Overworked? Not enough time for yourself? Stressed? Hurried? Always behind? Always letting people down or cancelling things because you can´t achieve all you wanted? Everyone has 168 hours every week, yet some will always feel over-pressured, coerced, struggling against time, and others will always get things done calmly, in time, with time. So, crucially, how do you change from being one of the first to one of the second?
The late twentieth century which has spawned such unkind attitudes to work, has also come up with some remedies – Personal Time Managers – purveyors of sage advice. Some of their best is the simplest; don’t aim to do so much that you constantly castigate yourself for failure. Enjoy what you have done, rather than punish yourself for what you haven’t. Things that can trip you up include a lack of sleep, disorganized work places and an inability to focus on one thing at a time, as well as, obviously, a workload simply too great for anyone to handle.
Time managers suggest writing achievable lists of things-to-do, with very big items broken down into smaller pieces which can be done in a few hours. Don’t, don’t, don’t schedule all your time as grey, grey work-time. Schedule fun. Plan exercise. Give yourself time for pleasure and for ordinary living things. Rank your to-do list by importance, 1, 2, 3, says one time manager. And then, he adds, every now and then just cross off all the threes. Don’t promise to do anything unless you can really do it, because this hurts your promisee and snags you up in guilt. Be strategic in planning work, make goals, but be prepared to vary them. Accept the blacklog of things-that-have-yet-not-been-done. It’s normal. Don’t let it be a source of stress, but an indicator of whether you’re taking on too much. Have just a few hours every day which are inviolate – no phone, no fax, no visits – and steam ahead with heavily-concentrated work then. Schedule working hours, not all hours of day and night are interchangeable, and what one can do in one hour in the morning might take four hours at night.
In short, be nice to yourself, and remember what the anonymous author of The Cloud of the Unknowing in 1370 wrote with limpid simplicity: ‘there is nothing more precious than time. Time is made for man, not man for time.’ And remember, in this world of ruthless efficiency, that ninety-five per cent of what a butterfly does is inefficient. (Allegedly.)
Jay Griffiths: Pip Pip. A Sideways Look at Time. London: Flamingo, 1999: pp.169, 170.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário