Time Smarts

As a young boy, whenever I found myself in the family living room, I used to love watching the long hand of our wall clock mark the passage of time. Sometimes, I would even witness the subtile movement of the hour hand. Geez, how slow and unhurried it was, I thought to myself. I was not aware at that time that the modest distance travelled by this little hand was in fact equal to the 3,600 rotations the long hyperactive sweep hand had valiantly completed. Without knowing, an extraordinary spectacle, that was going to change the rest of my life, was taking place right before my very eyes; for this concept of time has never left my side and has defined who I am today.

This notion of time, the time that I will save, but that I will also loose; the time that I will try to divide, that I will try to occupy … that I will try to forget. And the time, one day certainly, I will regret not having taken. What is time other than a nonrenewable resource necessary to our existence that money can’t buy? We cannot enslave it, nor tame it. Time knows how to play with us: we can get caught in its whirligig, but it can also be cut short. We can try to manage it, but always, we remain at its mercy. As Gregory Porter sings: ‘Does life just spin round like the hands of a clock? Are we just pushing time? Or is time pushing us?’

So, what do we do with this time? Firstly, we need to become aware of it. Live intensely as if we were that long sweeping hand, while savouring the present moment at the pace of the hour hand. One must take the time, and when one can, give it too, and even spend it with others. Since everything is relative, a minute can sometimes feel like an eternity, and time can fly when you’re having fun. Be vigilant, creative, live in the present and don’t get caught up in the traps of comfort and conformism.  

Why then, do our systems, businesses, and organizations seem reluctant to take simple actions that could be so beneficial to our collective well-being? We must provide ourselves with the means to achieve our most intrinsic ambitions and live freely. We must eliminate useless constraints by using, for example, an automated employee scheduling software.

Imagine a tool that allows you to respect your collective agreement terms and conditions while allowing the effective management of replacements, and periods of leave… Imagine being in your employees’ shoes, and being able to indicate, with a simple click, your availability and your preferred time-off for your holidays; or as a supervisor, being able to quickly take a look at the hours an employee has worked and control their time.

Imagine yourself enjoying the time that is given to you, feeling at peace. Now that is ‘time smarts’.