Why Being Busy Matters

When I say 'hello' on the phone sometimes, the other end of the phone asks me, "you sound busy. You busy? Your hello says 'busy'."
"I only said hello! You gleaned all that from two syllables?!" And then we break into some Abott and Costello routine.

Here's an odd confession.
I can't skip things that are on my schedule/calendar. I've tried a number of times but when I do I get attacked by royal pangs of guilt. 'Bad, Bri, bad. You skipped out on yoga or picking up dry-cleaning, or replying to so-and-so-'s email.'

If the tasks are not on the calendar, I can skip them but if they are, I can't not keep them.
This is the reason why I wouldn't sluff as a teenager.
My classmates would always ask in disbelief: "Why don't you want to go to a party instead of 19th century English poetry?"
"Because my schedule says I'm in class from 8-2, you know what I mean? Then, it's MTV after class. And then I've got ping-pong. And then Inspector Morse is on at 8 (Man, I used to LOVE Morse!). So, no, can't skip."

I laugh now when I am reminded of this seemingly odd behavior. I laugh but I still 'get' what my teenage version meant by "well, it's in my schedule to do this, so, yeah, I've got to do it."

Ok, consider this rather insipid illustration by Hugh Grant's character in About a Boy. This was the only minute in the film worth my time and interest. I turned off my attention after that. I get Hugh Grant's discussion of 'units of time'. It somehow makes perfect sense to me.

Sticking to a schedule helps many process information. Answers are often hidden between tasks. Panacea is to be found between tasks. Being busy keeps one in motion and being in a state of moving keeps one interested and in that very process interesting. Aren't most things about the latter, anyway?

It matters being busy. It matters because busy-ness brings a level of perspective that one cannot have when having too much time to mull things over.
My academic background has made me especially aware of this. Doing a close reading of half a 13-th century poem for a year can eventually test one's patience and one's relationship with time. I get general anxiety when I have much time on my hand to do one specific thing. The thing becomes less daunting, hence handleable, when done in the company of other things. The phrase that gets used by those in my life is, "you look like you're in your head again." I know what that phrase stands for. It stands for restlesness or rather fear of restlessness.

I got to thinking abou what we were doing this time last year on my drive back from work tonight. And this time last year I got a call from the phone operators of Real Time with Bill Maher informing me that we had won some complimentary tickets to a live taping of the HBO show at their studio on Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Since we were heading to LA that weekend, the phone call could not have been timelier.

Seeing a live episode of Real Time was not just fun. It was another great example of how indispensable being busy is to me. Getting to the studio in time was nigh heroic. If you've ever driven in Los Angeles, you don't have to think too hard why. Los Angeles traffic is the stuff nightmares are made of. Our day this time last year consisted of a lot of activities and we made the taping of the show in the nick of time. I like it when I make it to things in the nick of time. I don't like to wait. Waiting sucks. Waiting makes me clench my teeth, move restlessly, and get aggravated at the thought that time, my time is being wasted.

Being busy matters because it gives many of us the impression that we count, that we are important. And the impression of being something, more often than not, has more weight than actual substance. Impressions are the stuff actual encouragement is made out of and encouragement is rarely inconsequential. Being busy reinforces a pattern of movement/motion and it is at the core of being dynamic, with a pulse, alive.

How to Manage Email Better

Email is great for a lot of reasons. But like most good things out there it can also prove to be stressful. The more we use something, the more difficult it gets to be with time. Familiarity breeds some stress if not managed right, after all. If you're in a line of work like mine where attending to email is indispensable then time management is key. I get a large number of emails every day. Which, of course means, that I write a lot of emails per day.

Between work, writing, various forms of sociality i.e., personal life, family, friendships, miscellaneous interests and so forth, the inbox gets a whole lot of daily action. Receiving 50-60 emails a day is a normal thing for me which means I have my work cut out. Attending to email is necessary. This is, at the core, a time management skill, however.
When it comes to email replies, I believe in sticking to the point and attending to all the received questions in a manner that's informed by economy of space and time. If a topic needs to be discussed further I make it a point to attend to it in person, per phone, or at a later time in a separate email.

Here is a list I have been developing over the years re: email management:

1) Stay on topic. If the person is emailing you asking about, say, dinner plans, stick to dinner in your reply.
Eg.: Question: "How about a little dinner at that bistro you like?"
Answer: "Sure. Good to go at 7:00."
Done.

2) It is difficult to attend to every email the moment it gets in your mailbox. Thanks to smartphones and uber-quick computers and apps, we know the moment new mail makes it to our respective inboxes. However, that does not mean that you need to attend to it right then and there. See where you are and what you are doing at the moment. If you're in traffic and your iPhone is signaling new mail, ignore it. I firmly believe in not using the phone/email/texts when operating a vehicle. If you're speaking face to face with someone, the email you received will just have to wait. This is not just good manners, it's simply good time management. Even the best multitasker cannot do every well at the same time.

3) Create a hierarchy of urgency. If an email is truly urgent, attend to it right away. If it can wait, then it will wait. If your friend is emailing to know if you'd like to get together during the weekend and he emails you on a Monday, chances are he can wait till the end of the day or the next day even to get a reply.

4) Discuss email boundaries with people in your life so that they know what your modus operandi consists of. If the people in your life are used to you attending to communication right away and for some reason your schedule changes and you can't write back right away, inform them of the change. Be proactive. We live in the age of social media and Web 2.0 and we need to attend to relationships the way our parents did in the email-free day.

5) Write vacation notifications especially for work-related communication and local relationships. As it is the case with other relationships in life, communication and straightforwardness is key. Inform the interested parties that you are away and that you will attend to your emails when you are available.

6) Manage subscriptions. If you subscribe to various online publications, go over the list and see which ones you could be ok without.

7) Put things in perspective. Take time out for all of your daily tasks. They all hold some importance or else you wouldn't do them. It helps some people to only check their email four times a day during certain times of the day. Other people do so twice a day, once in the morning and another time in the evening.

8) Take good care of you first. Email is not supposed to be a source of stress and anxiety. It's a wonderful tool that facilitates communication. Consider it so. If it gets to be much, take a little break, shut your gadgets off and go for a quick run, ride your bike, or go people watch and see for yourself that face-to-face communication is not something that only Charles Dickens and Jane Austen knew a thing or two about.

9) Notification-free zone. If your working space is anything like mine, you have an array of sounds going off all the time. There's the text message signal, the new mail signal, the return-email sound, the alarm clock for this and that task/chore et al. If you're intent on finishing a task, then you need to concentrate sans the stress of the impending sounds. By disabling all notification sounds, much can be accomplished.

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graph per google images

Time Management: Why It Matters

I talk about time and multi-tasking quite often and that's because it's a high-frequency issue/concern/topic in my quotidianity.
Simply put, I have to be acutely aware of time for two rather basic reasons:

1) productivity
2) quality of life

So, here are a few things to consider when thinking about time/schedules.

1) Do not allow distractions to interfere with planned tasks. Block a generous time frame for the most important tasks.

2) The most important tasks of the week need to be completed first before the week gets full.

2) Plan enough time for each task.

3) Allow a 2-hour block daily for a work-out and focused physical activity. Planned physical time is a great way to put tasks and time-sensitive duties in perspective.

4) Write daily even when there is no apparent inspiration.

5) Do not over-work on a certain day as it might be difficult to get enough motivation to tackle the same task the following day. Know when to stop.

6) Unapologetically keep to a personalized schedule.

7) Carefully plan time for 'no-activity' or as I call it 'thinking time' without gadget/media/information input.

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