poverty." Organizers say thenumber of hours Americans spend working has risen dramatically over the last 30 years. Consider these items from the "Take Back Your Time" handbook:* Between 1979 and 2000, married couples aged 25-54 saw theirtotal number of hours of paid work rise by 388, about 12 percent.* Almost 40 percent of workers put in more than 50 hours perweek.* 26 percent of American workers don't take any vacation time.* Since the 1980's, work hours have risen by about half apercent annually.Experts say "time poverty" is hurting our marriages, ourphysical and mental health, our civic life, our kids and the environment.Maybe you feel the pressure: Having too little time to exerciseor prepare healthy meals. Being electronically leashed to your job when you crave a chanceto relax. You or someone in your family putting in ever longer hours at work for fear ofbeing "...

...downsized." Then there are the more subtle signs. Ever notice the waygetting time with friends requires searching your calendars to find a small patch ofmutually available time weeks away? Or maybe your dog looks under-exercised and lonely.It wasn't always so. Around 1900, American working hours had long been declining, andeconomics books and articles predicted the continuing expansion of leisure time,writes leisure scholar Benjamin Hunnicutt. In the 1920s, Hunnicutt states, Julian Huxley said in a speechthat a two-day work week was inevitable because "the human being can consume so much and nomore...." In the 1930's, economist John Maynard Keyes observed that "when we reach thepoint when the world produces all the goods that it needs in two days, as it inevitablywill...we must turn out attention to the great problem of what to do with our leisure." I was amazed to learn from Hunnicutt that the Kellog cerealfactories began a 6-hour workday in the 1930s. Productivity rose, workers lavished timed on theirfamilies, and commercial recreation and nonprofit organizations flourished.Yet, here we are, 70 years later, with complex economic,political and cultural realities leading to ever-shrinking windows of time for nurturingourselves and our ties to each other.What to do?On one hand, activists suggest, you could respond as anindividual. You might: * Schedule once-a-week or once-a-monthfamily times. * Keep a "time diary" to raise your awareness ofhow you spend time. * Write to your newspaper about timepoverty. * Organize a civic or religious gathering to discusstime issues. * Claim a block of time for cooking slow food,cuddling your pets, making music or photographing something beautiful.Or, you can join with an organization. Advocacy groups aroundthe country are organizing teach-ins, conferences and discussion groups about overwork andtime poverty. A new "It's About Time" Coalition is bringing overwork to the attention ofcandidates for public office.To learn more, visit www.timeday.org and www.worktolive.info.(c) 2004 Norma Schmidt, Coach, LLC...