Hey what TIME is it?

I am in no way shape or form an expert on time. As a matter of fact time tends to be my greatest nemesis, yet the thing I covet most in life.

I’m not sure why I have this love-hate relationship with time, but I know it exists. I think it’s funny how many books on time management I’ve read or even own, but it’s still the ongoing battle that never seems to go away. And the older I get, the more I’m convinced that some people, more than others, are able to navigate the invisible tsunami of time management, better than others.

Now day’s people talk about Attention Deficit Disorder and other non-pathological conditions that tend to malign one’s ability to effectively function in the rat race of life. And for many there are effective treatments, yet for others there is not.

My thinking, leads me to believe that some folks are simply hardwired for organizational effectiveness and others are not. Some people have a built in mechanism that I call a healthy paranoid view of the end, whereas others simply don’t. Meaning a full and concrete grasp of the end goal produces a depth of desire that motivates ones proper use of time. Whereas the person that simply cannot see nor even cares about the end, time tends to be misused more often than not.

Quoting John L. Spalding; “What we love to do we find time to do.” And that makes sense to me. It even simplifies and demystifies time management for me. Because there are many things in life that I do not like to do, so they tend to go to the bottom of the stack. And the things that tend to feel good I do.

Okay before you go off and start criticizing me for doing things that feel good, ask yourself this; Are you good at time management? If so, it’s one of two things; 1) you’re naturally gifted at administrative things and you can see the gravity of the end (my healthy paranoia concept), or 2) you’ve by default through numerous failures found the greater good of keeping up on things.

Either way, you are doing time management pretty well and are experiencing the “good feeling” of accomplishing goals set before you. And that’s great!

But what about the one who is not good at time management? My thinking is; we like the way things are, we wish for things to be different, but we opt to move in mediocrity and we’re okay with that. Now granted from a big picture stand point, if the world only had poor time managers, we’d all still be in the Dark Ages. And I for one am glad we’re not, but if the world only had effective time managers, administrators, leaders and the like, we may not have Art or Love. We might all be wearing the same colored clothing. We could all be living in very efficient little apartments with antique white semi-gloss walls.

We just might all be using PC’s instead of Mac’s (Mac users are a cult you know?). We’d all be singing the same song and marching to the same beat (because that’s more efficient). We’d all be dull; you know the saying, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Okay before you time managers all send me a letter bomb to silence me, understand what I’m saying. We need efficient people, but we also need people that are more relaxed and are willing to stop and smell the flowers; just because “they smell good”. Or we need people who will attempt the art of Art and Love just because they produce a “good feeling” in those who embrace them.

And don’t get me started on food and fun, because I fully understand that we would not have food and fun if it were not for some project manager somewhere ordering, shipping, meeting, calling, and planning for a powerful food and fun experience (the time managers). But likewise the raw materials of food and fun are nothing without the wide eyed dreamers and schemers who simply cannot tolerate the same old, same old, for efficiency sake alone.

Disclaimer: the ideal human is the gifted administrator that also loves fun and will indeed stop and touch, taste, see, hear and say nothing, but simply wonder and enjoy.

So, now that I’ve wasted (so say the time managers) the last 30 minutes, yet thoroughly enjoyed doing so, I will end this by saying remember Einstein. That’s right; remember his work on the time-space-continuum. The theory is this (my paraphrase); the faster you move toward the speed of light, TIME SLOWS DOWN; which sounds great if you’re trying to get a lot accomplished (more time, more time). But once you reach the speed of light and go beyond it, TIME GOES IN REVERSE. And you actually lose ground, you go backwards. And that’s not good.

My Hypothesis: Albeit we need time management to get the job done, we also need wide eyed boat anchors of daily ease like myself to keep the entire human race from ultimately going backwards, because the healthy paranoid time managers’ have attempted to push us beyond the speed of light, ultimately ending in the reversal of all human advance.

Conclusion: Have another cup of coffee and blog first. Then go ahead and tackle your task list, and along the way, play very loud music of your choice, be kinetic as much as possible, so as to avoid Thrombophlebitis, and if you don’t get the list completed, enjoy a hug, a kiss, or even extra dessert (or a frosty cold one for those inclined) to reward yourself for not being so anal retentive that you missed the actual fabric of life, that all those effective time managers made actually made possible, yet few actually enjoy, because they are thinking about the next day’s task list.

Carpe Diem - 'Carpe diem' is usually translated from the Latin as 'seize the day'. However, the more pedantic of Latin scholars may very well seize you by the throat if you suggest that translation. 'Carpe' translates literally as 'pluck', with particular reference to the picking of fruit, so a more accurate rendition is 'enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe'. The extended version of the phrase 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' translates as 'Pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the future'.

Think about that!