Pencil me in.

In class, we’re focusing quite a bit on time management and how to be more productive. We’ve made schedules and planned out weeks and listed possible pitfalls we might have. The recurring theme is procrastination and wanting to come home after work and actually do nothing for once. In response to that, everyone says, “Make a schedule! Plan it out!”

Because it was an assignment, I do have a schedule. As of right now, I’m about 15 minutes behind on everything and a majority of the things I’m supposed to do today, I really don’t want to. (Then again, one asks, how am I to properly follow a daily schedule when I can’t even seem to post here when I say I will? Ha.) As I was walking Misha this evening after work (blocked in pink from 5:45 to 6:15 PM), I began thinking about this whole concept of charting out every minute of your life. True, it could make you more productive, but how much time is wasted filling out planners and making lists and trying to remember everything that must be done in a day? Plus, there’s the whole life issue. It happens, and it doesn’t care if you’ve jotted it down or not. So then all your meticulous planning and scheduling and making of lists is thrown out the window because you failed to take into consideration that maybe traffic will be backed up or maybe you forgot to do the dishes the day before (or both, quite possibly, and even though you left work thirty minutes early, you’re still late for the myriad assortment of tasks for the evening).

I suppose the real challenge is practicing moderation in your scheduling, but how do you know where to draw the line? And, if you happen to be a compulsive procrastinator, how do you keep from that fifteen minute break on the couch to rest your feet from turning into an hour and a half of spacing out in front of the TV? How do you suppress that urge to say, “Oh, well, I’ll do that later”? That part I haven’t figured out. Maybe it’s trial and error. Maybe some people are just better suited to having their lives mapped out so precisely.

The real question, though, is: Why do we feel the need to cram so much into one day? Is it really so bad to not know what the evening has in store for you, or take the time to stop and appreciate what’s happening now rather than worrying about where you have to be in fifteen minutes?

~ by Xan on Monday. 16. April. 2007..