On Having Time Or: The Consequences Of Surrendering To The “Urgent” Of Others

Ishan @seefromthesky

Having time.  Is it strange that some people get stressed and others do not?

Sometimes this may be the same person under different circumstances.  Sometimes in our lives, we feel stress and sometimes we do not.

Quite often, we attribute this to external factors.  
Too much to do.  My boss is an asshole.  Not enough time in the day.

All seem reasonable and, in my experience, it does not matter how good the company is, it only matters what your boss is like.  

But why do we give external factors such power over us?  We have an abundance of choice.

We could work for someone else.  Wo could focus on only the important tasks.  We could realise that we all have the same amount of time.  Or do we?

It is amazing to see that people get resigned to having to do things.  I have seen employees about to go off with stress, aching to just finish what they need to do before they go home and yet they are accepting meetings where they do not know what outcome is expected; they do not know why they need to be there and they never even try to not go to it.

Even worse, is that when they do go to it and realise both that nothing productive is going to happen and even if it was, they do not need to be there, they resign themselves again to having to stay rather than just excusing themselves and walking out.

It is important to remember that you do not have to do anything, there are just consequences if you do and if you do not.

The consequence of giving too much control over your day to other peoples meetings is that you will not have time to do the things you already know you need to do: workout, be present with loved ones, eat right, or just doing the important things and being prepared to take shit for not doing someone elses "urgent."

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