While speaking with co-workers lately, I felt compelled to discuss “time.” I’ve noticed that everyone appears to be complaining about the absence of it.
This pandemic has ushered in a new manner of working that has pushed us all online, and the dreaded Microsoft Teams and Zoom have both become ubiquitous. Still, once our University and Faculty “return to normal” in some way, the idea of our being physically present for teaching and research activity will begin to take shape. I’m curious what will become of our time, and more importantly, what will become of all those Microsoft Teams calls.
This week, for example, I have 33.5 hours of meetings scheduled. Even if I just used 8 hours per day, multiplied by five working days, it leaves 6.5 hours per week to do other things, assuming I don’t eat anything, and don’t work more than 40 hours a week.
On certain days, I may have four or five meetings scheduled at the same time. As it is, the “new method of working” entails sending meetings requests with little chance of seeing a Doodle Poll, which creates some degree of compulsion to attend.
I’m not sure how we find time to do anything other than attend “urgent”, “other” and “day job” meetings, and then there’s the sheer quantity of emails that arrives in a single day!
In addition to this, there’s “MyAnalytics” from Microsoft. Based on the massive amount of data it collects about me via my computer, Microsoft Office and the ether, this now advises me that I “really” should make time to “focus.” Its all-seeing “AI” will be here to help me, as it suggested blocking out large chunks of my schedule to preserve my “wellbeing.” This is all completely implausible. Of course, I could “stop” doing things. This appears to be beneficial. If you have not looked at your own Analytics and are interested, head to https://myanalytics.microsoft.com/
I did, however, find time to read an intriguing piece on the number of “famous individuals” who have opted to “actually” throw their smartphone/laptop out of the car! or alternatively, into a deep lake. According to Ed Sheeran, this was a “defining and liberating experience” that “changed his life,” providing him “freedom to get on with the important things in life.” Oddly, the journalist seems to ponder the question of ‘Can life exist without a smartphone? How would you look at emails, Whatsapp or Instagram?’ I am not sure what this would mean realistically if I were to do the same. I’m guessing it would result in me spending a lot of time mowing stripes on my lawn, a past time I am very fond of, and which you’re all aware of now.
It does, however, provide me with the opportunity to speculate on what will occur. As I previously stated, we are all returning to work in some shape or form, and if not to the levels of pre-pandemic, it will be a trail to the old, not the new. Humans are creatures of habit and like each other’s company—just too much in my view. I and others have discussed the need of caring for one another over the last 2 years, and I believe that even more so now, “time” is of the essence at this stage.
Before the pandemic, I had a day that wasn’t completely sealed off. I could chat to others in my team more directly about things, and idle conversation and mussing would lead to new ideas and research.
We all can remember saying at some point in our lives, “I need more time in the day”, but unless we can change the turning of our blue marble planet, I believe we’ll be stuck with only 24 hours. It therefore all depends on how we use time.
Recently last week while negotiating my time with my interim PA Lindsay, I even went so far as to say that I would limit myself to no more than 10 hours of meetings each week, and that I would not attend meetings unless there was an agenda. She snorted “Yeah right!” as a response and the matter was forgot as if impossible. If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, like most of us, I receive a lot of unsolicited meeting invitations in the hopes I can accept them, without the sender checking my availability. We need to be better gatekeepers to our diaries and, I dare say, our emails.
Perhaps the answer to this is that we should all think about how we use our time and how we use other people’s time. We should make time to get things done, spend more time with people at work as well as at home, and care for others’ time as much as we care for our own. By doing this, we will ensure that we consider our personal well-being as much as the well-being of others. So take some time before sending an email or scheduling a meeting, and make more room in your day. Make time.