Again: Time Management Issue

The biggest problem in my career has been my lack of time management. I rarely make plans. Even if I did, I would usually find something else that is more interesting to do and forget the more important things. I am so prone to the “why do today what I can put off until tomorrow?” And it is not unusual for me to find myself rushing at the last minute to complete my tasks.

I just recently realized why I can never keep my desk clear for more than two weeks. It’s simple: Those heaps are the tasks that I have been putting off. Day by day I pile them one on top of the other. After two weeks, my desk is a cluttered mess again.

It’s all that simple!

About two Sundays ago, our pastor gave a very interesting sermon in church. The title was, “8 Common Mistakes in Managing Time.” The mistakes are:

1. Failing to manage time in the first place
2. Being too focused on urgent things instead of taking care of the important things
3. Lack of priority in life due to absence of vision and focus in life
4. Resting before completing tasks.
5. Putting too much or too little tasks in your schedule.
6. Failing to adhere to your own rules.
7. Waiting until the last moment to do things.
8. Waiting for instead of creating opportunities.

It is safe to say that I am guilty of all 8 mistakes.

So today, while waiting for Vero who is in a meeting, I decided to make some arrangements for the next two weeks. This is important, because most of the days in that period I will be out of the office. I have to lists all the tasks that I want to delegate to my people, and I must set time to follow up on all those tasks.

If you ask how I can survive on being a manager without a proper time management, my answer is this: I am blessed with capable people in my team. They can do their work with so little supervision, that they enable me to work on other things. That is my recipe for success: hire a team of good staff, and delegate.

This time, it’s delegate and keenly follow up. I must be like a leech that sink my teeth into their flesh, and won’t let go until they are dry of blood. Well, okay, that’s too much of an exaggeration to be a metaphor. Let’s say that I’m like a radar, that knows where they are and what they are doing every step of the way, while maintaining course to the direction that I want.

It’s not a tall order at all. Anyone can do that.

 

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Crystal Skull: Dull?

I’m a fan of Indiana Jones ever since I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusader. Although it was my fate to see the trilogy unsequentially, I was hooked from the first time that I just had to see the other movies.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first in the series, was OK. It was witty, unexpected, mysterious, and awe inspiring. The second film, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, was cool as well. The special effect of a man being burned alive was pretty horrifying, but well-placed humor eased the suspense.

But, as far as I can remember, Indy III was the best. Ever. It was adventure, suspense, thrill and funny right from the start. It was a perfect mix of everything that makes a movie worth seeing again and again.

I was hoping that ‘ever’ would change to ’so far’ with the release of the fourth sequel in the franchise, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Crystal Skull. I deliberately steered clear of any review or synopsis or anything that were potential spoiler. So high was my expectation.

Then I began to see bad signs. Only a week since its premiere in Indonesia, the giant theatre chain, Cinema 21, stopped avertising the movie on Kompas. What gives?

I finally got the opportunity to see it for myself last Saturday.

It was dry right from the start. It tried to be funny, but all I could muster was a polite smirk. It tried to recreate the father-son sit-com mix, brought in the Indy III by the casting of Sean Connery as Indy’s father, with the introduction of Shia LaBoeuf as Mutt, Indy’s son. It failed. Despite the humor-prone generation gap between them, Indy and Mutt knew too little of, and had too little in common with each other to spark the incessant word bunter like the one Indy had with his father.

And then came in the mother, to make it a complete Jones family. When was the last time a family adventure became so exciting? Mummy II?

The jungle car chase was typical for an Indiana Jones movie. There was a car chase in the market in Indy I, a downtown car chase in Indy II, a car and fighter plane chase in Indy III, so there was nothing wrong about having an amphibious car chase in Indy IV.

Involving a UFO was lame. It seems that they have run out of ideas of what other mystery is there to explore and bring to life on screen. They have dabbled in Judaism in Indy I, Christianity in Indy III, paganism in Indy II. What other mystery in archaeology that had not been explored by Indiana Jones? Atlantis? Nah, Lara Croft had already put her hand on it. Not to mention MacGyver. Egyptian pyramids? No, Indy had already been there. Besides, Mummy III is also screening this summer.

Mayan, Incan and Aztec cultures were the only interesting archaeological finds left. But what was so mysterious about those cultures other than legends of cities of gold and rituals of human sacrifice? Hey, wait a minute. Wasn’t there some speculation about UFO involvement in the culture?

Or maybe George Lucas just had had too many light-saber-wielding epic movies of a galaxy far, far away in the past 18 years that he just couldn’t let this one get away without having some kind of strange alien life form in it?

The worst thing about UFO is that there have been so many movies and TV series on that theme, it has lost its mystery. Even when Indy and his entourage stumbled upon an extra-terrestrial secret hidden in the Andean mountain, it was not surprising.

Then the climactic scene in which a UFO broke out from beneath a mountain and flew away, leaving a giant crater behind: Lame again. That is soooooo reminiscent of X-Files final scene, in which a humongous spacecraft broke out from under the mile-deep ice of Antarctica, and flew away, leaving a giant crater behind. X-Files: Big surprising finale. Indy IV: Hey, I’ve seen that before!

I emerged from the theatre two hours later with a deep feeling of dissatisfaction. I felt like I had to rent and watch the entire Indiana Jones first three movies back to back, just to get rid the bad taste of Indy IV .