The Race against Time

As a student, time and deadlines had paramount importance only when exams and presentations used to be around the corner. I remember the times when I used to struggle to complete the never-ending theory papers within the stipulated time. While writing those papers, the attention used to be divided into time and quality of content. I used to heave a sigh of relief whenever I managed to complete the paper by ‘fighting against all odds’. Preparation for the presentations too used to start at the eleventh hour and the graph of panic levels used to rise.

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, situations do not change, only the face of the situations change. I have been experiencing the challenges against time since turning into a working professional. This holds especially true when you are working in finance department and month end (which always seems to be approaching sooner than usual) alarm bell starts ringing. Being a novice with the financial tools used at work, the time required for understanding them and then implementing them in work is a Herculean task at the initial stages of learning.

After spending a few months in the organization, absorbing its culture and acclimatizing with the job tasks, I was assigned with a new set of responsibilities. That was, I would say, my breakthrough in understanding to complete the tasks on time. When the deadlines are nearby, even the emails in the inbox have exclamatory marks in the subject line, denoting the urgency in finishing the work on time. That is when the wheels have to get churning faster than normal. When I am in such a situation, I feel like the hare in the ‘Hare and Tortoise’ story, whereby I try to finish tasks as quickly as possible and then expect to relax for a while. Alas, Time (month end tasks) is such a tortoise that comes steadily but not slowly! And then I try to change the course of the story and try to win despite playing a hare.

Ideally in our 45 hours of work in a week, it can be said that tasks can be completed on time provided we plan them, to avoid panic. Or as Fredrick Taylor had suggested ‘time and motion study’ can really be implemented to increase business efficiency. If that would have been always possible, maybe the words ‘ad hoc’ or ‘impromptu’ would not have existed. In such a case it’s difficult to answer the question ‘How much time will it take?’ when you yourself are not sure of it and are about to do it for the very first time! It is like asking the ‘exact estimate’!  But giving assurances and promises is something we Indians are really good at and we don’t like displeasing anyone by raising their eyebrows. Therefore, to avoid looking like a fool or to avoid wrath of any sort, some people blurt any number that comes to their mind.

The story does not end here. After all the planning is done, you are set to finish the tasks on time and work towards it like a dedicated professional. On your way to accomplishment there lie various challenges in form of time consuming processes on your system and background files to be prepared which take most of the time. That I would say, is a test of patience. It is as though a dish taking not much time to cook, but its preparation involving painstaking efforts. In both the cases, be it cooking or the job task in which you pour your heart and soul in, the outcome is decisive. You are either praised or are suggested areas of improvement. Trainings too should form a part of routine activities to improve efficiency and also because they contribute significantly towards improving a person’s learning and experience curve.

Whenever we talk about completing things on time, the stories of people waiting back after the working hours are generally applauded. No one usually questions if that task really needed a person to wait back. No one really gives it a thought as to what that person does in the actual office hours. In German work culture working hours mean working hours without gossips or other frivolous activities. In such a work culture it is immaterial if your colleagues give you a perplexed look when you leave sharp on time.

Battling all the deadlines and having a sense of satisfaction that you did well in your work, there wait a loving bunch of people at your home who support you in all your trysts: Family. To ensure their happiness should therefore be on the top of your priority lists. And to spend quality time with our families out of the busy five-day week, we long for weekends. We must thank Henry Ford for inventing weekends in the early 1900s. Though he saw weekends as an opportunity to sell cars to his employees viewing them also as customers, he would not have known then, that these weekends only would provide solace to many indefatigable working individuals. Of course, there are many human machines as well who don’t mind working even on weekends. They are either passionate or megalomaniacs.

As I said that time sprints and waits for no one, weekends too sprint at a lightning or should I say frightening speed, and there comes Monday again. The cycle begins anew once again. Task lists are planned and prepared, accountability of time has to be proved and life simply goes on, forever waiting for weekends or planning for vacations or other passions to be pursued!