Time

[Moses Yoder]

This looks like it's going to be a slow project. 4 days just to find out it's filled with plaster instead of lead. :rolleyes:

I totally do not understand people's obsession with time. Take this coffee mill for instance. It is probably at least a hundred years old; if it takes a year or two to put it back into service, what is the big deal? I have a printer that I can print to through the web off a smart phone or tablet while I am driving home from work. Because of it's other features I bought the HP 4632. The pages will be there waiting for me. Why would anyone want that? Because you can't wait two minutes for it to print when you get home? If it takes 3 minutes to get a meal at McDonalds, a complaint is filed.

I pose this question. Are we actually gaining anything by "saving time"? If so, what is it?

[John Lanciani]

Time is one of the few things that can't be replaced when it is gone.

To elaborate, every minute that I save doing the things that I have to do is one more minute that I get to spend doing the things that I want to do.

[Larry Frank]

Time moves at a different rate for all people...the secret is to come to an understanding of your own time.

[steven c newman]

Some tend to think they are paid by any seconds that they can bill someone for. IF they can't bill for that 3 minutes waiting on a copier, or sitting for 10 seconds at a stop light, they feel they are losing money.

Others just have zero concept of ''FRE TIME" Where they don't have to rush around. They just don't understand that some things aren't on a time clock, 24/7......

[Pat Barry]

Yes - Saving time on one thing enables you to use that saved time for another purpose. Just remember the theory of relativity. Time moves faster the older you get, therefore it is important to find ways to save on mundane tasks in order to use that time for something more important.

[Mel Miller]

I totally do not understand people's obsession with time. Take this coffee mill for instance. It is probably at least a hundred years old; if it takes a year or two to put it back into service, what is the big deal? I have a printer that I can print to through the web off a smart phone or tablet while I am driving home from work. Because of it's other features I bought the HP 4632. The pages will be there waiting for me. Why would anyone want that? Because you can't wait two minutes for it to print when you get home? If it takes 3 minutes to get a meal at McDonalds, a complaint is filed.

I pose this question. Are we actually gaining anything by "saving time"? If so, what is it?

It sounds like you're obsessed with saving time if you're using a phone or tablet to print something while you're driving just to avoid waiting a couple of minutes to print it after you get home. :rolleyes: ;)

[Jim Koepke]

The time saved on Monday can not be banked until next Tuesday.

Some work can be done more efficiently so more steps toward completion of a project can be taken in less time. This allows one to be more productive.

Some feel it is a waste of time to fettle an old plane instead of purchasing a new plane. Wish I too were made of money.

Glad to hear it is plaster and not lead. Not too many die of plaster poisoning.

jtk

[Dan Hintz]

Every day I save 30 minutes of doing repetitive tasks using macros that took me a full day to program. That means I'm at the break even point after three weeks... and every day after that I gain 30 minutes back in my life to do what I wish. I could continue wasting that 30 minutes doing repetitive tasks, or I could spend it with my family and hobbies.

I think being obsessed with time is perfectly acceptable.

I also think you're missing the point of some features, which is why you mistake them for being useless rather than true time savers. For example, that remote printing capability means I can print out client-reviewed documents while still sitting in the conference room with them, yet I don't need to sit next to a computer with a noisy printer attached to it. The client gets my full attention, and my secretary can bring in the 100-page document when it's finished printing rather than have me keep checking up on it.

[Matt Day]

+1 to what Dan said

Saving time at work or other mundane activities can allow for more free time. If that free time is spent playing video games, fiddling with an old plane, or fiddling with an old coffee grinder, that's your choice. But you get more free time by being more efficient at other tasks. If that's "being obsessed with time", I'm all for it.

I don't think you interpreted Mel's original statement correctly either. I think he was poking fun at you for arguing about the dangers of lead for 4 days only for you to tell us it's not lead. I would like to poke fun as well. Lol

[John A langley]

I have a lot more time to play solitaire on my iPad if I stop reading the posts on SMC, ever thought about the guy that goes flying by only to pull up next to them at the traffic light

[Charles Wiggins]

Time is one of the few things that can't be replaced when it is gone.

To elaborate, every minute that I save doing the things that I have to do is one more minute that I get to spend doing the things that I want to do.

+1. This is more or less what I was thinking while reading your post.

Time cannot be earned, stored, or bartered. It can only be spent, and I'd rather spend it doing fun stuff than "have-to" stuff.

[ken masoumi]

Time moves at a different rate for all people...the secret is to come to an understanding of your own time.
Well said.

[Mark Blatter]

The one thing I have truly learned over the past few years is that as I get older, time is more precious and has more meaning to me. That has partly allowed me to slow down and 'smell the roses' more, but has also made me more impatient, less forgiving of waste and certainly, in some ways, less tolerant of others. I thought it was just me, but I met a guy a few months ago who was annoyed about something that wasted his time. We started talking and he said the same thing...that he (we were almost exactly the same age) found he was less tolerant of others as he had gotten older.

As others have said, time is one of the few resources that cannot be banked, stopped or held in reserve. It moves forward at the same relentless pace no matter what you do. I think that is why I am less tolerant of spending it in ways I view as a waste.

[Mike Cutler]

Moses

You take however long you want, to refurb' that coffee grinder. It's going to be a beauty when you're done. The joy in that project is in the journey, not the destination. Sometimes, that's what we forget, and lose sight of.
Some people are obsessed by time, I used to be. Some are just using it more efficiently, like Dan does with his business. There is a big difference between the two.

[Jason Beam]

Time is only wasted by those tasks you don't value. If you value doing laundry at the laundromat, it's not a waste of time -- I don't value sitting at a laundromat doing very little, so i bought machines i can keep in my home that do it while I can do other things without having to sit there and wait for it.

If you value hand cutting marquetry, then it's not a waste of time. If you value restoring machines, it's not a waste of time. The only judge of your time is yourself (or the person you trade ownership of that to like a boss). If you are enjoying the process and the journey, anyone who says it's a waste of time is narrowly viewing it from only their perspective.



It's your time, don't let anyone else tell you you're wasting it if you're enjoying yourself.

[Neal Clayton]

"The sun is the same in a relative way but your older"
"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death"

-- random British guy

[Gary Yoder]

Time is only wasted by those tasks you don't value. If you value doing laundry at the laundromat, it's not a waste of time -- I don't value sitting at a laundromat doing very little, so i bought machines i can keep in my home that do it while I can do other things without having to sit there and wait for it.

If you value hand cutting marquetry, then it's not a waste of time. If you value restoring machines, it's not a waste of time. The only judge of your time is yourself (or the person you trade ownership of that to like a boss). If you are enjoying the process and the journey, anyone who says it's a waste of time is narrowly viewing it from only their perspective.



It's your time, don't let anyone else tell you you're wasting it if you're enjoying yourself.

Well said. Time is what you make of it. Efficiency is great, as has been said, but I'm learning that letting every delay in my life make me sour really ruins the time I have. Waiting in line for food isn't so bad when you open your mind to the world around you and try to brighten someones day. Why ruin the time you have by being uptight about the seconds. I'm not saying to not be efficient so you have more time for enjoyable activities, but I've also seen people so obsessed about getting all the stuff, and doing all the things that will make them happy that they end up miserable. Try enjoying life, and if you can add a few more enjoyable things as well, that's great.

[John M Wilson]

Tired of lying in the sunshine,
Staying home to watch the rain.
You are young, and life is long,
and there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find,
Ten years have got behind you,
No one told you when to run,
You missed the starting gun...

-- R. Waters

I post these lyrics in a prominent place in my classroom for the high school students to ponder, and hopefully take to heart.

Time may be relative, but they're not making any more of it.

Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Pope Francis, and I each only have 24 hours a day to use, spend, or waste as we see fit.

Makes ya wonder...

[John Bomment]

I pose this question. Are we actually gaining anything by "saving time"? If so, what is it?

Time is a man made concept.
We live in the here and now,in between the future and the past.
I live in the country,this morning lady was telling me she saw a dog chasing a Goose. She bent down grabbed a rock and threw it at the dog.
She hit the goose instead.
Many a friend and relative have died,they don't care about time.

[Shawn Pixley]

Moses,

I have thought about your post for a couple of days. I am going to express seemingly contradictory thoughts:

1.) As others have said, time spent doing something I have to do is time taken from what I want to do.
2.) Spending each moment in the present ("Mindfulness" in current venacular) is its own reward.

So, I must work and doing so, I try to perform it with excellence. This can be some long days, but I can be proud of what I did and more importantly how I did it. I strive to make my long departed grandfather proud and more importantly be able to look myself in the mirror. When I go home, I can leave that behind and go do what I enjoy at that moment.

What I enjoy doing, I try to do that with excellence as well. Like you, I really don't care too much how long it takes. If a project takes hours, days, years, or a lifetime but I enjoy it, that is its own reward. And while I am a finisher, that is not the end to itself. Life is a journey not a destination. I don't see a completion of a particular project / effort / book / etc… as the culmination of my life. They are milestones in my journey.

I don't see a conflict in the way I treat these contradictory thoughts. Thank you for your post as it forced me to confront and articulate my feelings on the issue.

If you enjoy the restoration and it takes a long time but you are happy, why should I do anything but celebrate your journey?

[Mike Wilkins]

I once made a statement that had my wife looking at me like I had lost my mind; I would rather waste money than time, because once time is lost, you cannot get it back. You can usually find more money.

[Moses Yoder]

I think Shawn said it very well; on the one hand I am using hot water right from the tap for washing dishes and putting my clothes in an automatic washer which are all time saving devices. And later today I will spend time cleaning up and refurbishing some old lanterns and maybe take the grinder apart which is a different time zone.

[Brian W Smith]

"Timing" is more important to my shop and my sports than the time itself.....from a zen standpoint.

Time = money in the shop and the sports.Timing is what gets me there.