.: Time management :.

The long awaited post.

Seriously think that I’m in no place to write on this. Nonetheless, I guess there is no harm in having a kick at it plus I did agree to offer my two cents' worth.

Depending on the situation, my time management skills differ. In terms of planning, I plan by the day before, the hour, day, week, month, year and years on what, how, when things need to be done and analyzing the amount of time needed. Fairly easy to estimate for habitual tasks. The others will cover on the aspects of preparing, organizing, monitoring, prioritizing, practicality counting in the external factors that may bring on to the determent of my plans along with formulating contingency solutions. I try to figure out ways to cut down on time, fixing schedules in my head. I suppose, it’s better if I were to give examples of it.

Here’s my schedule for this month, on a daily basis. Generally, this is the flow.

At least the day before – iron, pack stuff.
5am till 6.45 am– wake up, does the necessary; chores, bathe, pray etc, goes to work.
6.45am till 9am – tricky because I rely on the public transport. *please read my post on driving if you haven’t* The public transportation can be really frustrating. Break-downs, delays etc. Fallback plans mean taking another form of transportation. Selecting which saves the most time is purely based on experience. Moments like this do not get me down as I liken it to being in “The Amazing Race”. Almost always, I’m already in the office by 8.20am.
9am till 1.10pm – Work and fooling around. All work and no play make anyone a dull person.
1.10pm till 2.10pm – Lunch. Or if I can pray, fully spent on prayers. Why? Because it takes 15mins to get to the mosque, 5 mins for ablution, 15 mins to pray and another 15mins back. Remaining 10mins is in case something crops up. Since I skip lunch, I make do with a heavy breakfast *8.20am – 9am is me time, gearing up for work and scheduling my day*. Off and on, there are snacks in my drawers for the extra sugar rush. *born with 2 functional hands, use it*
5.30pm – I hardly knock off at 5.30pm on the dot, albeit I make sure I’m out by 6pm. *Asar prayers and reaching home by 7.10pm*

The plan becomes sporadic when I'm out, but I keep vigil of the time spent. Centering on, how much time will I spend, and by when do I move or reach home. A little moment of truth, I don’t use a watch. Let’s stipulate that I like to guess the time. Perhaps, that helped in keeping me conscience of it. Some people may use watches to approximate time. I work the other way. Watches make me feel like I have all the time in the world. The same goes for calendars. Until now, I have issues in remembering the date. Deadlines have the propensity of turning me into the ultimate slacker. When one does not know, one may try to finish it later on.

Things may not turn out well. I may set a specific time, yet circumstances do render us helpless. Work that depends on the commitments of others, tends to land me in difficult situations. I’ve been called a meanie by my own sister because of my code of ethics in the workplace. She’s right. However, it relies on the individual to take it as constructive criticism. At work, I’m known to be meticulous in the sense that I scrutinize and peruse each and every detail, therein takes up most of my time. Eventually, it is clearly up to you to leverage whether you have the time to spare or else.

On the part of getting stood up, I anticipate it by filling in with reading, observing, thinking, doodling or slacking including doing work. I have issues in making people wait for me, though I have no concerns at all in being made to wait. Some friends are high on the "how long can Hajar stand till she bursts out at us?", so they ever so often wreck my plans. Patience is a virtue. I can't say that I'm virtuous. Sudoku does wonders. People taking too much of my time? Again, it comes down to expecting the purportedly unexpected.

There are people that say they don’t have enough time. There are the ones that say, there is always time. All this while, I believe that time is always there. Utilizing it to its maximum ability lies in our capability. Will we use it to its full extent, or will we waste it away?

Friend:: Hajar, you look busy. If you have time later, can we talk?
Me:: I have time now.
Friend:: No, it’s ok. It’s not important. You get your work done first.
Me:: You’re already here. It’s better for you to let out whatever you have right now. I can’t predict what happens later, and later may never come. You may end up not telling me what needs to be told.

As what I tell family and friends, even if I really do not have time, I will make time. And I’ll find ways of realizing it. Insya'Allah.

So much for not knowing what to write about.

12.41 noon Malaysian Time