Simplicity Lesson One––Time Management
"輕．重．緩．急" the four characters form a Chinese phrase which is a very common expression1, but there are less people who can really "deeply" understand its meaning and practice it. Especially, as the modern people living in such a stressful society, many people are pushed by things, but rather than people are conducting things.
The human beings are the kind of creature living in Time. It takes time to accomplish a mission, or to produce something. Use your time wisely. At the right time, do the right thing, and eventually, things would not screw up so easily. When we spend too much time in hesitating and making decision, time are wasted in transparent. Things will turn out to be making no progress! Since I experienced something, for these four characters, I have realized how to practice it. I rearranged this phrase's order to be "急．重．緩．輕"
"急" means things in hurry and urgent. In a way, I acknowledge it as routines that we do not need so much effort and can finish it right away. (I used to think routines are not hurry.) For those high priority things, of course they fit in this category. While for routines, because they are repeating periodically, if we do not finish them immediately, they will accumulate, and we might spend the same amount of time or even longer to accomplish them.
"重" means important in Chinese. I acknowledge it as something takes longer time to be done, yet it needs to be finished as soon as possible. More often, it is usually an inevitable procedure within a project. No matter how much time, and how much effort it takes, it is a critical must to be completed. When things like this are stalemated, except to insist on its completion, sometimes it's a good idea to step back and keep an eye on it. Have time to solve this problem for you, and we can arrange time to next important thing.
"緩" means things are not so hurry, but also less important. Indeed, they could be the affairs to step back and watch as mentioned in the previous paragraph. As time goes by, situation will change. This best solution for this sort of things are keep waiting! Lots of time, some things seem to be urgent in their appearance; however, when it is technically unable to accomplish after all, we can only use alternative solutions to solve the problem in a temporary aspect as in a way things appear to be urgent. For example, before the electronic microscope was being invented, some contagious disease virus such as yellow fever was not able to be observed with optical microscope.
Mr. Hideyo Noguchi (the discoverer of venin and syphilis treatments) mistakenly recognized Weils
disease spirochaete as the yellow fever virus. Noguchi died in yellow fever finally, while the electronic microscope was invented four years after his death (in 1932).
About "輕" I need to address more on this. What things should fit in this category as we live in the modern busy society? In Chinese it can be translated as less important relatively, even it can be done after "緩" and need not to worry too much. However, in a certain aspect, "輕" may be implied as a kind of future goals or ultimate purposes. Yet, people usually THINK the troublesome routines as unimportant things and ignore them, finally the accumulated small things would turn out to be something urgent.
In conclusion, the mentioned points above are a general sorting priority idea. As time changes, things will also usually change to a higher execution priority order, and we will see the unsorted, complicated, and stressful things have changed to a simple liner sequence. Actually, the multitask design in computer operating system is also applying this logic. When all sorts of different tasks are well managed, the CPU is able to process many things together in a certain period of time. For example, we can command computers to download file in web browser and play CD music in background, at the same time, we can type report with a word processor program in the foreground.
As I used to be aiming to high, and now realized the kind of mistakes I made in the past, smoothly I tried to alter this sort of bad habit. Although my intention was to be doing good, the final situation turned out to be a mass, and this has make me feel so much pressure, busy, and powerless. I learned to tell myself to work with a calm and clear brain with a simple heart. Things are not only finished smoothly, stresses are but also disappeared!¶
1. The four character phrase is a common expression in Chinese. Most people acknowledge it as an idea to manage time. I knew about it, but I did not know how to do it.
The human beings are the kind of creature living in Time. It takes time to accomplish a mission, or to produce something. Use your time wisely. At the right time, do the right thing, and eventually, things would not screw up so easily. When we spend too much time in hesitating and making decision, time are wasted in transparent. Things will turn out to be making no progress! Since I experienced something, for these four characters, I have realized how to practice it. I rearranged this phrase's order to be "急．重．緩．輕"
"急" means things in hurry and urgent. In a way, I acknowledge it as routines that we do not need so much effort and can finish it right away. (I used to think routines are not hurry.) For those high priority things, of course they fit in this category. While for routines, because they are repeating periodically, if we do not finish them immediately, they will accumulate, and we might spend the same amount of time or even longer to accomplish them.
"重" means important in Chinese. I acknowledge it as something takes longer time to be done, yet it needs to be finished as soon as possible. More often, it is usually an inevitable procedure within a project. No matter how much time, and how much effort it takes, it is a critical must to be completed. When things like this are stalemated, except to insist on its completion, sometimes it's a good idea to step back and keep an eye on it. Have time to solve this problem for you, and we can arrange time to next important thing.
"緩" means things are not so hurry, but also less important. Indeed, they could be the affairs to step back and watch as mentioned in the previous paragraph. As time goes by, situation will change. This best solution for this sort of things are keep waiting! Lots of time, some things seem to be urgent in their appearance; however, when it is technically unable to accomplish after all, we can only use alternative solutions to solve the problem in a temporary aspect as in a way things appear to be urgent. For example, before the electronic microscope was being invented, some contagious disease virus such as yellow fever was not able to be observed with optical microscope.
Mr. Hideyo Noguchi (the discoverer of venin and syphilis treatments) mistakenly recognized Weils
disease spirochaete as the yellow fever virus. Noguchi died in yellow fever finally, while the electronic microscope was invented four years after his death (in 1932).
About "輕" I need to address more on this. What things should fit in this category as we live in the modern busy society? In Chinese it can be translated as less important relatively, even it can be done after "緩" and need not to worry too much. However, in a certain aspect, "輕" may be implied as a kind of future goals or ultimate purposes. Yet, people usually THINK the troublesome routines as unimportant things and ignore them, finally the accumulated small things would turn out to be something urgent.
In conclusion, the mentioned points above are a general sorting priority idea. As time changes, things will also usually change to a higher execution priority order, and we will see the unsorted, complicated, and stressful things have changed to a simple liner sequence. Actually, the multitask design in computer operating system is also applying this logic. When all sorts of different tasks are well managed, the CPU is able to process many things together in a certain period of time. For example, we can command computers to download file in web browser and play CD music in background, at the same time, we can type report with a word processor program in the foreground.
As I used to be aiming to high, and now realized the kind of mistakes I made in the past, smoothly I tried to alter this sort of bad habit. Although my intention was to be doing good, the final situation turned out to be a mass, and this has make me feel so much pressure, busy, and powerless. I learned to tell myself to work with a calm and clear brain with a simple heart. Things are not only finished smoothly, stresses are but also disappeared!¶
1. The four character phrase is a common expression in Chinese. Most people acknowledge it as an idea to manage time. I knew about it, but I did not know how to do it.
Labels: Experienced
posted by eastwalker at
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