I Don’t Have Time!

The most used urban idiom next to 'Sorry!' and 'Excuse Me!' is 'I don't have time!' The most expensive thing to buy in this world is some one's time and attention or to tell it more frankly to get time for ourselves for our won work, happiness, peace, entertainment.  Everybody blames for not getting enough time for anything which is of their interest.

People start their Life with a dream of Disney World, but, end up in Tom and Jerry race. In fact, one point agenda of our Life is to lead a good Life! To convert a Life into Good Life, we start fantasizing our Life, by adding things to increase our happiness. The one point agenda starts dividing itself into hundreds of sub-agendas, goals. Slowly we get lost into the narrowness of accumulation of things. Time passes, Life ends but the search never ends. In the pursuit of happiness we lose mental peace, which resides within us. Neither have we got real happiness nor the peace. We never realize that both of them are two faces of same coin called satisfaction or containment.

We indulge into rat race, silly fights, larger than Life anonymity, jealousy on one hand and on the other hand we lose our valuable time, loving family's attention, friends, relatives, enormous treasure of health, God's beautiful gift, Life, for nothing but lasting happiness. The real enjoyment of Life is in minimizing the accumulation and maximizing the use. So, we can get breathing space in between.

Though it is tough to get time for ourselves, the healthy balance between each responsibility, each wish, each relation will help some what in overcoming the shortage of time. Here is a story I have come across recently which tries to ask us that “Is it really we do not have time for anything extra to do or it is just an excuse we repeat to convince ourselves?”

There was a professor who used to conduct classes on personality development. On that day, he was supposed to deliver his lecture on Time Management. He entered the class room with a huge transparent fiber pot filled with small stones up to its mouth in it. Along with him his assistant brought few more things and arranged them on a table. Before starting the session he said, he would like to try out a small experiment. All the attendees started looking at the things placed on the table curiously.

He asked everybody present in the class that "Can this pot accommodate anything extra?" by pointing towards the pot filled with small stones. Everybody had a look and thought for a minute and said "No". He asked "Are you sure?" Everybody said "Yes". Then he pours 3 small bags of sand in it. The sand rushed into the empty space left in between the stones. To everybody's surprise nothing came out.

Then the lecturer asked "Can the pot accommodate anything else?" Everybody said "No" again. He poured two glasses of water in it. The water flowed into the empty space thrusting out the air in between small gaps. The water came to the top, up to pot's mouth, but, nothing spilled out.

After that he asked again "Can we make space for anything else now?" Everybody analyzed for few moments and said "No". Then the professor took out a small packet from his trousers pocket and added 3-4 spoons of sugar in the water and the sugar dissolved in the water after 2-3 minutes but no change in the look and feel.

Again, he asked every one that "Is it possible to add something to it still?" All said "No”, now it’s not possible at all, because, the vessel was completely filled". Now the teacher picked up a nearby flower pot and took few petals of rose and zerabera and scattered them on the surface of water in the pot. Nothing changed as we know no difference it is going to make. But, the pot was looking like an antique piece.

After the practical experiment, he described about the experiment. This pot is our 24 hrs day time. The stones in this pot represent the work or profession, which we do for the earning for ourselves as well as for our family. These are the activities related to our job. There is no escape from this. The sand represents the family, for which we have to make time out of our professional priorities. The water represents our own (self) work. It has to get its share after the first two priorities. Everyone should spare some time for themselves every day. Then the sugar represents our hobbies, arts, sports, reading, painting, etc... The last but equally important one are the petals which represent the flavor of our Life. It can be attributed to character development, attainment of peace, love and satisfaction, touching our own soul.

Mahatma Gandhi says "Effective time management makes one more rather than less flexible. It allows one to do the things that he really wants to do rather than the things he really have to do."

If we balance between our day-to-day activities and plan ahead, plan well and prioritize things by treating them equally important then we can make time for few more things and stop saying "I don't have time". It is left to us how we take it.

-- Kalyan Kulkarni