Day 1 of the week.

Monday is not a good day of the week. It is the day where I have all my chores lined up; it is the day I hate the most. Getting up early, I leave the lazy comforts of my bed; draging my feet I get a cup of coffee. Soon afterwards, I  pester my son to go to his school; he too dislikes Monday I assume. I am yet sleepy; while my wife get our son ready for the school. On my way to office I drop my kid at his school shower him with kisses and bribe him for chocolates. I wait in my car inching my way through traffic. And I am late for work on MONDAY. I reach my cabin at the office; my cell phone wouldn’t stop wailing with all the mails and notifications. There are tasks at hand which need completion and I short of time. I work mindless by instinct, multi-tasking between PowerPoint presentation for the project and final completion of the report, which needs to be submitted; I sit in my office chair on this first day of August on this first day of the week, contemplating; why does Monday come right around the corner just after a relaxed Sunday? I wished Monday never came. Why can’t a man have a little peace?

Today MONDAY was my enemy and I was racing against time to make Monday fruitful.

Visit by “MONDAY“!

Deep into work for 3 hours, I take a break, put my laptop on sleep mode; recline my chair and close my eyes. After continuously staring at laptop screen my eyes need a break. My breath is steady and rhythmic, my temple feels cooler and I can feel the air move up and down my nostrils through my windpipe. Slowly, with ease,  I fall asleep. Drifting into space with grey blue darkness ans a glow of yellow light at distance; i have teleported myself to some other realm. This place feels magical and exactly what is what I need at the moment. I am quiet. Time passes by as I feel relaxed and enjoy this moment. Some more time passes. Then with no forewarning  an indistinguishable form, a halo appears in my sight. It floats towards me, steadily. I am not afraid yet. The halo approaches and it is in front of me, motionless. It floats in front, dwindling like a flame of a candle, a reasonably long duration has passed. I cannot yet get the hang of the time as everything in this place is motionless and quiet.

The halo asks “Why do you despise me?” I fumble for words.

“Who are you, I can’t see a face,” I blurt out, a little scared.

“I can conjure a face of your liking if it pleases you but this is the way I am.”

“No, that is ok,” I say meekly, “But who are you?”

“You called me, I am Monday” says the halo, which by now had a blurry incandescent glow and a familiar human like shape.

I narrow my eyes and try to get hold of the situation.

“Monday, who?” I ask.

“You sang to me a billion times since this morning and have been complaining about me. Hence here I am.”he says.

Apprehensive about what to expect, I ask “Monday, as the week’s DAY?”

“Yes, it is me and I have taken this form for us to have a talk,” says Monday.

Some more time passes, we both stare at each other. Nothing makes sense in this quiteness.

Gathering my wits “You have made my morning miserable?” in a harsher tone than expected; I immediately add “Sir, but are you celestial?” A little shy of being horrified to death “Are you here to punish me for grumbling at you?”

Monday laughed, it sounded as if dislodged boulders rolled down a mountain slope; the laughter of Monday did not help my situation.

“No” he says in the same heavy tone. “I am here to heed your complains against me, speak freely, you are at no harm form me.”

This soothed the tight knot in my throat. “Sir, can I call you sir?”

“You can call me as you please.” says Monday in a friendly manner.

“Sir, every week you come just after a relaxed Sunday and bring an avalanche of work and commitments. Keeping up with the tasks is a real pain and I am not happy on Monday; hence I propose you should take leave and not be available for a couple of weeks.”

Amused, by my request Monday laughs, only this time it sounds as if ocean waves washing over a sandy beach on a pleasant day. Monday says “Ok then, I will take a leave of couple of weeks; but let me ask you, will me taking leave resolve your problems?”

“Yes” I say with confidence.

Monday, “You will still have tasks at hand, which will be pending and need to be completed on some or the other day!” “Also if I take leave and am not available; the WEEK, will not be happy, as he will be shortened by a day and you might have lesser time to carry out your pending works and tasks.”

Pondering over the argument Monday made, I think. We both keep silent for a while.

“If you say, I will apply for leave of 3 weeks to my boss, the WEEK” said Monday.

The gravity of the situation, in this atmosphere of nothingness, gets hold of me. I accept that asking Monday to vanish from my weekly calendar is no a way out.

I ask; “Sir, Monday you are wise. I see now, you going on leave will not make a difference to my existing situation, hence can you please suggest what can be done? And, I still don’t like you.”

“I will recite you a theorem and an auxiliary.” says Monday skeptically

1) “The work at hand will contract or expand to fill up the time available, if not checked.”

And the auxiliary.

a) “You will always fall short of time to complete a task at hand until you decide it FINISHED.”

Explaining the theorem further Mondays says, “Dear friend there will always be unfinished work and pending tasks which need your attention the new tasks and chores will be never stop surfacing. This is the way you have built your life. The task at hand is never completed until you decide it is finished.”

“It is you, who has to prioritize which task needs to be completed first and which is to be attended later And even then you will find, some or the other task is incomplete, from your to-do list.”

I was mum for a while, Monday was right. It is I who tries to get all the tasks done in a day, without understanding my own limits. “Ok then, how should I manage my time?” Monday.

“No, manage yourself and not the time you have” says Monday as he fades away in to nothingness.

“Wait, I shout! Please explain” I say. But he was gone, and I was alone in this space, just silence, nothingness and my thoughts.

I drift again to wake up and realize, 5 minutes had passed since I fell asleep on my office chair.

I still had my to-do list on my desk and I still had numerous tasks to complete. Conversation with Monday was fresh in my mind; but I couldn’t understand Monday’s last words, just before he faded in to nothingness, managing myself rather than managing my time.

Days have passed since I had my talk with Monday. I have the same amount of tasks to be done, because as you complete the taks at hand new ones surface. The only difference is; my tasks are now prioritized. Only when the task at hand is FINISHED with desired QUALITY, I move to the next task. It generates ample amount of focus and the task at hand gets completed with ease. I understand each task needs a set amount of time and attention to accomplish, it cannot be rushed. In following the said process, quality of my work has improved and is satisfactory. To top it all, if I cannot complete a task, I am not frustrated anymore because as Monday said “You will always fall short of time to complete a task at hand until you decide it FINISHED” hence I focus on quality of the result rather than the quantity of tasks completed. Yet I have not completely understood what Monday meant by “Manage yourself and not the time you have”. All I can do is to be patience and wait for Monday to visit me again to elaborate on the point.

Until next time, when Monday meets me again……. Have a wonderful week.

To be continued……..