"Time to Work... Time to Play"

"The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world."
~ Eric Hoffer

One thing I've learned in life is that we have to find BALANCE. Such a simple word, and yet, it represents an utopia of sorts; something very hard to reach and achieve in this day and age. Yes, this is the era of "busyness." Everyone is "so busy" doing many things at once; what we call "multitasking." I believe that too much multitasking is unhealthy; it is the reason why so many of us - especially children and teens - are having a harder time concentrating and focusing in the task at hand. Their minds wander easily, because their minds are constantly being over-stimulated: especially with TV, iPods, cell phones, computers and many other electronical gadgets. Kids are trying to do their homework, while texting or instant-messaging their friends, checking MySpace.com and many other websites, playing computer games, listening to their iPods, and basically doing too many things at once; more than they can handle. It's almost like a game, to see who will win - who can do the most; but by trying to do "so much," quality suffers and our ability to think and learn suffers too.

I see it with my students all the time; they have a harder time listening (truly listening); they need more coaching and more individual attention. Of course it's especially hard to work with them in the Computer Labs. There are too many distractions. I wish they could learn to limit their online activities and do a lot less so that they can actually end up doing more.

I catch myself doing similar things many times, trying to catch up with work. I'm e-mailing colleagues, checking "dictionary.com" or other websites and working on a class project or assignment; while trying to organize my thoughts and sorting out my priorities (my "to do" list).

I have to remember that one thing at a time is better. It's almost like "multitasking" and "busyness" are contagious. We all want to do it because others are doing it too, and we want to keep up with them. We're always acting as if life was a race. I think it's time to STOP and start concentrating more on the important things in life; only the important things will make our lives better and happier. Let's try not to waste our time with unimportant things. Of course we MUST find time to play, to do fun things (a must to stay healthy), to relax, read a book, write, listen to music, dance, etc. That's the challenge: to try to balance all the things we want to do and all the things we have to do, by setting priorities and leaving those less important things for "tomorrow."

My slogan now is "leave for tomorrow what you cannot do today..." instead of "don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today." Tomorrow is another day, tomorrow is a good day and it's okay to leave it for tomorrow. As long as we don't leave everything for tomorrow; as long as we feel that we're truly achieving what needs to be done and what we want to do in a reasonable amount of time; as long as we don't become procrastinators or so overwhelmed with so much we have to do that we end up doing nothing. We can push ourselves at times of need and we can find balance too: time to work, time to play...

Let's enjoy life more while working hard to achieve our goals and dreams.