166. A Father's Joy

A father and a daughter are talking at home.

Daughter: Here. I have done your work.

Father: You have made a daily schedule for me?

Daughter: Yes. Have a look. (Gives him a paper)

Father (after reading the paper): You suggest that I should meet my chess friends in the morning instead of in the evening?

Daughter: Yes. That means you will be meeting those friends right after you finish reading the newspapers. So you can discuss with them what you read in the papers and how the country is going to hell. That way me and mom won’t have to endure that anymore.

Father: My chess friends are far better and far more intelligent discussion partners than you and your mother. So, yes, I accept this plan. But that means I have nothing to do in the evenings.

Daughter: Not at all. You can go to the market, go for a walk and read books. Then you will not need to interact with us and everyone will be at peace.

Father: It is impossible to read even any moderately accomplished literature with you and your mother constantly bickering in the background.

Daughter: Then read at night. When both of us are silent.

Father: I can think about that. (Looking at the page). What is this activity that you have added? Opinions about family members from 9:30 to 10 pm?

Daughter: You can vent your anger and criticism about me and mom between 9:30 and 10 pm everyday.

Father: To whom?

Daughter: To me.

Father: Let me get this straight. You are saying that you will be available everyday for half an hour to listen to what I think about you and your mother?

Daughter: Yes, you can rant and criticise as much as you want during that time. But you should avoid doing it during the day.

Father (looking at the plan): I am hardly interacting with you two during the day.

Daughter: That was the plan.

Father: Fantastic. I really like this.

Daughter: But I am not going to give my precious time just like that. You have to make a contract with me and pay me on a weekly basis. If you stop payment, I will stop listening to your opinions.

Father: Acceptable. We can work out the details. (Gives the paper back to daughter). Very nice. I am impressed. How soon can we start?

Daughter: As soon as we have discussed the amount you have to pay to make me sit and listen to you.

150. Retirement Benefits

Two girls from the Time Management course are talking over phone.

A. My dad has now given me an assignment. I am supposed to plan his daily routine.

B: Isn’t he retired?

A: Yes! He has all the free time of his life and he wants me to make a schedule! This is his way of mocking me. I know my dad.

B: Why do you think he is mocking you? Maybe he is testing you.

A: What type of testing is this? My dad is at home all the time. He can go for walking whenever he wants. He can read as much he wants and play as many chess games as he wants. Oh, and on top of it he wants his daytime naps as well.

B: I doubt it is that simple. He is probably trying to see how good you understand a client’s demands. I mean, in this situation he is your nothing but your client.

A: I understand his demands. And I can make his plan in exactly five seconds. Want to hear it? Walk in the morning, read newspaper, breakfast, gardening, lunch, nap, chess with friends, read books, dinner, sleep. He is mocking me by asking my learned advice on this, I am telling you.

B: Have you considered the fact that he has no compulsion to follow a standard routine? He has the liberty to do whatever, whenever. And you are asking him to follow a copybook routine every single day. You are restricting him.

A: Oh sure, he can work in the garden at midnight if he is that desperate to enjoy his retirement.

B: Well, why not? He does not need to get up in the morning.

A: Please, can we be serious here?

B: I will tell you what I seriously think. I think he has given you a 

chance to make his life more interesting. Take it as a challenge. Make him happy.

A: If I want my dad to be happy, then I will only need to give him some opportunity to criticize me. Maybe I will include an hour in the plan for that. Mocking me and my ambitions.

B: If that is your client wants, then that is what you should give…

A: Are you kidding me?

B: Not really.

144. The Retired Days

A father and a daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS.

Father: I need your help.

Daughter: Come again!

Father: I need your help in time management.

Daughter: Seriously, I don’t believe what I hear.

Father: Well, you should believe that. I want you to draw up a plan for my daily activities.

Daughter: I always thought you had no trust on the NILS courses.

Father: You thought right. And I still don’t have any faith in them. But since I am paying for your course anyway, I want something in return.

Daughter: So, this is basically a return on your investment?

Father: If you want to call it that…

Daughter (sighing): What daily activities do you have?

Father: Walking, gardening, reading newspapers, reading books, going to the market, going to the chess club, eating and taking naps.

Daughter: Dad, you are retired. I do not understand why you need any plans! You can do all that on one day without making any schedules. You have all the time.

Father: Yes, I have all the time. But everybody has the same amount of time. Now I want to know, what is the best way for me to utilize that time by doing what I do.

Daughter: Why can’t you just do them one after the other? There is no fixed timing.

Father: Please consider that I am not young and need rest. I have no wish to rush through things. I have had enough of that in my working life. I want to be fit and yet sleep a lot. And it is important that I read books and play chess every day. So, I am giving you the assignment to plan my retired days. And I have already paid for the service.

127. Never Asked the Right Questions

A father and a daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS.

Father: Are you only going to do this NILS course or will you also carry on with your regular studies? You said you wanted to do a management diploma from some distance learning university.

Daughter: That course will start from April next year, form will be available from December. I will tell you when the time comes. I have not forgotten anything.

Father: That is assuring to know.

Daughter: And I am going to join as a Yoga instructor from January.

Father (surprised): Instructor? Where?

Daughter (rolling eyes): In a Yoga center, of course.

Father: Insturctor means trainer, right? They get paid.

Daughter: Of course they get paid. I will be paid too.

Father: You never told me that you are going to earn from January.

Daughter: You never asked.

Father: What else I did not ask?

Daughter (with a sigh and a shrug): I am going to be a Yoga trainer from January, want to join the management diploma from April and want to help two friends with their online startup from September.

Father: Help?

Daughter: They will pay me some for my services. I will do market research for them every three months.

Father (after a while): How on earth are you suddenly going to handle so much simultaneously?

Daughter: Why else do you think I wanted to do a course on time management?

Father: Don’t tell me they are trying to teach you how to cope with all that.

Daugther: I would tell you exactly that, but you won’t believe me anyway.

Father: Once again, you never told me your intentions when you joined the NILS course.

Daughter: One again, you never asked me.

111. Camouflaged Pastime

A father and his daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS. The father is not entirely convinced that the courses are actually teaching something useful.

Father: Your mother tells me that you are spending unusually long in the bathroom.

Daughter: How is that a problem for you? I have my own attached bathroom.

Father: I am talking to you about this only because your mother insists. You are also apparently taking very long to finish every meal.

Daughter: I am eating slowly.

Father: That is not what your mother says. She says that you begin normally, but halfway through you get up from the table and carry your plate to your room. Then you take nearly an hour to finish that.

Daughter: Where is the problem in that?

Father: You have also insisted that you will do the cleaning of your room and the maid will not sweep the floor. But then you are taking about forty five minutes to sweep and clean your floor.

Daughter: Once again, why do you have a problem with that? I am not asking you to sweep.

Father: This is something to do with that NILS course, isn’t it? 

Don’t shrug. I know it is some kind of homework or observation. What happened this time? Are they teaching you to waste time?

Daughter: It is my business, not yours.

Father: I know it is that course. You can’t hide it from me.

Daughter (upset): Hide? I don’t need to hide anything from you! Yes it is from NILS. I am doing some experiments on Camouflaged Pastime.

Father: Ahh, there it is. Another one. What is it this time? Camouflaged what?

Daughter: Pastime. Free time. Hobby time.

Father: And why camouflaged?

Daughter: Because people get jealous and irritated when they see that you have free time. One way to avoid that is to cover your pastime with a pretext of some work. Like going to the bathroom, eating, cleaning the room.

Father: What are you doing while you are in the bathroom, eating lunch or cleaning your room?

Daughter: I am watching Netfilx on phone in bathroom, taking a nap during eating and reading books during room cleaning. But you and mom never get to see that. So it is perfectly camouflaged.

Father: If it was so perfectly camouflaged, then how are we having this discussion?

95. Nothing Personal About It

A father and his daughter are talking at home. 

Father (holding a sheaf of papers): What is this?

Daughter: That is my report on the Multitasking experiment.

Father: (reading from the front page) “The breaking point of Multitasking: from extreme productivity to all-round failure”. This is your topic.

Daughter: Yes.

Father: What yes? This is your analysis of that experiment you did with me? The one where you wanted me to have breakfast while reading sports news from the paper and watching other news on TV and with you blabbering about your personal friend problems and asked my opinions? You wanted me to do five things at the same time!

Daughter: Yes. Eating, reading, seeing, listening and speaking. Those are parameters for Multitasking.

Father: And I went from extreme productivity to all round failure?

Daughter: Failure does not mean your failure. It means general outcome of the experiment.

Father: Really? Then what does this mean: (reads out from the report) “After a point, subject starts showing symptoms of failure.”?

Daughter: Why are you being so touchy about it? This is just technical language.

Father: Technical language? Then I guess I should also feel happy knowing that the (reading from another page) “different parts of the subject’s brain are not entirely in equilibrium.”

Daughter (sighs): Once again you are taking things personally.

Father: Oh yes? (Opens another page and reads) “The difference between the theory of Multinodal-tasking and the observation during my experiment might be explained by the incapability of the subject to handle complex situations.” I am incapable of handling complex situations?

(Mother enters)

Mother (to father): Why are you shouting. This is just a way of writing.

Father: Way of writing? Your daughter calls me incapable of handling situations, says that my brain is not in tune, that I am showing signs of all round failure.

Mother (to daughter): Have you really written all these things about your father?

Daughter: Not about my father, but about the subject of my experiment. That is impersonal and unbiased.

Father (to mother): You see: Your daughter can’t even call me ‘father’. I am her ‘subject’.

Mother (to daughter): Call him your father right now! (Exits room).

For Reference please see post 80 (Different Parts of the Brain).

80. Different Parts of The Brain

A father and his daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS.

Daughter: Are you having breakfast now?

Father: Yes, why?

Daughter: You cannot have it on the sofa. Come to the table.

Father: Why?

Daughter: I need to do an experiment. Please come here and sit at the table.

(The father looks worried, but moves over to the table.)

Daughter: Have you already read the newspaper?

Father: No. Why?

Daughter: You have to read it while eating your breakfast.

Father: Alright. Give me the paper.

(The daughter hands over the paper and switches on the TV to a news channel. She keeps the channel muted.)

Daughter: You are to read the sports news from the paper and follow the general news on TV.

Father: Simultaneously?

Daughter: Yes and keep eating your breakfast.

Father: What is going on?

Daughter: I am doing an experiment on Multitasking. It is in our syllabus.

Father: Multitasking is a common thing. What can you possibly learn in a course about it?

Daughter: We have learned how to optimize Multitasking. The trick is to use different processing parts of the brain simultaneously instead of overloading the same part. Which means you cannot do many similar tasks at the same time, but you can do many fundamentally different tasks.

Father: What types of different tasks?

Daughter: I have chosen five such tasks. First, eating. For that you are having breakfast. Second, reading. For that I have given you the newspaper. Third, observing. For that I have switched on the TV in mute.

Father: What are the other two?

Daughter: Listening and speaking. Now I will sit down and tell you a story about my friend. You have to listen to me and comment on it. But you cannot stop reading the paper or following the news.

Father: I am supposed to read a paper, watch news headlines, listen to your stories and comment on them? Am I mad?

Daughter: And eat breakfast. That’s it. This should be fairly easy. All are happening in different parts of the brain. Shall we start?

72. During The Break

(For more information on the people below, please click on the labels at the end)

The Batchmates

The boy from Party Politics and the girl from Social Media are standing at the glass window at the end of the second floor corridor, between the classrooms of Office Dynamics and Work-Life Balancing. The boy is holding a folded newspaper and explaining some news to the girl. The girl is showing a look of intent interest every time the guy is looking up at her.

The Daughter

The daughter is sitting in her classroom for Time Management on the second floor and talking to a girl of similar age. They both have a chart with the title “Invisible Time Records” in front of them and seem to be having a discussing about the topic. On the chart in front of the other girl the words “Total 4.5 hours” are written in red ink.

The Married Ones

The man and the woman are standing next to the water cooler at the canteen. The man is leaning against a wall with a light smile on his face. The woman is showing him something on her mobile. Her face is slightly red.

The Husband

The husband is standing in the corridor outside his Family Management classroom on the second floor and talking to his wife on phone. He has just suggested that he will take her out for dinner. But to his dismay, instead of being overjoyed his wife is now asking if this proposal was a kind of home assignment given in class.

The Office Guy

The colleague from the Office Dynamics course is in the library. He is issuing a book called, “Safety 101: How Not to Trust Anyone”.

68. Invisible Time

A Father and his daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS.

Father (looking at a paper stuck at the corner of a mirror in the daughter's room): What is this?

Daughter: A project slash home assignment.

Father: Slash?

Daughter (with hand gestures): Project / home assignment.

F (looking closely at the paper): Combing hair – 4 minutes, WhatsApp Good Morning messages – 12 minutes, searching for notes – 5-6 minutes, searching for clothes to wear – 11 minutes. What are these?

D: Those are the Invisible Time.

F: And I am sure it is as wonderful a concept as that Fallback Time.

D: Be as sarcastic as you want. But everybody has Invisible Time. You have them too. Only you can’t see it.

F: Isn’t that the purpose of invisibility? Anyway, what is it about?

D (like explaining to a child): It is the time you spend for doing things that you are not aware of.

F: Like?

D: Like combing hair. You know you need time to take bath and get dressed. But combing hair comes in between and people often don’t think about that while planning their actions. And they get delayed by just as many minutes as they spend combing hair.

Or, take for example, the third one. I am always searching for notes and papers. Now I am going to find out exactly how much time I lose while searching for things every time I want to study. The same thing happens to casual WhatsApp chats while studying or working.

We are never aware of how much time we lose by chatting or searching for things, but these minutes pile up and accumulate to form a substantial amount of time that is simply lost.

F: That is the Invisible Time?

D: Yes, that is the Invisible Time. And I am trying to make a list of them.

F: I see. Does this talking with me also count as Invisible Time?

D: No, this goes under Wasted Time.

45. Planned Time and Fallback Time

A Father and a daughter are talking at home. The Daughter is attending the Time Management course.

Father: Where are you going?

Daughter: I am going for a walk.

Father: So late? It is eight thirty now.

Daughter: So what? I am going to walk within the complex only. And this is my planned time.

Father: Is that something with that course?

Daughter: Yes. We are all going to do some physical activity for a month. We need to do it on a regular basis and plan it into our daily schedules. I have chosen walking.

Father: That is fine, but why now? You were sitting at home the whole day.

Daughter: Ohh! 8:30 in the evening is my planned time. I will do it at 8:30 unless something interrupts the schedule.

Father: Planned time?

Daughter: We have planned time and fallback time. If I cannot do it during the PT, we do it in the FT. Like, if it starts raining now. I will postpone it to my fallback time.

Father: Which is when?

Daughter: 6:30 in the morning.

Father: (Laughs loudly)

Daughter: I did not ask for your comments.

Father: (Shaking his head) The only fallback you will know at 6:30 in the morning is to fall back on bed.

Daughter: You just like to discourage me. I really don’t care. I have my plans and I am sticking to it. I did not ask for your opinion. Thank you very much.

Father: You need willpower to do morning walks, not two different plans.

Daughter: I said ‘Thank you’.

31. When You Can't Do It All

Father and Daughter talking at home. The Daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS.

F: How is the course going?

D: Nicely. Yesterday we had this applied session and that was loads of fun.

F: What did you do?

D: The teacher gave us all some individual tasks and asked everybody to finish them in three hours.

F: What type of tasks?

D: Different types of activities. I had to type a one page handwritten report on a computer, had to go to the canteen and get a coffee, go up to the roof and take a photo of the street, watching YouTube videos, make an appointment table for the next two weeks..

F: Since when do have enough appointments to keep a planner?

D: No, no. It was a mock assignment. They had given some appointments and I had to schedule them along with regular NILS classes.

F: Okay. Then?

D: Then I also had to chat with another participant in WhatsApp. The topic was what we both did on Saturday. But we both needed to describe it in chat only, not by talking. Then I had to allot some time for prepping lunch and eating. Not in reality, but I had to give some time for that and had to just sit quite when that was going on.

F: Like you cannot do anything else when you are cooking or eating?

D: Exactly, but I utilized that time by doing the chatting task. And the guy I was supposed to chat with could not multitask. He stopped working every time to write or reply. He ended up very much beyond time.

F: So, they gave you a bunch of jobs to do in three hours so you learn how to share time among different tasks?

D: Initially, yes. But then nobody could finish. Then for the last hour it was a question of what to do and what to let go. Basically an application of priority analysis.

F: Hmm. It started with time sharing and ended with prioritizing. Did you learn anything?

D: I told the teacher that it should be the other way round. First, do the priority analysis and cross out things that are not important. Then do the important ones with all the time in the world.

F: That way you will label everything you don’t want to do as unimportant and won’t even bother trying to do it. I know you very well.

5. Applicants

Father and daughter

F: The courses can be quite expensive. Have you made enquiries about the course fee?

D: They are not that expensive. I know.

F: You do not know, you think.

D: My friends have done it. I know. You always say time is money. So, now I want to invest some money to learn time management.

F: That is a bad excuse. I still think if you had to do it, you should have gone for the office course. That would help you.

D: That is like too specific, dad. To job oriented. The time management is a general purpose course. And this is exactly what I need. I am always running out of time, especially on the college days.

F: Then look for a course that teaches you to wake up early.

At home

Wife: This will really help us, you know? This family handling. Remember, just the other day we were talking about how family is sometimes more difficult than work?

Husband: Yes. Not only my side of the family, by the way. Yours too.

Wife: But you do not need to deal with my family as much as I have to do with yours. I need this more than you.

Husband: Alright. Then apply.

Wife: It is a half year course. When do I have the time? 

Husband: You just said you wanted to!

Wife: I said we need it. So, you can join and teach me later. It is the same thing, na? We can share the course fee fifty-fifty.

Husband: So generous! And when do I have the time?

Wife: After office, when I am doing our kids' homework. There are only evening classes and very less pressure. I did that workday breakfast crash course last year from NILS, have you forgotten already? That was easy. The exam at the end was very easy too.

Husband: Breakfast and family are not the same. And we eat only toasts everyday anyway. A fine help that course turned out to be!