"I'm too busy and don't have time" (1 Viewer)

[Steve_Tk]

Anyone meet these people before? I'm not talking about the ones that have 4 kids and they all play different sports, you know the routine.

I'm talking about the people that work 40 hour a week jobs but do not know how to manage their time. So when you ask them what they did, they have a very very small list of what they have done, but some how it fills up the entire weekend?

I got this from my sister, who works exactly 40 hours a week, lives 15 minutes from work. I asked her if she had done this thing and she said she didn't have time. And when questioning further as to what she had done instead, she had 1 or 2 things over the entire weekend. Saying she had to go to the grocery store...well that takes up the entire weekend.

What are these people doing all day that have all the time in the world, accomplish almost nothing, but still never have time? And the weird thing is, it's not that they are sitting on their butt all day, they just don't know how to do anything fast. How do you have all day to do things, accomplish nothing, but still can't remember where all the time went and do not know how you spent all day doing it? I have so much free time it's disgusting but my schedule is no more full then a lot of these people's schedules that some how never have a spare minute.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Maybe it's all about the journey and not the destination...

 

[Greg Rakaska]

Perhaps these folks just don't care to share with you what they do with their time.

Personally, I like to keep my business to myself when it comes to co-workers inquiries of "What did you do this weekend?".

My usual response is "Nothing, just mowed the grass". For the most part, they are not really interested in what I did, they just use that inquiry as a segue to tell me how "busy" they were and how many dozens of (boring to me) things they did. Too many people seems to equate self-importance with convincing me how overly busy they are.

Right after I say "Nothing....", they say something like "I wish I could say that!" I was so busy, I only slept 2 hours, I had to yada, yada, yada..."

 

[Leila Dougan]

I'm a lot like Greg. Sometimes I'm busy, sometimes I'm not. But I don't care to share the details of my day or weekend with anybody, so I don't. And sometimes, I really *am* too busy to do whatever it is that fell into slot 50 on my priority list. If surfing and watching TV have a higher priority to me, I may just say I was too busy.

 

[Ricardo C]

What's the problem with "not doing anything"? Last weekend that's exactly what I did: Vegged out watching movies at home. Not terribly exciting to nosy co-workers , but I had a lot of fun. Caught up on a few DVDs, stuffed my face with junk food, and essentially indulged myself all weekend. Might do some of that again this weekend.

 

[David Susilo]

Some people just don't know how to manage their time.

Look at it this way. I work a 60+hour week, have a kid and I have more time to do other non work-related things than my friend who works a 40-hour week and no kid.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

A lot definitely has to do with lifestyle and priorities.

Using the above grocery store example, when I go to the grocery store, I visit 1 store for an hour at the most. My goal is to GET the FOOD and USE the FOOD.

My wife will go to 3 or 4 different stores and can be gone for 3-4 hrs ! For her, going to the grocery store is an opportunity to "window shop" for certain specialty brands, in season fruits/veggies, etc. (she loves to eat good food, LOL) For her, the grocery store is a research project.... I'm sure she'll soon be on FoodTV in some sort of "rabid shopper" special.

I'm sure my wife has similar examples of her wanting to just "watch a movie", and me wanting to "Experience the Home Theater".

 

[James T]

It's all about time management. I know this one guy, who works 40+ hours a week, goes to school fulltime(pretty good grades) and have a social life that keeps him up all night during the weekends and some weekdays.

 

[DonnyD]

I have always heard that if you want something done, find the busiest man around and ask him!!!
I have always enjoyed an energy that gets me up very early and I probably get more done by mid morning than most persons do all day....
I never sleep late even if I go to bed late. I'm up at 4-430 daily and hit the ground running. Got up this morning at 4, got on puter as I am still doing, visited my fav sites, heading to Wal-mart in a few minutes for " domestic essentials", back home and clean up my trucks, probably put on a coat of Zaino wax, then it is off to Memphis with the fam. Usually on Sundays, I do get to chill late in the afternoon and watch a movie.
AND... I am working tomorrow (Labor Day)... by choice. We are just so busy and have a self imposed schedule to finish a job by Wed.
I know many who "never have the time" for some things and they end up rushing through something and half-ass doing it. I had a friend once who "didn't have teh time to change oil in his ATV so I'd go do it for him, the pack his camping gear just so we could all leave on time .
I love being this way and getting busy on something is my drug! At 54, I think I do pretty good. I have to say I do take time out for my kids and my GF..... Those are esentials too.....

 

[SteveGon]

Some people just don't know how to manage their time.

Like my teenaged co-workers who seem to take fifteen minutes to do something that could be done in at most five?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Maybe your sister just doesn't want to do 'that'.

Having said that, and taking proper 'time management' into account, I feel that the weekends are 'my time'. I will do what I want, when I want, and in the order that I want. I can be open to suggestions, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to upset a possibly perfectly planned weekend to do something that I'm not sure would make me happy.

Glenn

 

[Steve_Tk]

I didn't start this post saying you have to go out and do stuff. Watching a movie is something, sitting on the couch watching the ball game is something.

I'm more or less talking about the people that take 5 times longer to accomplish something that it takes a normal person to do. Then when you question why it took so long, they honestly have no idea and might even say they were hurrying.

 

[Seth--L]

Exactly. Unless I know the person well, I just tell them that I caught up on my REM cycles.