The 25-hour Day - Hilath's Home Page

LIFESTYLE

The 25-hour Day

By Hilath Rasheed

Ever wonder why people carry schedulers with them? Stylishly bound, this chic thing is normally linked to people who are believed to lead a busy daily life. Earlier only executives were thought to have a busy daily schedule, and thus they self-righteously claimed title to schedulers.

But nowadays schedulers have become an "in" thing for people from virtually all walks of life. In fact, carrying a scheduler around makes it easy for even the ordinary person to schedule his or her daily programme; to divide time so that time can be allocated for each and every aspect of life.

Nowadays we find that we have such short time on our hands that it is close to impossible to allocate equal time for work, play and rest. Our lives have been so busy that it seems we now require more than a 24-hour day to plan and fit everything into our busy lives.

Things seem to have become more complicated now. Years ago we had lots of times on our hands; after school or work, we had time to help around in house chores, do work for our neighbours, and help our kid brothers and sisters do their homework. We had time to play, rest and do something entertaining, and pursue a hobby.

But times have now changed. Now most of us seem to have a full-time job and a part-time job. We go to office in the morning, we go to office in the afternoon and we go to office in the evening, too! We come home late at night and hit the sack, and that's it! But, is that a life? If our daily programme runs like this, in no time, most probably we will have a nervous breakdown or go insane at the worst.

It is necessary, therefore, that we properly divide our time so that the three most important things can be fit into our lives--work, play and rest. We should find time to spend with our family, our relatives, and our friends. We should find time to exercise our body, be it doing aerobics, going to the gym, or just going for jogging or swimming. We should find time to entertain ourselves--read a book, watch a film, or listen to music. We should find time to pursue a hobby that we like, such as writing, collecting stamps, or having pets.

And we should find time just for ourselves, to be alone, to daydream, to expand the horizons of our mind.

At first glance, this may seem much, but if you are able to divide your time, you will find that you can fit all these things into your daily programme and maintain a balance in your life.

This would do miracles for you. It will result in a more balanced and happy self. You will become more calm, more likable and a more integral personality.

All of this because of a scheduler? Not necessarily. The scheduler is just a medium. Ultimately it depends on how successful you are in dividing your time. A scheduler can be of immense help to take this first step to integrate work, play and rest into your life. It will also help you to keep your appointments and duty not only to your bosses but also to your family and friends and to yourself.

So don't be surprised when you hear someone claim that he or she needs "a 25-hour day" to plan out things. It doesn't make a difference whether you have 25 hours or 48 hours, you still wouldn't have a clue as to how to plan out until you actually start doing it.

So don't wait. Act on it.

Of course, initially things may not run as smoothly as you wish. But don't get discouraged. The idea is not to blindly bind yourself strictly to a pre-programmed schedule. That is not the point. The aim of programming your daily life is to allow you to loosely incorporate all aspects of living--work, play and rest--so that you emerge as a saner, healthier and more likeable person. That is a goal worth aspiring for, isn't it?

(This article was published in Monday Times, Maldives' only exclusively English language weekly newspaper)