Work and time management

11th June: It’s a Saturday morning and boy, was the streets quiet when I stepped out of the house at 735am! Many people don’t work on Sat eh? And I was off to work. Work was from 830am to 1pm. Luckily for me, it was a very quiet morning. No complicated cases. All I did were chest x-rays after chest x-rays. A relaxing one. However, my senior said that it was very busy the previous Saturday. :p Lucky us!

Went down to Orchard to meet my friends after that. Been a long time ever since I went to orchard on a Sat! The train was packed, the station was packed, the streets were packed and there were just too many people. Fortunately the weather was not burning hot on you, simply warm and slightly humid. The crowd was a bit too much for me to take. Definitely not in the mood to squeeze with others after a week’s work!

It was a great meet-up, except that it was too short. With 1 friend back for summer holidays from U.S., and the other working for her aunt now during the NUS holidays, I have not seen them for months and there was so much to catch up on! My girlfriend and I reminisced about our girls’ school days and about old schoolmates whom she managed to get in touch with. Amazing how Friendster can help me get in touch with one of my Sec 2 close friend whom I have lost touch since she dropped out of NY.

As for the other friend, he’s also working now, as an intern at Biopolis. And all 3 of us agree that working life is indeed tiring. Geez. There were simply too much to talk about, as we shared a common interest in TRAVEL. And I must say we did not get to delve much into this topic at all yesterday! Gotta meet up again soon man.

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Yeah, working life. It takes up the best part of your days. From the waking hours of 630am till the time u knock off at around 5-6pm, they’re all dedicated to work. Some people have the luxury of sitting in front of the desk to do their work and diverge sometimes to do their own things online or read a book and take a break at 10am when you’re tired from staring at the screen. I certainly do not have this luxury. They used to have a 10am break for staff at SGH. Around that time. It depends on the work load. U can go for a 15min break to munch on something and give your legs a rest in the tea room. Not now anymore. Come on, we’re also human! And our work is so physically demanding. U have to position patients, life patients(for those old ones who cannot walk), carry those heavy cassettes, position the HEAVY x-ray tube and carry those cassettes to the processor after the examination. There’s also the mental stress of forgetting to key in some particulars or missing out on something on the computer system. Gee. Although I have gotten used to all these during attachments and mentally prepare myself for the HEAVY workload in SGH, I’m after all still human and at the end of the day, it still tires me out no matter how fit I may be. :p

Last week was just honeymoon, having not worked the full day on Mon, Tues, and Thurs as we attended orientation sessions and lectures and what-have-you. The real nightmare has yet to descend. :p I’m braving myself for all that at the moment. I saw how my senior worked herself ‘crazy’ last week when the workload gets heavy and u are simply just clearing cases. No patient care, no sense of any attachment to the work that you are doing. It was simply just ‘shoot-and-out’. It’s really sad as I know that she is capable of providing so much more! I can also understand her frustration of not being able to transfer to another department after 4 months in ‘outpatient’, which is shitty work and the politics in this department is the most. She also did not get to clear her leave at all as the ‘boss’ did not approve of any. She still has 27 days left this year! That’s a lot right?!

I just hope that this would not happen to me. I’m optimistic by nature and I am still optimistic despite seeing what my seniors are going through. It’s the best to stay that way. I will find ways to get around this. I can munch on biscuits or my banana secretly when there’s no cases at around 10. I usually get really hungry at that time. Or maybe, I should make some cereal drink in my thermo flask and keep in the room so that I can drink it anytime!

After work hours are so precious. Besides concentrating on my runs and swims, I have to find time to meet friends. And right now, there’s one more BIG group of friends added into my list of ‘friends to meet to keep in touch’ after leaving school. And they are no other than my Poly classmates. Everyone should be starting work soon or leaving to go Australia to study. In the past, this is the group I meet every single day and there’s no need to find time to meet up except for the occasional after-school dinners or movies. Now, I really do miss them and the crapping times we used to have during our lunch times. Sigh. I have anticipated this but never thought that it would be this strong sentimental feeling.

Time management is sooo important. There’s no need to study after work now in the night except when I need to refresh my memory for something new that I’m learning. Other than that, I might just make phonecalls at night to friends and talk to them. Or else meet up for dinner. With the need for runs, swims, meet-ups, my own personal time, weekend times with parents and the need to catch at least 7 hours of sleep, AH! 24 hours is so short!

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I heard this song when I was typing the above. Loved this song. It echoes my thoughts at times.

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Great. The G8 nations have come together to cancel all the debts of the world's poorest nations. I ahve been following this news closely as I'm signed up to this particular website which is dedicated to urge the G8 leaders to allow full debt cancellation. The world's 8 richest countries ought to have done this long ago. More news at CNA website. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/152213/1/.html

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Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
M.Scott Peck