Readers may have noticed there was no Modern Urban Gentleman entry last week. Readers may also have noticed this entry is being published near 10 p.m., stretching the promise of a new post on Wednesdays to the limit.

The gentleman keeps a full schedule. Too often, the balance of time management becomes a house of cards: one appointment runs late or an unexpected circumstance arises and the entire ledger must be shifted. Sometimes, a less important item goes undone — or a very important one is skipped to keep the rest of the day in order. These are the perils of a modern urban gentleman.

The mantle of gentleman weighs heavy on the shoulders of any who try to live to the high standards such a title demands. Just take a moment and review the guidelines laid down at the commencement of this endeavor. Attaining and maintaining that depth and breadth of engagement with the world is all-consuming.

The gentleman would have it no other way.

Idleness is a waste of the precious few years a gentleman is given to breathe life through his lungs. An important distinction must be drawn here: consciously creating rest time, whether to sleep, meditate, or otherwise “recharge,” is not idleness. Indeed, regular recovery is integral to the health of all gentlemen.

But all those rechargings must be earned through physical, mental, and spiritual work. To borrow a metaphor, a gentleman is always in the forge: feeling the fire of life, finding the imperfections in himself, and hammering them away. The rewards of this process are manifold; the gentleman attains ever higher levels of appreciation for the arts, the smells, the tastes, the thoughts, the relationships he encounters.

Alas, nirvana is not attainable, and the challenges are ever-present. The most insurmountable of these is time itself. The investment of hours required to reach the goals of the gentleman far outnumber those given for a single lifetime. Consider just a few of the gentleman’s ever-out-of-reach ideals, in the style of the Boy Scout Law. A modern urban gentleman:

• Is well-read. In the eight years since graduating college, the Modern Urban Gentleman has read 99 books. This certainly outperforms the average American total of five books read per year, but it means only reading 720 books between the ages of 22 and 82. According to Google, over 129 million books had been published as of 2010. Imagine the knowledge, the perspectives, the beauty left unexperienced by even the most ambitiously well-read gentleman.
• Develops an interest in many diverse areas. If there is one kind thing the Modern Urban Gentleman might say about himself, it is that he is conversant in enough topics to feel at home among many groups, from professional actors to professional wrestlers. Nonetheless, the extent of stunningly interesting areas of study and avocation across the globe is staggering. Tune in to an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and marvel at the pastimes and traditions of the people of Myanmar and Tokyo, Copenhagen and Lyon, New Mexico and Los Angeles’ Koreatown. The treasures to be found all across the map are so innumerable, so compelling, so utterly humbling when viewed through the lens of our hourglass.
• Learns and practices useful skills. Most gentlemen live in homes they could never build, drive in cars they could never fix, eat food they didn’t cook — let alone grow, hunt, or forage. We stand on the shoulders of those giants who invented and paved the way for us, and we should find no shame in that. But how exhilarating it is to craft something with one’s own hands, or to feel the brisk, bracing wind from a kayak as one paddles down a river. This gentleman has so many aspirations for skill sets to acquire, such as archery hunting, gardening, and tailoring. In the end, we are only able to focus on a precious few, of which we gain mastery of nearly none.

All of these, plus more, keep the gentleman ever striving. Add to that a full-time job, the administration of a website, a marriage, and so much quality television to watch and the Modern Urban Gentleman is left weary and searching for more hours. But without this stimulation, a gentleman would wither on the vine, fading into obscurity without adding anything to the people he met or the humanity he benefited from.

The Modern Urban Gentleman is reaching out to you, asking for your responses in the comments below. What are the things you just do not have time for — things that eat at you, things you wish you could fit into your schedule? How do you prioritize your time? And share the tips for time management you have found especially useful.

With those words and those questions, the Modern Urban Gentleman puts down the proverbial pen for one more week to get some of that well-earned rest.