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Di Bawoh Rang Ikang Kering
Random Ramblings of A Retired Retainer

SWALLOWING A FROG

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Whoever said "Time is money" haven't met my pensioner friends and me. We have time but no money. Except yesterday. Yesterday we had neither. We didn't get to meet to have lunch and I ended up spending more money for pizza.

This post is late because I was hard-pressed for time and had to prioritize. Blog posting, which was high on my list, dropped down a notch or two. I also didn't get to have my usual fun in the chat room except to have a virtual dance or two with Mak Andeh. That was fun albeit a quickie.

Today, I have to lecture on Human Resources and Time Management for the Special Events class. I had to troll the Net to come up with a decent set of PowerPoint slides. I found some interesting bits and pieces which I shall share with you. It seems that to people of working age, most of our time goes to unexpected places:
7 years in the bathroom
6 years eating
5 years in queues
3 years in meetings
2 years on the phone
8 months opening junk mail
6 months sitting at red lights (not applicable to Malaysian motorcyclists)
Of course, there are those minutes and hours wasted. Apart from reading this blog, there are 17 Leading Time Wasters:

1.Telephone interruptions
2.Visitors
3.Meetings
4.Crises
5. Lack of priorities
6. Disorganisation
7. Inability to delegate
8. Computer problems
9. Inaccurate information
10. Indecision
11. Unclear communication
12. Inability to say "NO"
13. Fatigue
14. Correcting mistakes
15. "Waiting time"
16. "Road time"
17. Poor planning


I will leave it to you to ponder on the above time wasters. I also have a Self Test that can tell you how good are you at Time Management. Since time is precious, I will leave that for later.

Time is also wasted when you dilly-dally and use the kek gi syndrome. Tasks, however unpleasant, have to be done. No matter how long you wait or delay, they won't get better. So, one wise man said :
"If you have to swallow a frog, do not take too long looking at it."