The only thing that's infinitely harder to come by compared to money - it's time!
For the most part, I'm quite a laidback person. I take my time doing stuff. I will burn through nights without sleep. I can take hours just trying to perfect a single paragraph. Whatever goes. But that only applies when my time is solely my own.
It's a different game when I'm no longer the only one in the equation.
There's really not much to say here. This is about personal agreements with an individual or group. Keep promises, and be as punctual as possible. Also, please inform if you're going to be late. Someone else is waiting. Their time is on the line. But promises are always made to be broken, you know.
It's difficult to plan meetings with others, dilly-dallying on where, and what to eat. Even worse is when I arrive at the location earlier than everybody else, waited an hour, only to be ditched after filling my stomach with 4 glasses of water, waiting. I don't care if you're a girl that I'm going after. I don't even care if you're some head honcho with a big hat, loaded with business opportunities. Please inform if you're going to be late.
I've walked out of appointments before. Several times, and never bothered to communicate again. Lost opportunities and all that, but whatever. Don't waste my time!
Cool down, Kevin. Okay, at least time in private spaces are easily manageable. Just lower down expectations when dealing with social time-wasters that treat others like background. That's easy enough. However, there's another bigger part of life - public spaces. And this is the space in which you have no control over.
Yes, public space is where time is shared between its many users. That's just about anywhere - the street, the mall, the pavement, the stadium, and such. Throughout the ages, most cultures have developed certain social etiquette when it comes to managing time in public spaces. We have stuff like queues, fast lanes, slow lanes, express lanes, traffic lights, and that please wait hand-gesture.
Our societies have mostly evolved to adapt to shared time realities in so many different ways. Soon to come are driverless cars, always on the go, and without a real need for parking spaces. And speaking of parking spaces, I have one particular pet peeve when it comes to that.
If you've experienced carparks enough, you would've come across the following phenomenon: the reverse car-parking maneuver. And it's not about those carpark slots which are parallel to the road, but the common ones which are at right angles! I don't have a single iota of understanding when it comes to that.
Here I am in my car, waiting for you to take your time doing the reverse car-park, when you could've just park right in head-first. For Senna's sake, you can reverse out later. Not now when I'm behind you. Don't waste my time!
Cool down, Kevin. Okay, at least time in public spaces are also manageable. Just don't go out, or completely obliterate any expectations. I'm the background. It's okay.
For the most part, I'm quite a laidback person. I take my time doing stuff. I will burn through nights without sleep. I can take hours just trying to perfect a single paragraph. Whatever goes. The universe doesn't care.
Thinking about it, perhaps it's okay to be time-wasted. After all, what do I know? Maybe all these social time-wasters actually contributed in their own little ways to advances of efficiency. Everybody makes things all the time to make time a better experience for themselves, eventually making it better for everyone else.
Maybe that girl was taking an hour to make herself up just to look good for me. Maybe that big head honcho dude really had a good business plan. Maybe all those would've resulted in giving me more time that would've been wasted in the future! After all, there are good times, and there are bad times.
Okay, maybe that's stretching it too far. Just be prudent about appointments, don't reverse park, and don't waste my time!
Sorry if I've just wasted your time with this little rant.
Images from Pixabay
@kevinwong