Journal Entries
previous
next
a village in the Massai Mara
on safari
Bon Journal
How to create more time
Time waits for no one. Did technology create more time for us? No, it just sped things up and raised expectations.
Time stood still for a brief moment while I was on safari in Kenya. That seemed ages ago. I had the luxury of reading a book a day in a tent in the famous Massai Mara last year.
What was so special about my three-and-a-half week vacation? I was working one day a week and everybody knew it. I told everyone that I was going away. I did not have access to the Internet. And Africa seemed too far away for anyone to attempt to get hold of me.
What's so different now? I have a mobile phone and a laptop. I answer my e-mail everyday. Nobody has to know where I am, but I will always check my e-mail and my voicemail. Since I work full-time, I'm expected to be available. And when I go on holiday, others know that I can be reached anywhere in the world.
It seems obvious therefore - to create more time for myself, I have to stop being so available. I need to slow down in answering e-mails. I need to be less responsive, less proactive, and less eager to please. I need to decrease the rate of input by decreasing the rate of output.
Was it Anwar Sadat who said "Men seek to possess what they don't have but become enslaved by the very things they acquire"? I am at that point in my life where I recognise that I've got almost everything I've wished for. And now it's time to shed and return to a more manageable state of existence.
It's time to slow down and hope that the world will stop spinning so fast.
15 November 2001 Thursday
28 May 2000
Being on time, being late
7 June 2000
Time the most precious commodity
17 July 2000
Scheduling my schedule
26 July 2000
Racing against time
16 September 2000
Save time or money
22 January 2001
Getting a rhythm
23 January 2001
Back to back meetings
30 January 2001
Tired to tears
13 March 2001
Just in time not on time
24 March 2001
Jet and time lag
9 May 2001
Efficiency and productivity
16 June 2001
Time challenged people
19 June 2001
Chill out or you'll burn out
28 August 2001
Days fly like arrow
30 August 2001
Freebies with a price
31 August 2001
Quality time
