Taking Your Time

Imagine this….

6:00 – 9:00 A.M. – Wake suddenly, stumble down the hall to bath, dress, prepare breakfast, check emails, watch the morning weather and traffic reports, gather all the material from the night work, pour a cup of coffee into a travel mug, rush to the awaiting vehicle, pack the business stuff and coats and umbrellas, then warm the engine to comfort levels before heading down the highway, spilling the coffee from the roof or pouring it out so you can go to the nearest coffee merchant to bring a paper cup to the office to show how you are a member of the club.

9:00 – 10:00 A.M. – Get settled in front of the computer screen, log on to the network, sip your now cold coffee, stack papers and files to look busy, check and respond to emails, prepare for meetings.

10:00 – 11:00 A.M. – First preparatory meeting, which is usually a wrap-up from a previous meeting or a discussion of the overnight problems. Make copious notes and add little. Sip a new cup of coffee.

11:00 – 12:00 A.M. – Second meeting usually with most of the people from the first meeting. Make presentations (since you are awake now) and check your cell and blackberry for notes and new emails. Stress.

12:00 – 1:00 P.M. – Grab a snack from the vending machines, check the emails and cell responses. Note the changes from the second meeting and review your notes for the next meeting while you start to sweat.

1:00 – 2:00 P.M. – First afternoon wrap-up of projects and procedures. This meeting usually has a top-level executive or an assistant taking notes. They do not add to the discussion, but add an additional stress level. More notes and assignments are scattered among the group.

2:00 – 3:00 P.M. – This is the wrap-up meeting. Some top executives checking their watches more than blackberries will attend to look interested. Most in the room are trying to make an impression or get a hint of attention from the decision makers.

3:00 – 5:00 P.M. – Put out fires, check more emails, go online and look at your personal website and contacts. Start making notes and PowerPoint presentations for tomorrow’s discussions of the same subjects with the same people.

5:00 – 6:00 P.M. – Roll up your sleeves and try to finish today’s work, piling more onto your desk and impressing everyone around you that you are working late.

6:00 – 7:00 P.M. – Pile into your vehicle and carry the huge amount of paperwork home. Get frustrated by the stress you are carrying with it and check your blackberry and cell.

7:00 – 10:00 P.M. – Unwind time! Prepare a meal, watch television, try to relieve yourself with your kids and papers and magazines and chitchat. Check the cell, there might be a happening communication.

10:00 – 1:00 A.M. – Prepare reports and presentations and personnel agendas for the next day. Check off all the daily assignments and surf the web for new responses and ideas and other nonsense.

1:00 – 5:00 A.M. – Uneasy restless sleep.

If this sounds familiar, you are in the “norm”.

This is what life is supposed to be about in the new communication age.

There was a time when your father and/or mother went to work from 9-5 and then spent the evenings with their family. Free from worries and fears from the oppressive dictations of the “job”.

The “Job” or work as we use to call it, was an assigned project or a task with expectations and rewards for exceeded completions.

All this was within a structure created by a corporation or company or government department with rules and procedures and policies.

Was this what you wished for?

When you were first asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

What did you say?

Did you follow that path?

LIFE throws a lot of curves at us and sometimes we cannot follow our “want” path, but now is the time to think about how much time we have given to others and NOT ourselves.

What are your dreams?

Now is the time to live them.

We all have a limited amount of “time” here and if we give it all away to a corporation or industry or instrumental body are we satisfying the dreams we had when we were young?

Think back to your youth. Beside kicking back and goofing off, what did you want to do that you excuse yourself now for not having enough time.

Write?

Paint?

Sew?

Create?

Teach?

Read?

Travel?

Explore?

Learn?

So NOW what is your excuse.

This is what you should enjoy and what makes you feel good and those around you happy.

Take “YOUR” time back and become yourself.