The Fundamentals Of Mastering The Art Of Time-Wasting To Alleviate Stress

Hora was a professional time-waster from the future, since the advent of time travel in 3021, using the technology from the Mayans' Tzolkin calendar. Since 600 BCE, the calendar offered 260 days without weeks or months. The people she plied her trade with were unsuspecting, mainly because the procedure was not forceful. Enhanced-tech humans could travel through time, some like Hora, with the assignment of helping others in their past, wreck time. Absentminded husbands, oblivious teenagers who accused their lack of time for not taking out the trash, or professional women who double-booked appointments because 'I am so busy' say they don't have the time. How could they comprehend the lunacy of time wanderers testing their abilities by decimating the time of others? They need someone else to blame. They can teach us how to master the art of time-wasting.

One unsuspecting personality is Luna. She is a present-day unattached lady with three youngsters. Luna starts her day feeding the children and intending to wash the dishes before driving them to their advanced academy for the futuristic brilliant. Yet, she leaves dishes half-washed in the sink, like her half-made bed, half-cleaned house, and the filthy car she never has time to spare for somebody else to clean. Luna had vowed to make the bed daily. However, she leaves all half done to attend to more half-done mindless chores. As if in a cycle, she takes the kids to school only to recall upon her return home that she had also intended to go to the grocery store along her route. No list seems to aid her tiresome memory. Luna mentally kicks herself because she should have shopped for a new laundry detergent, preferable to the watered-down dishwashing liquid she used last wash for clothes.

“I Just Need More Time”

Her neighbor, Sola, a scornful businessman operating his auto-mechanic shop, also did not discover he could have blamed an ancient Mayan calendar technology used in the future for his time-lapse. He would start on one car, unaided since he was bent on outcompeting other nearby shops on price, so he had no staff. He did everything: accounting, check-in in new clients, logging car problems, and actual repairperson work. He got it incorrect about 50 percent of the time but believed he could defeat the system if he had more time.

Sola worked weekends because he could not bear that a week should only have five working days. It's 2021, for crying out loud! He worked weekends to add the time. Because he was never home, his best friend often came by to take his wife and child—Sola felt remorseful about this, but who would work to support his family—out of the house on weekends. He entrusted his wife and friend. Unquestionably no hanky-panky could transpire. He relaxed, understanding that it gave him time to haggle with angry customers who constantly desired their cars immediately. Why is everyone continuously rushing to deplete their cash? He intended to prune his workload soon after reaching his financial independence retire early (f.i.r.e.) target, which he never genuinely reached because it was never defined. Sola never suspected it was a pesky futuristic Hora disordering his time availability.

Fiction Of Not Enough Time

Much of the above is fiction—well, perhaps. Except for Hora, I based the other characters on individuals I have known for a while. Sometimes they were me. Luna is hilarious because she always grumbles that she does all these tasks every day, never finishing any, and is depleted by the end of the day. She feels beaten by time. Like many of us, Luna and Sola would love to blame somebody else, like our story's mythical Hora, for our loss of time or never having adequate time. We control our time, including the period spent alive, to accomplish and relish what we desire.

When I visit Antigua & Barbuda, time slows down as if I am walking through waste-high honey. It's sweet but frustratingly glacial to the end game. It's like that when you visit places, especially on holiday. Go for business, and indeed time seems briefer. Enjoy what you are doing, and time flashes so fast that you could get whiplash if you are not careful. It all depends on your perspective. Having too many objectives without concluding the ones you started leads to tiredness. I like being busy but also value leisure time because I have been a victim of burnout in my more youthful career drives. Working regular hours is a start. Sleeping at least 8 hours per night is also beneficial. What about private projects? I have numerous, including this blog, that I have either started or have laid up for the future. Try new projects, as another post suggests, but carve out time for them. Completing them gives you a sense of attainment.

How Do We Organize Time

Here are a few little tips from me. I get up early to write and read whatever I am researching. I am a knowledge-seeking and influencer-type, so I constantly sponge over information. Do I get up at 5:00 AM every day? Nah! But I sometimes do make it count when I do, and I don't kick myself too much when I don't. I relish reading. I gobble audiobooks, especially in the car, and read a paper book before bed. I am old school and need to touch the book, but I am open-minded to Kindle-type textbooks or reading on my phone or tablet. Plus, I like to linger and contemplate a section I read that blew me away.

I also maximize my weekends with various activities, including watching television, reading, talking to family or friends, walking, or chitchatting with my partner. They may seem like wasting time, but it's not every weekend you need to do laundry, cook for the week, go to a museum or road trip, or hike the forest. Having something you do with people and activities you can do with yourself is critical. Your self-sufficiency helps remove monotony and depression. Variety zings up life, and the more cozy things are essential too. I love losing myself in a text and getting invested in the characters. I just finished reading Reproduction by Ian Williams. I got attached to Felicia and her life, but I leave you to read the book without any spoilers. I put a link below for those interested.

Don’t Worry About the Tzolkin Calendar

Let's stick to the new Gregorian calendar we have been using since Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, issued a papal bull to replace Julius Caesar's calendar, the Julian System. It was not Pope Gregory who invented the calendar. It was another Italian, a doctor, and an astronomer named Alosyius Lilius. These leaders' mammoth egos led them to name months after them, July after Caesar, and August, after Gregory's imperial name Augustus. Augustus even took days from February so he could have 31 days. Different civilizations used many calendars throughout the time before the Christian Gregorian calendar. If you feel so intensely about not having adequate time, propose a new calendar or organize your time, given how malleable it is.

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