Time - Zones, Travel, Lack Thereof

First off, I live in a country with no concept of time zones. China - yes, enormous China, roughly the size and dimensions of the US - is all one time zone.

I recently had to help a Chinese friend figure out when she was to check in to a webinar. It was listed as "[time]PDT", as well as "[time]GMT-8". She was baffled. I didn't even notice the two times. Clearly, it was coming from a PDT location, so I translated the time into China time for her, and then she asked what the GMT-8 thing meant. It hadn't dawned on me that a third of the world's population has absolutely no understanding of time zones. I still don't think she believes me that they are both the same time!

Sunday, April 22nd was my niece's 6th birthday. On the morning of April 22nd, I called to say happy birthday. That was at 9pm on the 21st, for her. When I told her it was already her birthday in China, I could hear her brain explode. "WHaHaAt?!" with a little giggle somewhere in the middle of the "what".  

I time-travel regularly when I talk with family or friends.

As I mentioned in my Lagging Behind post, I'm actually ahead of the AtoZ challenge, time-wise. This is both good and bad. It means that I'm finishing my daily post early, and usually, I'm fairly early in the link-up, too. Good! But bad, because a lot of the blogs that I found early and enjoy are not linked up at the time I'm linking, so I miss them as I click on the ones in the link-up list. Once or twice I've just gone to the master list to try to catch up, but then that takes extra time, and time is precious, is it not?

Everyone complains of lack of time, yet we all have the same amount of it. The best wisdom I've been given was from an older lady I worked with early after college. She was trying to get me to join a ladies church group, and I said I don't have time. She countered with.

"You have time for what you make time for."

That has stuck with me for my whole life. I wish I could tell her the impact her words had on me. I no longer use the excuse "I don't have time." If I don't want to do something, I will usually explain in all honesty why not. If I simply don't want to, the inviter can't counter with anything of value! Of course, sometimes we have to be kind and make an excuse.

Do you have enough time? I feel I'm pretty good at time management, but I'd love to hear your time management tips in the comments.

(If you're visiting from A to Z, please include the name of your blog as it is on the Master List so I can return the favor!)

Time Travel is Real

For years, I've crossed distances to "do coffee" or "do lunch" or "take a walk with" friends by phone. It's a habit that I figured could help me cross time as well as distance.

Friend: Hey! I want to hear more about that thing you posted. How about we "do coffee", 9am my time tomorrow morning? I'll have coffee, you can have wine!
Me: That's perfect! Since your time changed, I think I'm 13 hours ahead, so that's... 8pm for me. Easy enough. See you then!

The next morning, on waking up:

10pm previous night...
*missed call"

Friend: Okay, I've tried calling, so I'm going sit by my computer and work on some stuff, and you just call me when you're ready.

Me: OH CRAP! When you said "tomorrow" I didn't think of the fact that your "tomorrow" is my "today"! I realized after we set the time, that it would be 10pm my time, not 8pm, and I was so happy that I realized it, that I forgot to think about the date! When can we reschedule coffee?

Friend: LOL. I get it. How about MY Friday morning. I'll be driving, so I can focus on our conversation.

*I check my planner* 

Me: Oh good grief. Friday is the day I had marked for our call, even though I was planning for Thursday and it should have been Wednesday! Apparently I can't figure out time. Talk to you Friday morning, your time! Friday NIGHT, my time, LOL.
Friend: Perfect.

*After putting it in my phone calendar*

Me: I'm such a mess! I had the first time in my phone set for the correct night, but 8pm, which was my first - WRONG - guess about the time! I think I'm finally set for YOUR Friday morning. I really can't wait to give you all the details.

*Friday morning*

Me: It's my Friday morning, which means your Thursday night, right? So we'll talk when you wake up! I'm on it!
Friend: Bad news. Crisis at work, so I won't be free to call, and actually have a meeting at 7am tomorrow morning. Sorry!
Me: I'm SO SAD that I messed up our first scheduled time! Please let me know as soon as you have an idea when you can talk. 

Conclusion: I suck at time travel.