The routine developed naturally, not deliberately. By day, we spent all our time building a rose and kitchen garden. By night, I was behind the keyboard writing for LinkedIn, creating software, and building things we needed.

The nightly sessions started with a habit tracker, and then followed up with a budgeting tool, farm feed tracking, egg production logging, and a notes app.

My wife called the nightly sessions “tinkering.” I called them fun.

Tinkering has become synonymous with transformation. I lost my job of 23 years abruptly, opted for an early retirement, and quickly found myself staring at an empty void of time.

Time could no longer be filled with the pursuit of a career, chasing the weekends. I found myself in a different position, and filling it looked different.

The time you have is yours to own. You own it by doing what you want with it.

If you are also figuring out new ways to own your time, you may find insight here as I live my tinkering out loud.