Everyone seems to be saying 'Time' is a precious resource. For each one of us, this resource dwindles with every moment one lives. For me, it probably moves seven times faster than human beings but I have learnt to manage what little time I have, very well. How does one go about managing time?
The greatest teacher I have come across is Amma. While Appa was studying like the kids in his mid 40's after every class he would come home excited and rattle out new jargon he had learnt that day. On one of these occasions he was all gaga about what he called 'Blue Ocean Strategy' in marketing. He tried to explain the concept of 'Red Ocean' to the kids. The 'Red Ocean' where the market is turning bloody due to fierce competition and how one creates an uncontested marketplace for oneself by following the 'Blue Ocean Strategy'. I looked through my half opened eyelids at Amma who was giving a half smile at Appa's lecture. It didn't go unnoticed. "Why are you smiling now"? he asked. "Nothing", she said and continued to complete the crossword where 24 Down was the only clue left unsolved. "Yes" and with a pump of her fist, which everyone seems to do nowadays, she wrote something and with a big smile said, "I have completed the Crossword in record time today".
"How do you manage all this everyday?" asked Appa. "That is because I use the 'Blue Sky Strategy' " came the prompt reply. All of us perked up. Amma was becoming really current in management terminologies. "Oh, you mean 'Blue Ocean Strategy' isn't it? " asked Appa. "No, 'Blue Sky' " said Amma. Then she went on to give one of the most important lessons I have learnt in my life - that of Time Management.
"Every person on this earth ", said Amma, "has the same 24 hours. How one manages or utilizes time effectively is the difference between those who do and those who achieve." With mouths half open, Appa and the kids went on to hear the sermon of their lives. I acted disinterested but I was all ears.
Nature has given us all the same amount of time to go about our lives. Making it fruitful is left in our hands. Most people wonder how so much can be done in so little time. They do not follow the ' Blue Sky Strategy' - which is based on the simple saying " Early to bed and early to rise”. The ' Blue Sky Strategy' revealed that one can gain a few additional hours of life by just getting up early when there are no competitors for that time - no phone calls, no kids or spouse to trouble you, no friends knocking at the door - with the quiet of the dawn thrown in for good measure. The strategy according to me was, theoretically, empirically and practically proven by Amma and she tried to get others at home to follow it…. But alas, no one realized, except good old me.
Everyone in the marketplace called home, competes for the same time. We need to eat into others time to get our work done. Amma believed in it and realized that she had to find time for herself too. She followed her 'Blue Sky Strategy' religiously. She used to be up at 4.45 AM, most of the time waking her alarm by shutting it up before it rang, so that it does not disturb Appa - not that it would have mattered. Before the world around her woke up to the blue skies, she would go through life in a systematic manner, filling water, boiling milk, making my breakfast (I believe in rising early and eating early you know).I would sit outside the kitchen watching her flitting around, crunching one routine after other. As the clock struck 6, the call of the Amma would start. In half minute intervals the names of the kids would be called out alternately till they got up.
Then a flurry of activity of both of them getting ready for school. The moment they woke up was the time I would get up and stretch myself. It was time for the walk of the day with Amma. She would plug in her headphones, put on some soulful music she called 'Bhajans' and out we were under the blue sky for a brisk walk.
Return, a quick cup of coffee with the sleepy eyed Appa, cutting vegetables and shouting bye byes to the kids were those small stations that whizzed by as the Bullet Train in which Amma travelled rocketed through the journey called Time. The first halt was the 'Tea Break'. Everyone would have left and with a sigh and her newspaper folded awkwardly with the crossword showing in one hand and a cup of tea in the other she would sit in the sofa with me curling up at her feet. The day used to pass by in a jiffy with lunch, kids return from school, the afternoon nap, evening walk, Appa’s return from work and dinner being the other major stops for the 'Time' train.
The idiot box would switch on at 9 PM for Appa's late night movie as Amma's train would start slowing down as her destination for the day approached - her sleep. The shutters of her eyes would droop and she would curl up on the sofa on the pretext that she wanted to see the movie comfortably. In a blink, no, I doubt even if it blinked once, she would be off to Dreamland. The 'Blue Sky Strategy' would work even now. While others wasted their time listening to events that were past and they could not control - they call it 'News' (It should be called Olds actually) or watching others who have already made money gyrating in what was known as dance in movies, Amma would be recharging batteries of her engine for the next morning - 'Ride of Life'.
My takeaways -
Sleep in time, we need to be awake at work.
Take power naps - to recharge your batteries in the day.
Follow the ' Blue Sky Strategy'.
Finally - One has the same time as everyone else but how to optimally utilise it is in one's paws!!!
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