Time and Tide…

by Dreamcatcher

Its strange and ironical but everytime I am asked what is it that I like do in my free time, in addition to singing (which I do even when I am not free), I mention that “I like writing”. I take pride in the fact that I was the Editor of my school publication and attribute my selection to not my flair for words but to my consistent contribution to the magazine. So where does the irony part come in…the fact that my blog is over a year old and it has only all of 3 posts.

This is where I can start of with a million excuses about how I do not get time to even think about blogging, or how I almost always started writing my blog but MBA (and my work prior to that) never let me enjoy my “interests” guilt-free, etc etc. But the truth of the matter is I was pure lazy. I could have not spent just those extra 15 minutes browsing curiously through the profiles of the million friends I already know so much about or the other million I am so curious about but just fail to acknowledge it. If only I spared 15 minutes from my “incessant talking disorder” and channelled my energy to blogging, I would definitely be over 3 blogs old.

So what point am I making here? And before most of you start thinking “Oh no…another pointless conversation!!”, let me assure you, there is a point. So hang on…don’t go away.
Ok sorry...the point!!

My Dad always wonders why we have such a standard alibi for most of our failures to complete an assigned (or what should be understood as assigned) work… “Dad, there is no time…where is the time???!!!???”. While I have used it over a countless times myself, I realize in most situations it is nothing but bad TIME MANAGEMENT and sometimes lack of inclination and a disease called “last minute syndrome". Ahem!!

Lets get to point one, there is nothing in this world that one cannot make time for (Oh God, please don’t make Dad read this. I will have to come up with a new alibi). While MBA today stresses on work-experience, one of the biggest screw-ups of professional experience is the constant need to check your email. OMG…its amazing the amount of time in a day that I Refresh (even when auto refresh is enabled) to check if “I got Mail”.

A colleague of mine in school took the brave step to come to school one day without his laptop. My curiosity of course did not fail me (as always) and I asked “How come??”. To which he answers “I am really not THAT important you know. My life does not change every second. I think I should be more focused at studying for the exams next week.” We all laughed our guts out. But its so true.

As per an article I read, on an average, every person spends about 7-8 hours a week checking PERSONAL emails and visiting social networking site. Please note…PERSONAL!! This does not include replying to work emails. It’s just personal. Also note the word “average”. This lends another interesting twist to the story. The population of this study includes any and everyone who uses the internet, for whatever purpose. It includes all age groups. Which means your grandfather, father, mother, aunt, and neighbour are all included in that. I know my Dad spends all of 17 minutes every 4 days deleting spam and reading the 1-2 important personal mails. (These 17 minutes also include 4 minutes of complaining about how we need to buy a new keyboard since he does not know which one is the letter “r” and which one is “t” and finding letter “p” and “o” on the keyboard. But that’s another story). This phenomenon multiplied by atleast 30% users…So my point is, this gets people like you and me higher up on the curve and implies we spend more that the average 7-8 hours per week. So really, is there lack of time???!!!!

This is where my second point fits in…if one is inclined to do something; one just has to make time and in most cases will end up making time for it. I have time to check personal mails, I have time to scrap and “poke” and “pillow fight”. I have time to chat…lack of time??? Really??? All it took me was the determination to want to write a blog. And here I am typing away fervently without care for the world. Right now there is nothing that can stand between me and my blog. Right now there is nothing more important to me. My social networking friends can wait. (Not that they are dying to talk to me). I can check my email later.

The flamboyant Richard Branson is referred to as “Dr. Yes” by the members of staff at Virgin. Of course this has got to do with his spontaneous response to every question followed by the necessary action to this reaction. This chief of Virgin with businesses from wine to mobile phones to airplanes to radio stations to wedding gowns to books does not seem to complain about time. So the question really is…lack of time or lack of time management??!!??