Last week’s NAN was a reflection on dealing with addiction from Mark, who was learning to deal with his addiction. Your comments and responses to this episode revealed that many of you loved the honesty with which he explored his challenges and wanted to hear more from him.
Mark read some of your comments as you shared them with me, and was inspired to do even more.
For this week’s NAN, Mark is exploring another area where Mark is trying to learn and improve on its management: time. Here is his entry for NAN, this week.
I want you to know that attention is a gift, not given but attained. Time pays attention; to the switching of hours, days, and seasons. This is what we expect from the night, and this is what we expect from the day. The chirps of birds, and the cracks of crickets, and you, enjoying the in-betweens. But what happens when attention stops? When time hands itself down to your grace?
Lately, I’ve been enamoured by the concept of time and how it is merely a sequence of events that happen in succession, and you can only lose yourself in it, or to it. Being one with and being able to control time is perhaps your greatest wish in life — holding all pieces of the clock together, running through hours like they belong to you, and even tingling with joy as one task is completed following due process. You simply are in control, and the flower in you waters itself without much effort.
But what happens when you lose yourself in time? Almost everything becomes difficult because you are always trying to catch up. Do you ever wonder what will happen when the sun stays up till 11 pm? You panic. You ask questions. You’d like to know why and how. You ask if the concept of time freezing is real or if you have transcended the confines of theories. Perhaps, you only scream instead of singing.
Subconsciously we pay attention to time, and sometimes it is very easy to lose that attention. As DH Lawrence noted, attention is similar to observing birds “fly through the living universe as feelings and premonitions fly through the breast of man, or as thoughts fly through the mind.” None of these things disregards time because time takes us from where we are to where we want to be in practice. Hence, with attention to time, we can cusp anything from thin air and mould it into significance.
Several theories have proposed how to control time, and technology has made everything easier for us. The simplest, perhaps, is the to-do list. A simple outline of your activities keeps you in check with them. Are there tasks you find simple? Could you do them first, then tackle others of greater strength? The to-do list allows you to pay attention to time, yourself, and how to navigate each day without much fuss.
Time stops for nobody; regardless, numerous people have managed to carve and build value out of the infinite dimensions of time. Pay attention and be one step ahead in solidifying value.
I have written about time and its management several times on NAN. For instance, here, I talked about an effective way to manage time by jettisoning multitasking. Or how to become a better morning person through effective time and resources management. Importantly, I shared my recipe for making great to-do lists.
TEA
Mark is set to do at least one more of this, as he seems to be having fun with NAN. I think it’s cool letting someone else write NAN. I look forward to seeing what he writes next and what you think about it. But for now, I am still pondering how best to proceed with NAN as my scheduling conflicts continue.
Until the next NAN, be kind to yourself and the world around you; be patient with yourself and others; love yourself and the people around you; do not give up on things that matter to you unless giving up will provide you more peace and security.