Don't Waste My Time!
Time in solitary space
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.
Time in private spaces
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.
Time in public spaces
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.
Time, immemorial
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.
There are good reasons for reversing into the parking place - for one thing, safety. So, there is a free parking between a row of other cars, facing a wall or some bushes. On arrival, one has full oversight of the parking place. Reverse in, the probability that one accidentally will drive down a child or a biker or some pedestrians or hit some other vehicle is extremely low. When driving out, one has good visibility and can maneouver freely.
Now, drive head-in on the parking, and one has to reverse out again. This tim it's different. For one thing, it takes some time to enter the vehicle, find the key, start the car, etc ... enough time that sort of anything can happen behind the vehicle. In addition, you're reversing out on the road, with other cars, pedestrians, children playing, etc. You're sitting with your head far away from the passing traffic, and it's difficult to see if the road is clear or if there is a bicycle coming at full speed. Compared to driving head first out of the parking, it's actually quite a risky operation to reverse out from the parking.
So ... wrg of safety, it's best to reverse into the parking and drive out from it.
Wow this might actually change my mind about the subject matter. Thanks for the lengthy response :D
haha, I was thinking the same thing.
I'm with tobixen. I also find it easier to manoeuvre into a tight spot in reverse.
Give it a try :)
Hahahaha! For Senna's sake, you can reverse out later. Hahaha!
Exactly lol! If it costs me 1 minute per reverse-parking incident, I'll be wasting 365 minutes / year, and 3650 minutes over 10 years!
I "never" reverse park because I don't prefer to be judged randomly, on the spot, based on ambiguous criteria. It's just like Olympic figure skating except with a stop watch and people armed with horns. I might also add, over 10 years, that's 2.5 days lost! I' don't know about anyone else, but I'm continuing to be a risk taker with my "drive-in-park" approach and Maceo Plex, riding shotgun. LMAO
Disrespecting someone else's time is almost like stealing. If I'm waiting for someone, then I'm forgoing some other possibility of productivity. No bueno, and very selfish. Things happen, but for some people it's a pattern.
I've a coffee buddy here. That person's always late. I've been progressively increasing my lateness to sync up with that person's timeliness, and I've finally found it. About 90 minutes after the agreed time lol
"what is more precious than gold, but cannot be bought, saved, or earned?" ;)
A hole-in-one! :D
Ha! "Time!" :)
I so feel you in this aspect.
"Time is no man's friend"
There ur totally wrong, i once made a drawing and its called "Time is on our side!" ;)
Unless.. a time travelling machine is a possibility!
Lol, I am a reverse parking maniac. If there is a chance I do it. Funnily there are often people behind tapping their fingers on the wheel and I look and smile as if to say, hey, chill man hehe
Everyone's a maniac when put in the driver's seat!
You're absolutely right there!!
The reverse parking thing always annoys me!
Time for a social movement! No reverse parking day!
That would be awesome!
@kevinwong this article reminds me of my Korean students.
Being 5 minutes late is a no no - no matter what excuse - they hate having their time wasted. You'd often hear "time gone is never coming back".
But my favorite line is that of a song;"Time is money, the difference is I own it." :)
I think though ... that ... just waiting for someone who'd get there in an hour doesn't have to mean - your time would get wasted. Do something productive while waiting. Bring a crochet or so - (okay that crochet part's a joke).
Seriously ... I'd rant, too if I would be made to wait and worse - get stood up after having made to wait.
In the NL, everything is on schedule and by the schedule. When I have an appointment with the doctor or the dentist the assistant always says please come 15 minutes before your appointment - it's like saying - please waste your 15 minutes instead of mine. :D
But I like that part of sticking to the schedule here very much. It's a great proof of discipline and most Dutch adhere to that.
Wow that's good too know, too bad that the culture in my country.. is all about "chill out man", and "i'm on the way". Lateness is pretty much acceptable here, and too bad for a person like me!
@kevinwong - I feel for you, I'd rant, too if someone does that and worse- tells me to "chill out man". That's too inconsiderate.
Here is a different look:
Don't spend your life worrying about time that got wasted. Live in the moment, and don't do things just to "pass the time." Do things because you want to.
You can make something out of the time you are waiting for late people! It doesn't have to be "wasted" you can do whatever you want then!
Then I'll walk around.. and when that person reaches our rendezvous, they'll think I'm the one who's late! haha
Haha! Right man! Go get a pizza or some coffee, and when they think that you were late, tell them that you showed up 10 minutes early! They can't even be mad!
Another rocking article ! I am struggling with time since I touched down in Europe. It seems the globe turns faster here than back in Bali. So time is just an illusion ?
time is an illusion, but it's a fact that we experience that illusion ;)
And I damn enjoy every second away from the grid 😳🤓