Constantly searching for time…

I am not sure about you, but I certainly feel like I am always searching for more time. I always have something that needs to get done or something that I want to get done. There is only so many hours in a day and I understand that notion. However, why do some days seem to go by faster than others?

Time is neither our friend nor is it our enemy. I am constantly hearing from students that they ran out of time on their ACT/SAT tests or that because of practice, school, and socializing they didn’t have the time to sit and do their homework. 

Whilst I type this, I think of all the things that I need/want to have accomplished and what the deadline is that I want them to be done by. I am headed to Idaho first thing Monday morning. I am not packed, haven’t started packing or getting what I need to go. There are dishes to be finished, laundry to be washed, and I would really like to wash the kitchen floor [okay, maybe not so much that last one], but you get my point. I then think about all the time I “wasted” today. I did have 7 hours of work at the office today. Aside from that I went to the oral surgeon [that I couldn’t avoid], I spent at least an hour driving there and back. I spent Andrew’s lunch hour at his company with him, than came home before work and sat on the computer. I took a shorter shower than usual this morning, and I didn’t take the extra time to straighten my hair. So, why didn’t I have time to pack at least a pair of boots today?

Because I am stalling, I am putting off doing the thing I don’t want to because I don’t want to leave. I don’t really want to go to Idaho for three weeks, I have to go. It’s the same thing with the student and the homework. They don’t necessarily WANT to sit and do their Mathematics homework, so they don’t.

I don’t think we’re searching for time… in my opinion we’re wasting the time we have so we have less time to do the things we don’t want to do. We find things that are more meaningful and enjoyable to do with that time. No one really wants to be miserable, bored, or “stuck” but that’s not the way it goes. 

Time is always a funny thing. How time flies is dependent on the person you ask, it may be slow for you but zooming by for another. 

Make the most of your time, you truly never know how fast it’s going to go by or how much of it is going to be left. Do what you need to do, spend time with those whom you cherish, always say I love you, and try not to hate. A deployment might come up, unexpected training, a conference in another city you have to attend, or an opportunity to study abroad. 

 

Cherish time, it’s precious. 

Case of the annoying coworker

I don’t know about you, but I have never been taught how to deal with a coworker who clashes with my personality. You all know what coworker I am talking about, surely you have run into them from job to job.

They act like you’re the best of friends, tell you how you are feeling, and give you a play by play of their relatively routine life. This happens to me from time to time when I run into one specific coworker. For example, two days ago I had three of my wisdom teeth removed. I came into work today to sit in the office and answer phones and in walks said coworker. She immediately asked me how I was feeling [that’s perfectly acceptable I just had oral surgery] so I answered saying I was slightly sore but nothing I couldn’t manage. The conversation could have stopped there, it didn’t have to continue with her telling myself, and my husband who was just leaving, that we looked tired, annoyed, and frustrated. If I could feel all of those emotions through the painkillers I am on, GO ME!

This coworker and I are not that close that she would even know what I looked like if I was any of those things, nor would she be able to tell that about my husband.

She’s one of those people that gives you an ultimate play by play of everything she is about to do. I am sitting at the desk minding my own business and you’re going to tell me that you’re walking your student to the coffee shop – congrats, go for it, yay for you! It doesn’t affect me, you don’t have another student, I don’t need you in the office, I don’t really require the information that you are sharing with me.

 

To deal with this style coworker usually I just smile, nod and pretend I really care about what she is saying. There is every once in a while those moments where I slip and seriously want to be like “what the hell is your problem, do you really think I actually care”, but those are rare moments.

 

Tell me about your coworkers, do you have any or one specifically that get on your nerves?