Unemployed is not so bad
02/05/2009 10:50 a.m. | Work
In a world of not having to show up for work in the morning, I find my clocks to be the most useless things in my apartment (suits are second). It is really amazing how your life can be shaped by the time, and how free it is when you let that go.
I have been waking up around 11, eating lunch around 4, dinner is at 10 and I got to sleep after 3am. This somehow feels like a more natural rhythm. I am not sure how I got stuck at these times, but I have. The freedom that it brings is wonderful.
I spent quite a bit of time checking a clock at school. Whether it was for a meeting or a class, or finishing a test or turning of the ringers on a phone, I spent time worrying about the time. In many cases, I would arrive early for things and not properly know how to spend those minutes. Now, I have all of the minutes at my disposal. I don't have to account for traffic or set an alarm. I am on my time.
Surprisingly, this has been a great motivator for me to accomplish things. At work, when I had lots of meetings on my schedule, it felt as if my time was all accounted for. Someone else was in charge of it and using it. In some cases it felt like I didn't have time to do what I needed to do. My time management wasn't mine at all. Someone else was managing my time, and I was left to manage the leftovers.
Perhaps this is the key to time management; the feeling that you are in control of your time. Now that I am in control of my whole day, I am much better managed. I can switch tasks, schedule meetings when they work best for me, and spend extra time reading or watching movies. I set the priorities and I control what gets done today and what will wait til tomorrow.
Also, I am allowed lots of little time to play around with things. I have done a few daily videos this year, but they don't have focus. At first, this was the point. I wanted to capture my thoughts, which I have done a good job of. Now, I have the time to try to organize and trim and do a bit more with them. I have the option to spend hours researching optimum lengths and iMovie tricks.
The only thing that has been negatively affected by unemployment is my cash flow. I am trying to learn to not worry about that the same way I am learning to not worry about the time.
It is not as easy, because limited cash flow means I am really limiting myself on all the (possibly unnecessary) things I could be buying. But that is another great exercise.
As I pack for Texas, I am finding many things that I have not opened or used for almost the entire time I have been in NYC. Some of these are keepsakes, and aren't meant to be used often. But other things are just begging to be thrown away (how did I get so many cords?). So, as businesses are pruning their staffs and trying to be more efficient, I am doing the same.
Not going to work is not so bad. I'm hoping I can find something more financially productive that is not so bad too.