Being Inefficient is Good, Sometimes

There are 168 hours in a week. I spend around 70 hours attending to my work and part-time projects. The remaining 98 hours is spent on family, personal relationships and other miscellaneous items. Looking at these numbers, I don’t know why I kept telling myself I don’t have enough time to do all the things that I am supposed to do. Could it be that I’m being inefficient in other things? Or could it be that I am being too efficient in a lot of things?

I came across an article in the New York Times that talks about the 168 hours and the issue of being too efficient. Like other working moms out there, I highly value my time to the point of having a rigid schedule day in day out. Here is my usual schedule on a weekday: I must be home by 10 a.m. Chat with my love till lunch time. Grab a quick lunch. Shower. Then I hit the keyboard to do my writing. By 3 p.m., It’s time for me to wrap things up because my son will be home from school. We talk about how his day went and so forth. Another hour passes, my other son comes home. We talk about school stuff and so on. I try to squeeze in cooking time for dinner so that I wouldn’t have to wake up at 7p.m. which is like 3 a.m. in my body clock. I get some shut-eyes for at least 4-5 hours then start my day at 10p.m. (GMT +8). The same routine the following day. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It seems like a boring schedule. Well, it is, sometimes. But I do try to introduce unscheduled events in my routine for some fun and relaxation. It can be in the form of short trips, movies, watch the kids play computer games or just hang around in my room doing nothing even if there’s a pile of freshly laundered clothes waiting for me to fold. At work, there are days when I choose to take the bus over riding the cab. The ride home is longer, much to the chagrin of my boyfriend.

Some of these “inefficiencies” eat up my time alright but it also allows me to take a brief pause and reflect.

They say that working moms hardly have enough time for family. If I do the math, I believe I just have enough time to do all those other items on the periphery without sacrificing my entire career. I’ve raised the kids to the best of my ability without having to quit my job midway even during the tough times when we move around a lot.

So, I think a little bit of inefficiency is okay to some extent.