Time Management
Overload, stress, deadlines, quotas …what are we doing? Balancing on the cutting edge could be cutting our lives short, interfering with the quality of our lives and will certainly cost the next generation. Most of us have felt the insidious sting of pressure. Some have felt the vise grip of demands for so long that we believe it to be a typical way to live. We have forgotten, if we ever knew, what solitude feels like.
Our children have never lived in a society where there was cool down time between the treadmill and spinning class. We flurry from dance to soccer to birthday parties. Everyone will be there and God forbid little Chandler miss this party. Who cares if he’s sound asleep in his car seat, could care less where he is going and will probably scream his head off for the 45 minutes after his arrival to the blessed event? This looks like an innocent birthday party but it is actually a war room where already stressed parents strategize away their family’s free time. “Busy” is the catch phrase. Life is tenuously pulled through tennis lessons, aerobics and a dozen (count them) community organizations and sporting events.
We have distorted time management. Instead of investing time wisely, we operate in a time spending frenzy that leaves us exhausted and frazzled. We arrive, strapped in the latest trend but the time it took to get this look was costly. Think this is an exaggeration? Watch people in line at the bank drive-thru. Do they sit leisurely smiling at their children or are they jockeying for position wiping out any concrete barrier or over fed shrub in their path? Do not get in their way. They are ripping through a to-do list with ultimate precision.
Observe people on their lunch hours. Typically, they will ingest a trendy salad while in the company of at least two techno-savvy business partners. For interest sake, add electronic devices and a human clone also on the fast track with his e-associates. The humor of the predictability is rapidly pushed away by the somber obvious.
The humans racing to their destinations have an untapped advantage. They have the ability to verbally communicate, express feelings and have intimate relationships. Unfortunately these archaic methods take practice which requires time that unfortunately, has been “managed” into oblivion. Note to self: This is not working.