 |
Playing my PS4 with my son. Literally. |
Funny how you become a new Dad and everyone makes it sound like your life is Game Over. Fortunately I would say I am doing pretty well so far. Some might be skeptical about seeing how well I am coping with life and some are just waiting for that moment when I break down so they could say “I told you so”.
There are a lot of uncertainties and fear from being a new Dad and what these people say ain’t exactly helping:
“You better sleep more now because you ain’t gonna get much of it.”
“PS4? I think you can soon put it on Carousell.”
“Gym and Basketball? Forget it lah, you’re gonna have Dad bod soon.”
“You better spend more time with your wife now because very soon you will not know the meaning of dating.”
All these people are constantly feeding me this one common problem:
The lack of time.
Given I am someone who is socially very active with a calendar packed with activities, time can really be a challenge. The truth is, I’ve always been juggling many balls through out my life - running my business, giving part-time classes, maintaining this blog, going to the gym and basketball games regularly, keeping in touch with my girlfriends and spending time with my family.
I wouldn’t say I am expert in managing time but I can only say I try my best. And here are my 2 cents.
1. Wake up early, sleep late
There’s only 24 hours a day and if you are going to spent 8 or more hours sleeping it away, that’s like saying you are working for 2/3 of your monthly pay and I am sure you don’t want that to happen.
Spend more time awake doing things. As an adult you probably need an average of 5-6 hours a day. Personally, I work well on average of 4 hours sleep a day. Take a power nap if needed.
I’m sure you are familiar with the saying of “Sleep is for the weak”. Stay awake, don’t be weak!
2. Champion multitasking
Because I’m the father of unicorns
Classic time saving method - Multitasking. I’ve read articles that try to prove multitasking wrong but it works for me. I have very short attention span and making me do a single task for a long period of time just ain’t productive. All I’m saying is, you have to find out what works best for you.
3. Skip the Queues
As much as we joke about queuing being Singaporean’s favorite past time, you should totally skip wasting your time over waiting in line.
Here are ways I avoid the queues:
1. Watch movies the week after the launch
2. Pass on hipster cafés that had just been featured on popular blogs and choose to visit them in a few weeks
3. Avoid the great PIE jam by going to work early
4. Virtually queue for the bank branch with DBS SMS “Q”.
Indeed, everyone feels like a VIP with SMS “Q”. Every branch has their own number and all your have to do is send in an SMS to get a queue number instead of being physically there to get a queue number. I think this initiative is damn good!
P.S. Queuing for hello kitty is both a stupid thing to do and wasting time in queue. One should simply avoid that.
4. It’s okay to have hobbies but don’t do stupid things
We all indulge in hobbies but mindful not to get addicted on mindless activities.
If you love gaming, play an hour at most and choose to play intellectual games. Games that simulates your mind, trains your psychomotor skill or even your creative problem solving skills.
5. Abuse the internet technology
We are so fortunate that we are living in the era where technology is so advanced and everything is at our fingertips. We have Google to get to our destination. We use Wikipedia for research. We can Netflix and chill.
Nowadays, you don’t even have to step out of your room to look at properties, there’s an app for that!
Why do I like this? Well, this DBS Home Connect app takes you through all the steps of buying a new home, from budgeting and comparing prices to checking out the neighbourhood. If you are a parent and your kid is starting school, you can check out which schools are in the vicinity as well! Best of all, it’s free. So why not?
6. Stop comparing your lives with others
I’m totally abusing the Internet when writing this post. I’ve googled for a good quote about saving time to end this post and I must say this is a pretty good one from Steve. (First name basis okay!)
I think with the raising popularity of Social Media, we are spending too much time trying to catch up with others’ lives but the truth is like I’ve always said, people only upload what they want you to see and not what you need to see. Take it with a pinch of salt and not let others’ lives take over yours. Live your own life, the one you are happy with, and the one where you make the most out of it.
I have no idea what lies ahead for me in terms of taking care of my newborn or guiding him to make sure he grows up into a man I would be proud of. But this is life, I guess. We have to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. As they say, take the leap of faith.