Seth Godin had an interesting post on effort yesterday.  Interesting in that it made me stop and think.  And after I thought about it, I decided marketing might be a better career choice than software engineering.  Why?  Because of this statement right here:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ’spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

There is one big assumption in that statement.  That I actually have 120 minutes of spare time in a day.  I don’t read the newspaper.  I don’t really just sit and watch TV.  I usually have it on in the background on some sporting event and look up occassionally to see what’s happening.  I already spend zero time on social networks.  I don’t even have a Facebook or mySpace login for crying out loud.  As it is, I work between 60 – 70 hours a week and only get more than 5 hours of sleep per night on the weekends when I’m happy if I get up to 7.  And the idea that I could eliminate meetings at work is a power that must only be posessed by those in departments that have a required 2 drink minimum.

Could I eliminate the commuting time?  Sure.  I could sell my house (or attempt to) in a bad market, move to downtown Milwaukee, and send my kids to crappy MPS schools all while paying higher taxes on a smaller place to live.  Oh, and did I mention that smaller place will cost me more money to buy?  But, I’d get back 45 – 60 minutes of my day spent commuting.  Seems worth it.

I don’t mean to belittle Seth.  I happen to think he’s got a lot of great marketing ideas and tends to have some unique insights on the world at large.  However, if I could get 120 minutes back from day, the first thing I’d do is get some more sleep.