Every four years we’re lucky enough to have an extra day in our calendar year to give us a special excuse for celebration: Leap Day.

If you’re anything like me, you understand that leap year signifies more than just a day of catching up with Earth’s alignment of the sun — it’s a whole extra day of the year. 24 extra hours to do anything you choose. It seems unfitting to spend this day doing the same things I do just about every other day. I’m specifically going to spend my extra time doing something special. And I hope you too can make the most of this extra day.

Leap Day

It takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to circle once around the sun. However, the Gregorian calendar we rely on today has only 365 days. If we didn’t add an extra day to our shortest month about every four years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After a century, our calendar would be off by about 24 days.

Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year around 46 B.C., but his Julian calendar had only one rule: Any year evenly divisible by four would be a leap year. That actually created too many leap years. Julius Caesar’s leap year concept wasn’t bad, but his math was a little off; the extra day every four years was too much of a correction. To remedy this, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a slightly modified version of the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar which cleaned up the math a bit.

There are some Leap Day “traditions” but nothing quite like giving love notes on Valentine’s Day or pinching the poor souls that don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s. Here are just a few…

Contrary to popular belief, leap years don’t happen every 4 years. There’s a leap year every year that is divisible by four, but to qualify, compliments of Pope Gregory, century years (those that end in 00) must also be divisible by 400. So, the year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.

There actually once was a time when February 29th wasn’t recognized by English law and didn’t legally exist. Anything taking place on February 29th was not subject to any laws. Sounds like a good day to get away with something heh?

Did you know people who are born on leap day are called Leaplings?

According to some time-weary tradition, it’s okay for a woman to propose to a man on February 29th. The custom has been attributed to various historical figures including St. Bridget, who is said to have complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitor to pop the question. The obliging Patrick supposedly gave women one day to propose.

Don’t get me wrong, Leap Day is still used to keep the earth’s calendar in check, but why not use it as an opportunity to add a fun little spin to things. Instead of treating February 29th like just an extra day on your planner, I suggest you turn Leap Day into a full-blown special day.

As a scrapbooker, I’ve decided to start a new tradition and thought you might also find it fun…

Set A “Next Leap Day” Goal

If you read my New Year’s post you know how I feel about resolutions. Sometimes one year isn’t enough time to accomplish all your goals. Some goals take a bit longer, and that’s absolutely okay. How about setting a “Next Leap Day” goal instead?

Think about something you’d like to accomplish by the time the next Leap Day rolls around. It can be as vague as “get better at organizing” or as detailed as “get caught up on my granddaughter’s scrapbook”. It’s really up to you! Setting long-term goals can give you a greater sense of purpose as you cross out the smaller tasks along the way, such as completing 10 scrapbook pages in a month.

Once you’ve set your goal, it’s time to get at it. You’ve got four years to crush it though, so no need to rush.

A Letter to Your “Next Leap Day” Self

While you’re setting a goal for next Leap Day, take a little bit of time to sit and think about all the possibilities that could occur in the next four years. You could get a new job, start a new business, travel more, retire, accidentally create a viral meme that thrusts you into fame and radically changes your life, buy a house — the options are endless.

In the spirit of self-reflection and honesty, write a letter to that future version of yourself. According to Coley Lane at Life Goals Co., writing a letter to your future self helps make your aspirations concrete and increases the likeliness you’ll achieve them. If you don’t know what to write about, just jot down what your Leap Day 2024 was like, then four years from now in 2028 you can see what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and if you accomplished that Leap Day goal you set!

And if you’re worried about forgetting you wrote this letter…there’s actually an online tool that will let you write a letter and have it emailed to yourself at some date in the future. FutureMe allows you to write and email a letter to your future self on a specific date. It’s practically time travel!

Fill Your Day with Kindness

While you definitely should try to do at least one act of kindness each day, Leap Day is a special excuse to add on a few more! Here are a few suggestions:

• Pay for a stranger’s coffee
• Grab the door for someone
• Donate old clothes to charity
• Tell a coworker how much you appreciate them (even though last week they absolutely drove you insane)
• Give your waiter/waitress a big tip
• Thank the person bagging your groceries
• And so many more!

There are thousands of ways for you to show people kindness, and Leap Day is a fantastic opportunity to showcase a few of them. Random acts of kindness can improve your overall happiness to last you until next Leap Day. Hey, maybe if you’re feeling extra kind, you can ramp it up to 29 acts of kindness — or even 366 in honor of the days in this year! I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Final Thoughts On Leap Day

The National Day Calendar names February 29th as Time Refund Day. It celebrates that one day every four years when we get back something notoriously hard to reclaim – time.

With the help of this bonus day every four years, our seasons will always occur when we expect them. We can look forward to the next leap year in 2028.

Take a break from social media and the computer. We all need to step away from the digital world for a while and reset from time to time.

Make time for someone. Call that friend you’ve offered to grab coffee or lunch with and set a date. Check on a family member you haven’t spoken to for a while.

Make it a gratitude day. Take time to write a handwritten note to someone who has made a difference in your life or shown you acts of kindness.

Doing nothing is good for the brain. While doing nothing can mean something different for everyone, for me, it means stepping away from daily tasks – or even thoughts of them – and spending the day on hobby related activities, or simply just sitting quietly and enjoying a cup of coffee in my comfortable surroundings.

Given that February 29th occurs only once every 1,461 days, the likelihood of a baby being born on leap day is quite low − roughly 1 in 1,461.

Whatever you do with your extra day…make it count!

Above all else, enjoy your extra day…

Thanks for reading this week’s extra post. If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!