The intersection of yours and others time

Time is important. There shouldn’t be even a debate on that topic. Macro time, micro time, each individual should keep that in mind.

Macro, whatever you’re spending your time towards, is the process or the destination worth it?

Micro, every day we wake up with a set of tasks to complete, things to do, things to do when we’re free, and so on.

In the midst of that time management, there comes a time or many, when your time is intersected with others and their time with yours. Two scenarios, either you want their time or they want your time.

But, understanding this intersection is crucial. Because each person’s time is important.

When you want someone else’s time, you cannot “expect” it on your time, unless they’ve agreed for that time as well. Certainly so, because now person A wants something on their time, but B has their own things aligned according to their schedule (unless it was previously agreed upon), so how can person A expect person B to leave everything and follow person A’s schedule, just because it is convenient for them. And vice-versa as well. And same logic applies to multiple people in a group as well.

*A small segway to the topic… Another important factor to consider in this entire understanding is when your time impacts someone else’s.

When you’ve agreed to do something that involves other people, not just yourself, and there’s a certain time factor around it, then when your time impacts others, then that range of time is not worked according to you, but according to them. (not by being readily available to the other individual, but by respecting the timeline of the task)*

Quite often, because we feel time is limited, time is short and we’ve so much to do for the day, considering the micro perspective, we forget about this intersection of time with others, and how its not only about yourself.

When that is understood and implied, then eventually you see a distant improvement in how you operate with others and how any kind of personal or professional work or task or communication is done with ease. Just by understanding the intersection of your and others’ time.