that’s a little over 3 hours a year if I tie/untie my shoes just once a day.

I have better things to do with 3 hours. Is there a time for tied shoes? Maybe (weddings come to mind). But there are plenty of times that we’re spending seconds doing things that add up to hours over time.

It’s not really about the shoestrings. It’s about the time. How many things do we do that seem so small, but add up to big things over time?

Here’s some perspective:

Writing for 5 minutes a day = 30 hours a year

Checking email for 30 seconds twice a day = 6 hours a year

Watching 30 minutes of TV a day = 180 hours a year

The point is just this: Little things add up to big things.

It’s easy to evaluate the things you’re doing that take 3 hours a day, but what about the things you’re doing that take 30 seconds?