Slave to Time

Do you let yourself become a slave to the clock? I know that I do. I create schedules for myself. You know the sort of thing. 30 minutes for this, one hour for that and so on. Then I carry out that task and if I am in the middle of something, I will still usually stop, in order to follow my schedule. Still, it helps me achieve things that I wouldn’t normally. I think it comes from the pleasure I get in ticking off each of those tasks as they are completed.I seem to remember having written something like this recently. I do apologise if I have said any of this before.

Strangely though this doesn’t seem to work in my day job. All that happens is that the list gets longer and longer until I eventually just throw it away starting a new one with the most important tasks. Mostly these are written on post-its. My desk has almost disappeared under the mass of yellow rectangles. Maybe the way I view tasks to be completed at work is different to the way I view personal ones.

Do you find yourself tied to the clock? Do you just take it as it comes? Strangely I have been known to do the latter too, depending on my mood.

226 thoughts on “Slave to Time

  1. I am terrible about this. I set personal goals way too often. I will tell myself “I will be done with this project by” and then if I don’t make it I feel I have failed. I need to learn to relax, would happen to have a good port?

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  2. Funny enough, I have never been very good about this. I just kind of have a mental check list of things I would like to accomplish during the week and maybe the day. If I hit 2 out of any of it, I am happy, lol.

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  3. Once upon a time, yes. I worked at a department store for 9.5 years, selling everything from candy to major appliances. While also studying physics full-time, teaching, and doing research. (All without cloning myself.) I was constantly looking at my watch or the calendar to see what I had to do next.

    When I went to work on my Ph.D., I quit the department store and stopped wearing a watch. (I still don’t wear a watch, but I do have this dreaded cell phone…) Classes and office hours are scheduled, but I try as much as possible not to be a slave to the clock… or to the calendar. I feel that I have enough stress without that silly time machine imposing more than necessary. 🙂 As long as I’m making progress, I’m satisfied with that. I guess I still accomplish enough that this works for me.

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  4. I’m always clock-watching because so much is going on at certain times. Need to keep an eye on the clock to remember to eat lunch. Need to watch for the time my son comes home. It always feels like I have to keep watching the damn time, even on the weekends. Really makes it hard to enjoy most days.

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  5. Pingback: Slave to Time | Julian Froment’s Blog | Hey Sweetheart, Get Me Rewrite!

  6. One employer sent me to the Franklin Covey planner class and bought the planner for me (when they first came out) I got ticked at how much frickin’ time it took each day to ‘be organized’ – but I’ve always remembered the 4 Stages of life – with one being “racing around to put out fires because you’re so unorganized”
    I never did use the system as intended – and I’m the sticky note queen – but if a sticky note has been up for 2 weeks and still isn’t done, then apparently, it isn’t very important…
    😀

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