This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
In 2024, we are given an extra day of the year, for Leap Year. This extra day would be a great time to dedicate ourselves to a day of service. This article will show you a day in the life of someone serving others on leap year 2024.
But first, some interesting facts about leap year. Leap Year only comes around once every four years. Every four years we are given an extra day, February 29th. There are about 5 million people in the world who have birthdays on this day.
This extra day is needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun. The earth takes about 365.24 days to make a complete cycle around the sun. Therefore, every four years, the world would be a full day out of sync with the calendar. Check out THIS article to see an image of what I’m talking about.
According to an old tradition, women are able to propose to men on leap day, rather than waiting for the man to ask.
What are you going to do with an extra day? Let’s spend that day serving ourselves and others. Here is a calendar below with ideas on how you could spend this extra day. Please adjust it to fit your lifestyle, and your family situation.
This article is all about adding an extra day of service for your leap year 2024.
7am-Serve Your Family
Wake up a little earlier than usual to make a special breakfast for your kids and spouse. Try to be more patient this morning as you help everyone get out the door to start their busy days.
8am-Serve Yourself
Do something kind for yourself to start your morning out right. Say your prayers, read your scriptures, and then get in a quick workout. Hop in the shower without getting distracted from your phone. In fact, you are going to want to stay off of your phone as much as possible today, so that you are able to stay on schedule.
9am-Serve Your Family/Yourself
Clean your house, so that your family can come home to a clean, organized home. Pick a drawer to organize, unload the dishwasher, wash your sheets, or make your bed. Set an alarm and clean for one hour, getting as much done as possible. You could even pick six areas to clean, and spend 10 mins in each area.
10am-Serve Others
Make a list of ten people who you would like to check on. These could be people that go to church with you, people in your neighborhood, family members, friends, or anyone. Send them each a quick text just letting them know you are thinking about them. If you still have time left after that, go around the house and find at least 20 things in your house to donate to someone in need, or a thrift store. Just grab a garbage bag or box and start collecting items. You can collect clothing, toys, decor, books, anything! Then throw the bag in your car, to drop off next time you are out running errands.
11am-Serve Your family
Throw a crockpot or instant pot meal together, so it will be ready for dinner tonight. Check out some of THESE delicious crockpot meals from Six Sisters’ Stuff. Also, make a treat to give away later today. Six Sisters’ Stuff also has some great dessert recipes, so check them out HERE.
12pm-Serve Someone You’d Like to Get to Know Better
Invite a couple of people over for lunch who you’d like to get to know better. You can also prepare a meal for them, or the easiest thing is to collect their orders ahead and order food to go. After lunch, serve them your homemade treat.
1pm-Serve Your Friends
Lunch Continued: If you are anything like me, you will need more than just an hour for your lunch time with friends. As you are getting to know these people better, make sure and compliment them, and try and listen to them. Make them laugh, and bring positivity into the conversation. Try to make the experience uplifting for everyone involved.
2pm-Serve Your Neighbors/Family Members
Write an actual letter (not an email or text) to someone and mail it off. While you are out and about, deliver your leftover homemade treats to one or two people, depending on how much time you have left.
3pm-Serve Your Neighbors
Complete a random act of kindness for someone on your street, such as leaving a kind note on their door, taking out their garbage, or picking up garbage on the ground. Be creative. If you have extra time, find another neighbor to serve.
4pm-Serve Your Community
Go to your local nursing home and visit with the residents, or visit an elderly person in your neighborhood. This doesn’t take any planning, but can really make a positive influence in someone else’s life. Many elderly are lonely and would love someone to stop by, just to talk and say hi.
5pm-Serve Your Family
Now that your crockpot or instant pot meal is ready to go, sit down and enjoy a delicious dinner with your family. After dinner, ask everyone to help clean up and then play a game with your family, or do a puzzle together. The point is that you are spending time together, without any distractions.
6pm-Serve a Community Member
Next, take a few minutes to send a short email to someone telling them they are doing a good job. This could be a teacher, administrator, church leader, doctor, medical professional, first responder, etc. Sometimes these jobs can feel very overwhelming, and thankless, so a note expressing your gratitude would be appreciated so much.
7pm-Serve Your Family
A simple way to serve someone in your family is to spend one on one time with them. Read to a child before bed. Play a video game with a child. Help a child organize their room. Give your husband a massage. Help your children get to bed. You don’t have to do ALL of these things. Just find something that you can do to serve someone else.
8pm-Serve Yourself
Now it’s time to serve yourself. Take a bath, paint your nails, put on a face mask, or whatever helps you to relax. Enjoy this time to yourself. Inform your family what you are doing ahead of time. Let them know you are going to play with them, and then take a quiet bath to help you recharge for the next day. If you get your family involved, they will be more likely to allow you some quiet time to yourself.
9pm-Serve Yourself
After you have pampered yourself, say your prayers, and then lie in bed and watch a movie, or, if you’d rather, go to bed early. You deserve it! You had a wonderful day today, full of service for so many others.
I hope this article inspires you to spend your leap year 2024 serving others. I also hope it allows you to see how much service you are already doing for others in your daily life.
Another great idea would be to get your entire family involved in service for others for leap year 2024. Help them to think of ways they could serve others at home before school, at school/work, at home after school, and at any extra curriculum activities they have going on after school. Make it a tradition to have a day of service once a year, once a month, or once every four years. 🙂
If everyone in the world spent their leap year 2024 serving others, the world would be transformed. Let’s serve!
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”-Howard Zinn
This article was all about adding an extra day of service for your leap year 2024.