{"id":6097,"date":"2012-08-30T10:30:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T14:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=6097"},"modified":"2012-08-30T10:30:19","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T14:30:19","slug":"talk-about-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2012\/08\/talk-about-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk About Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Vicky Dickson<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"reader.100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100-80x80.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never liked clothes shopping, mostly because too many of the clothes I pick out don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look good on me. <!--more-->For a long time I blamed my body for that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the thighs that are too big, feet that are too wide, etc., etc. It was only recently that I began to suspect that the clothes themselves might be to blame, that they might be poorly designed, or designed for a tiny minority of women. <\/p>\n<p>I think something similar confronts us when we find ourselves unable to fit the demands of our lives into the time we have available. People increasingly feel frustrated and guilty over their failure to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153get it all done\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and blame themselves for their own lack of efficiency. But they should, in fact, be blaming the culture that tells them to aspire to professional jobs, raise high-achieving children, eat healthily, exercise regularly, contribute to the community, spend time with friends and stay well informed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c simultaneously. Nobody has that much time and energy, and yet we continue to pretend that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all possible. We continue to berate ourselves because we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t measure up.<\/p>\n<p>We should, instead, realize that the fault lies with the culture rather than with us. Julia Scatliff O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady describes the problem this way: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a personal failing, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that we live in a world of expectations we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fully understand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6098\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/reader083012.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/reader083012.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"reader083012\" width=\"400\" height=\"204\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6098\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/reader083012.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/reader083012-300x153.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julia Scatliff O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady hopes her book, Good Busy: Productivity, Procrastination, and the Endless Pursuit of Balance, will help readers with their struggles to spend their time meaningfully.  Photo courtesy of Julia Scatliff O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady   <\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nSo the UNC communications studies doctoral candidate and mother of two children has written a book, <em>Good Busy: Productivity, Procrastination, and the Endless Pursuit of Balance<\/em>, that she hopes will give readers tools to help them with what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dubbed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153time rehab.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been interested in the subject of time for years, maybe due in part to family lore about her great aunts and great uncles who worked for Elgin Watch in the early days of the wristwatch. She says she \u00e2\u20ac\u0153attended more time-management seminars than anyone I know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but she increasingly became frustrated with the emphasis on productivity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more-is-better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d approach she always encountered there. She knew there had to be a better way to look at time and its meaning in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>In her quest for that better way, O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady began searching out men and women of different races and backgrounds to talk with about time. She conducted interviews with about 40 such men and women, and then winnowed the group to 10 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stellar people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who she thought could best \u00e2\u20ac\u0153articulate a practice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The result is <em>Good Busy<\/em>, a slim volume that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chock-full of useful techniques and perspectives to help us all shape our days. <\/p>\n<p>Kari Andrade, a globetrotting businesswoman, keeps chaos at bay by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buffering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c scheduling in more time than she thinks she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need for a task \u00e2\u20ac\u201c throughout her day. Bus driver Debra Westenskow favors being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in her mirrors,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by which she means keeping her attention tuned to everything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on around her.<\/p>\n<p>And history professor Alexander Byrd lives by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153geological time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What matters is the whole span of your life, not the one or two things you do or don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady hopes that these perspectives, and those of the seven other people profiled in her book, can inspire groups of readers to talk about their own struggles with spending time meaningfully. Maybe such conversations can lead to others about the time and achievement pressures we shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to struggle under \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and in that way, start to change the culture that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chafing so many of us.<br \/>\n______________________________________________<br \/>\nO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady herself is soon going to be quite busy with local appearances and book signings. On Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be at <strong>The Center for Documentary Studies<\/strong> at Duke University for an interview with Duncan Murrell, writer-in-residence, and CDS director Tom Rankin (who is one of the people she profiled in <em>Good Busy<\/em>). <\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 15 at 2 p.m., O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady and Kari Andrade will come to <strong>McIntyre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Books<\/strong> for a conversation. On Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m., O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady will be accompanied at <strong>Flyleaf Books<\/strong> by Dennis Mumby, chair of the department of communication studies at UNC.<\/p>\n<p>If you miss all those events, you can still catch O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. at <strong>The Regulator<\/strong> in Durham, where her guest will be another person profiled in her book, Sandy Dang. <\/p>\n<p>All events are free and open to the public. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Vicky Dickson I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never liked clothes shopping, mostly because too many of the clothes I pick out don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look good on me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6100,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6097\/revisions\/6100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}