The Problem of Time
We are all well aware of the concept of time. Some say it doesn’t exist and is simply a demon created by the human race itself, just to become enslaved to it. Some say time is everything, and they’re right, and they don’t really see it as a Godly figure or an oppressor that enslaves us. Obviously, time is just a parameter, a standard of measurement of the length of each and every activity a human does, based on which the whole framework of life functions and the whole livelihood operates on the planet. Given that, we are granted the egregious burden of the art of management of time, and some people even make a living out of this! When it comes to time, everything is relative (not to pull an Einstein reference, but still). Relativism is an important realm of judgement that hinders objectivity. This is because relativism dwells in subjective experiences of emotions, concepts, and of course, time. Time management is a very loose term and set to hang for eternity and anyone can attach any meaning they want to it, and play with it. But historic approaches of time management, especially in business management, where an employee’s performance and productivity is judged based on how efficiently he works, which again is based on time, have been very popularly and widely accepted as the standard procedure. Right from the time of Henri Fayol, who laid out the ‘Bible of Business Functioning’, the revered fourteen Principles of Management, or Fredrick Winslow Taylor, who discovered the Scientific Principles of Management, time was always the pivot around which any form of enhancement or development could be planned.
History aside, time management is subtly present in everyone’s life without us knowing. It lives in our brains with no rent. Everyone of us have multiple tasks in each day that we spread across the twenty-four hour window to perform. But, I am very sure of the fact that no single human being has ever been able to perform all the tasks that was planned, and if they did, definitely not to the fullest of quality. There is always some compromise in the day. Compromise of the task itself, or compromise of the quality of the task. Why does this happen? We never wonder why. We are so caught up in our pursuit of completion of the day, that we don’t stop to “make time” to think about why we compromise.
As psychologically charged beings, we get tired of things in life. We tend to get bored. We like compliments, and there’s a hidden demon inside us that constantly compliments us when we’re done with a task. This gratification demands celebration! Hell yes, because why not? That’s it, boom. We are out of the circle now. Where is the incentive to go on with the day and finish the rest of the tasks? The Cowboy phase in the day lasts for eternity, doesn’t it (funny how ‘lasts for eternity’ is another idiotic phrase)? As emotional idiots, the bell now rings. There’s lesser time for the other tasks than there was in the beginning. We tend not to focus on why we stop being continuous. Take a moment of laughter, sure, have some coffee, snacks or even have sex. But the problem arises when we have too much of it. There’s a seeping confidence that we don’t really feel but is an intrinsic part of quotidian feelings , that comes in our mind about the pace of completion of each task. Since we’re done with the first task, we’re now confident that we’d be able to glide through the others with such splendid smoothness. Do not trust this confidence. Never ever. It is the most poisonous thing on the planet. The ever persistent everlasting trait every human being ever existed underwent/undergoes/will definitely undergo — procrastination, is based on this. Time. The God of laziness. We always say we want to ‘make time’ for something, or for someone, or to do something. But how false is that? Time makes us. Time owns us. Time though not an oppressor, does enslave us. We work hard, we sweat, we sleep, we train, we achieve, we lose, we win. But no matter what, the clock ticks the same.
