Time is Money & People are Lavish Spenders
“When you kill time, remember that it has no
resurrection.”
― A.W.
Tozer
WARNING: Read only if you think it wouldn't
waste your precious time!
I generally like people; all kinds of
them...even those who are not always nice and reasonable, or likeable. I tend
to find some degree of likeness in them and then I place reliance on that small, tiny dot of likeness to either grow or remain intact. However, I confess I do
hold a high level of bias against people who waste time. I try to avoid them,
keep them at a distance since time-wasting is similar to smoking - the smoke
doesn't only affect the smokers alone but the non-smokers alike. Hence I conclude
that 'passive time wasting' could be more detrimental to the cosmic balance of
productivity!
As per my observation, people waste
countless hours in the day dragging through things, doing things that are
meaningless and unnecessary, and just squandering time without even realizing
it! And when I say this, I do not mean wasting the most significant phases of
their lives by getting stuck in toxic relationships, not aiming to do anything
worthwhile, or putting in not enough effort to understand the deeper meaning of
our existence on earth - I rather intend to point out only the more trivial
things that people do to waste hours of precious time in regular, routine life.
Here are some observations!
Nearly half of the people in this
beautiful city fritter away their and other people's valuable time owing to
their bad ATM-using habits! More often than not, I experience long queues at
the ATMs. Wasn't the whole point of introducing these cash machines was that to
save up time? What happened to fast cash? Seriously, what are these folks up to
in there? Are they offering free Netflix on the screen?
So the scene starts with women
rummaging around and fumbling through their hobos and totes to find their
plastic money, or with men moving their hands slowly into their pockets to
reach for their wallets while they try to lock an indispensable business deal
over a call. Then comes the hardest part - the part where they need to 'guess'
their PIN. How troublesome could it be if you grab out the card before walking
up to the ATM and make it a point to remember your PIN? Anyhow, after a long considering
stare at their feet, the PIN eventually dawns upon them. Sometimes, they'll get a
receipt showing low funds in their account but for some reason, they will put
the card back into the machine to check if the machine was right the first time
or if it wanted to change its mind. They wouldn't give up easily!
Meanwhile, the queue fumes with
frustration and plunges into a contest of standing as close to the ATM door as
one can possibly imagine! You catch a glimpse through the glass door and assess
that the transaction has been completed much to your relief but wait...this
isn't over yet! They would keep standing in front of the machine, while you
boil your blood outside. What are they doing now? Yes! They have been
successful in withdrawing cash and retrieving receipt but this isn't all they got
in for - they need to scrutinize the receipt before its content vanishes into thin air under some invisibility spell from the Harry
Potter series. And yes they also need to count the cash since the machine could
make a counting glitch! I think these machines have been around long enough for
people to know how to use them properly. It is actually their irresponsible
'ATMing' habits that result in wastage and loss of time!
Am I the only one who finds slow walkers and lazy movers in shopping malls and stores irksome? Phew those turtle
feet! Why do people hangout in grocery aisles as if taking a stroll in the park
on a pleasant day? I have come across people who needlessly block the entire
aisle; they would turn back and see you square in the face for a while and then
go back browsing the shelves without bothering to move their shopping carts aside to make room for you. Not to mention those pesky window shoppers; they just create
more buzz on the roads and in the stores (which eventually results in wasting the time
of serious buyers), but contribute nothing to the economy! These women occupy
all the try rooms available in a store and take forever trying on a single
piece of clothing and interestingly they come out declaring they didn't like
the color! Like, seriously?
Then at the counter, they'll keep
adding candy bars and other accessories at the cash register - those last
minute grabs just go on forever while you keep standing in the queue guarding
your cart against everyone who passes by staring scornfully at the magnitude of
your shopping spree. And yes, the cashiers are well versed in the art of
time-wasting as well; the most common way they do that is by cracking inside
jokes with their colleagues while the shoppers eyeball their hands wishing they
moved faster! I wish people were more conscious about how they knowingly
or unknowingly waste other people's time because of their uncivilized behavior.
I'm often intrigued by how much time
people waste away owing to their babbling habits. They make senseless arguments
and waste hours defending their point! Sometimes they even try to change other
people's opinion - they'll try hard to do it but all in vain, still failing to
realize how the whole exercise is nothing but a super waste of time and energy!
I recently became a witness to a gratuitous conversation
between a ticket counterman and a female passenger. While they engaged in the
act of flirtation, I waited out for them to wind it up and entertain me. Not that they weren't already 'entertaining'!
There are some others who are in a
habit of repeating themselves multiple times and taking forever to get to a
point in conversation! They are a handful! Saying something repeatedly doesn’t
achieve anything useful; it simply wastes time and exhausts the listeners. Cut
short and conserve time!!
If I say time is more valuable a
resource than money, I'm likely to be hit by counterarguments. However, I still
stick to my statement - time is more precious and valuable than money because
most of us can always try to make more money even after we lose some or all.
Time, on the other hand, is a non-renewable resource. Once it's gone, it is
gone for good. If you can't get it back, it must be more precious, right?
These are just some observations; we
waste our time everyday in millions of other ways. Why can't we just rush through
things and move faster? Hope reading this was a time well spent for you!
Here is to the preciousness of
time!
2 comments
Don't you think, writing this article and then reading it is also time wasting...
ReplyDeleteThe fact that somebody read it, despite the warning at the top, and then stopped by to post a comment, proves that it wasn't a waste of time, rather a time well spent!
ReplyDelete