Stolen Moments

Stolen Moments

Whenever we say that we don't have time to read or to do certain things we like, what we actually mean is that we cannot find a major chunk of time to accomodate them. In a typical day, we have meetings to attend, reports to write and phone-calls to make. That takes up our whole workday. It doesn't leave us much time to indulge in the things we enjoy doing.

But have we considered making better use of those bits and pieces of time that we have in between our major tasks? Most of the time, we waste them by surfing the Net aimlessly or by over-indulging in idle chit-chat with colleagues. Those odd fifteen or twenty minutes can cummulatively amount to quite a lot over time.

These tiny but precious chunks of time are often discarded like those 1 and 5 cent loose change that clutter our pockets and purses. But if we take the trouble to accumulate and use them, we'll be pleasantly surprised by how many extra cups of coffee they will buy us.

You don't have to learn knitting or crochet to make full use of them, there are many tasks that fit in very well into small time-chunks. Blogging for instance is one. Reading is another. Which is why I always carry a book with me wherever I go; whenever I have to wait--for my food to be served, for someone to show up for an appointment or for my turn in a queue--I can always use the time productively by reading my book. Do not under-estimate the accumulative power of time.

That way too, one is never bored. There's always something to do. Sometimes I'm even happy to wait because to me these are stolen moments, time you are not supposed to have--like finding a dollar note on the sidewalk.

Like now: I'm back in KL and I'm supposed to meet a friend at KLCC; but she called up last minute and told me that she's going to be an hour late. No problem. I opened up my notebook, sat down at the nearest wi-fi hotspot and started typing my blog entry for the day...and I'm done!