'Demonetising' Time

Time is money! Ben Franklin is credited with this phrase and it has struck. Time, as a concept has become synonymous with money….and many references to Time are just as if it is money. We ‘spend’ time, ‘save’ time, ‘buy’ time, ‘budget’ time, ‘invest’ time, and of course, we ‘waste’ time. Time, like money, is considered scarce, precious and finite. And, we never have ‘enough’ Time!

It’s even possible that Time, in some cases, becomes more precious than Money. A random online survey across twenty-two thousand people from 17 countries conducted by a firm (GfK) in 2017 revealed that three times as many people firmly feel that they would rather have more Time than money.

Unlike money, however, Time available to everyone is the same. It’s nature’s gift to each of us…and how we use it is a matter of choice. The question is, whether, by treating Time as money, are under-utilizing this precious gift? Over the last few weeks, I heard the following stories:

a)      “I could not attend my daughter’s graduation as I was busy with a project and could not extricate myself out of it…. I will make up for it by ensuring that I will buy a good gift when I get the bonus for having delivered the project on time”.

b)     “I did not take a vacation for the last two years as I needed to maximize my earning opportunity before my retirement”.

c)      “I could not see the doctor for my gastro-intestinal problems as something came up and I could not take the time to do so”.

d)     “Dad (this one is from my daughter). I leave early in the morning and come back very late at night. I hardly have time to eat, how do you expect me to exercise”.

Each of us have plenty of such scenarios where we have traded out something important, because we did not have the Time. ‘I have no time’ is a common refrain, as though, if we had more time, we would not be trading out things that are important!

Some of you may have heard of the famous Joshua Bell experiment. A few years ago, Joshua Bell, a highly renowned violist stood outside a busy train station and played on his famous (and expensive) violin. As the commuters walked out of the station, rushing to go about their work, they barely glanced at Bell, not recognizing the fact that here was a world class violinist who was playing for free. Some of them may have even brought expensive tickets for his weekend concert, but for the moment, as there was a clear dissonance between expectation of a concert level performer and a common bursar, they just ignored him and walked on, focused on themselves, their agenda, and, of course, their time. We behave in programmed ways, slotting and allotting time in a manner to get things done, managing our time to be highly effective and productive. So set are we, in our ability to flex, that optional Time has become limited. Consequently, our preoccupation with time is always around what we must get done.

A few years ago, I had, in my cost management zeal, had instituted a draconian policy to stop fruits and flowers for the office. A few days later, I found flowers back at the entrance, much to my anger. I immediately ordered an enquiry as to who was the culprit going against my instructions. I learned it was the janitor. When I called her to reprimand her, she calmly told me that these were flowers from her own garden and not from the florist and that there were no costs involved. She went on to say that she found us so busy going about our ‘stuff’, she felt that the refreshing sight of flowers would make us stop and literally ‘smell the roses’ as we went about our busy lives. She gently then said we all should take time for being more present and enjoy what we have around us more than this unending chase that she has seen of all us preoccupied with.

She was right. We all have un-exhausting to-do lists, and very little time. Little time, to take a minute to appreciate the violin on the street, to smell the roses or to help the accident victim on the sidewalk ( news item today: people had time to take the video of a stabbing victim bleeding and post it online, but no time to help him get to the hospital), very little time to attend to the child’s play or football game.

Even time for fun or enjoyment is predetermined: the Friday night concert to listen to Joshua Bell, costing $ 500; or visiting the Broadway play. In some ways, we have also learned to ‘spend’ money to buy our enjoyment and fun, or even happiness. We may spend thousands of dollars to go on a mindfulness retreat to learn how to be ‘present’, or go for Yoga classes to learn deep breathing, and so on.

Unfortunately, we are all taught that time needs to be organized, prioritized, and managed. Have we got this upside down? It’s life that needs to be organized, prioritized and managed. Time will then take care of itself. Managing time may make one successful; but managing life may make one happy. And managing ‘life’ is about being, and less about doing. Managing time, is about doing.

When one starts to manage life, that’s when you realize Time becomes a resource; it becomes a friend. Time then becomes about rejuvenating self and about fostering relationships. It becomes, about not about striving to be present, but being present, about standing by the train station to listen to the beautiful melodies of a world class violinist for free. Time becomes about creativity, about connecting and about leveraging things life has to offer. That’s when it becomes a gift. Suppressing such priorities in one’s life may make you successful, but unfulfilled.

It’s time to rethink what time means for each of us. Let’s organize time around our lives; not our lives around time.

While you ponder on this, let me go and ‘kill’ some time!