Take your time (Control of Time)

Member Name: icklegirly

Product:	Control of Time
Date:	07/09/01 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Controled time is great if you control it yourself

Disadvantages: Don't let anyone else spend your time

OK, lets get this over with straight away. I'm lazy. Very lazy. I've completed GCSEs, A-levels and a degree on the absolute minimum of work, because (and I am not being vain here) I knew I could do well enough without making the effort (perhaps this says something about the education system, I dunno).

Sometimes I will stay in bed all day watching the repeated pap they churn out on tv every day (Wipeout with Bob Monkhouse is the worst in my book). It takes me days to get around to doing the most simple of tasks. I am rarely awake before 12 noon.

I've always been lazy, much to the annoyance of those around me. My parents have ripped out their hair over my inability to get anywhere on time. My friends even build in at least an hours "lateness" allowance when I meet them. I was once a whole day late when I was going to meet my boyfriend.

And yet every time someone says they dispair in me, that I am lazy beyond belief, every time my Dad says I ought to "buck up my ideas" (he says this quite often), I always remind myself why I'm like this.

I do as I please. If people think I'm wasting my time then fine. If other people want to leap out of bed at the crack of dawn then thats fandabydosy. As long as that makes them happy. But I do as I please. An example: I'm looking for a job at the moment, and when I find a job I want to do then if I have to get up at 4 in the morning then I will. Because that will be what I WANT to do. What I won't do is what anyone else tells me to do (this is why I'm "lazy" - because I spend my time as I want, not as I'm told to do), and nor should anyone else. Yes we all need to earn a wage somehow. Yes, we all have to be pragmatic at some point, but the reason people are pushed so hard at work is because little by little society has let it happen.

We do as we are told, we follow the rules, we push that little bit harder to beat the compet
ition. If the boss asks you to do a few extra hours you say yes, because you don't want someone else to win his or her favour, but more fool the person willing to sacrifice their time like this, because it will only lead to more and more similar demands.

Here in the UK we have appaulingly low levels of workers rights. Remember the fuss made over the minimum wage? Remember the fuss over parental leave? (Even though studies have shown that companies who treat workers well foster a greater sense of loyalty in those workers who are then in turn more productive) It seems that people have forgotten what is really important.

If people begin to value their time then surely they will realise that their time belongs to them. I value my time. I like to sit and read. I like to lie in the bath for hours. I like to spend hours in libraries just browsing. I like to spend time with my friends. In the future when I have children I intend to spend as much time with them as I can. We are not here forever, and our only natural commodity is the time we are given and how we choose to use it. I know a frightening number of people who have ruined their lives trying to live up to the expectations others have placed on their time.

So yes, I'll admit it, I could do more with my time, but it is my time to spend. Contrary to the beliefs of my parents, I want a job, but I do not want to spend my time in a job I hate. I'm fussy and life is to short, we have too little time, to spend it by being unhappy. Yes, there are many who are ruled by the clock, and if they are happy then that is fine. That is their choice. But the only pressure should come from within and not from others telling you where to be and what to do. Of course, there is room for pragmatism, but if everyone spent their time according to their own choices then the "pressure of the clock" would be gone. My time is all I have and I'm going to spend it on what I want, and if that
makes me lazy then thats just grand, I'm happy to be lazy.

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