SPENDING QUALITY TIME

Improving the Quality of Life
Concept of quality time
The concept of quality time refers to time during which one focuses on or dedicates oneself entirely to a person or activity. All good gifts depend on time for their value. What are friends, books, or health, the interest of travel or the delights of home, if we do not have time for enjoying them? Time is often said to be money, but it is more valuable. Money, once spent, can be replenished. That is not the case with time. Time is life. It is our fundamental desire to cling desperately to life. We must not, therefore, think nothing of wasting time.

Not that a life of drudgery should be our ideal. Far from it. Time spent in innocent and rational enjoyments, in healthy games, in social and family intercourse, are well and wisely spent. Games not only keep the body in health, but give a command over the muscles and limbs which cannot be under estimated.

It is the idle who complain they cannot find the time to do what they want to do. In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting: and the advantage of leisure is mainly that we may have the power of choosing our own work.To make your life enjoyable and satisfying, spend your quality time wisely, prudently and carefully. Balance your lifestyle. You could then find great stress-reduction benefits in taking a thorough inventory of your life and how you spend your time. You should be able to take appropriate decisions for making necessary changes for deriving more pleasure, satisfaction and contentment by spending your quality time with your family, friends, colleagues and the people you interact with. First determine which areas are lacking, and then work on building up those areas, whether it is building your social network, finding a regular stress-reduction activity or hobby that you enjoy, or putting some extra effort into your work life.

The warning bell has rung and it's really important for us to pull our socks up and work towards improving the R&D, because it is imperative for sustaining the growth rate of our country.

Time is life

You don't have to be rich to keep your family happy. Plan your time – especially the quality time –judiciously for bringing happiness to your spouse and children and also to those you love. Devote some quality time for your work place. You will then find your work more enjoyable and satisfying.

That would also enable you to increase your productivity in whatever work you do – in an air-conditioned office or in an agricultural field – and improve your income generation capabilities.

The fundamental desire of most of us is to improve the quality of our lifestyle. We want to make our family happy. The family is a universal social institution, whose members share a social space based on kinship relations, conjugality and parental ties. Family relations are the basic criteria for the formation of households and the performance of tasks linked to biological and social reproduction in everyday life. In modern times, ties within the family are expected to be based on affection and mutual care, yet they involve instrumental, strategic and interest-based considerations. We all want to earn more money to keep ourselves happy and contented. As do not always – in fact we seldom do – succeed in our mission, we get frustrated, dejected and utterly unhappy. This causes stress. Stress is often termed as a 20th century syndrome, born out of man's race towards modern progress and its ensuing complexities. What you can do to keep your family happy is not by promising those items that they neither probably need nor do you have the resources to give.  What they really need from you is your quality time that you can certainly give. 

Your spouse deserves your quality time to become a happy and more caring parent. You also owe your children your quality time for them to grow up happily and doing their studies well. Try not to create stress through frustration and overwork by setting unachievable objectives. Enjoy your quality time with the people you care for, the people you love, the people you want see happy. Their happiness will help you lead a satisfying life.

People are engaged in different professions. They come from different backgrounds with utterly different capabilities – some are highly educated and skilled and many are semi illiterates and unskilled – but most of them have one thing in common, and that is: ambition to earn more money for improving their lifestyles. Failure to become successful in achieving their goal breeds frustration and adversely affects their career and domestic life.

We have identified people from the following professions who face problems in devoting quality time to their families and friends and make them happy

• Factory workers
• People traveling long distance to reach their work places
• People associated with entertainment sector
• Advertising professionals
• Career-conscious workholics in MNCs and corporate houses
• Party hoppers and Page 3 personalities
• Young people working with Call Centres
• Politicians
• Working couples
• Armed and police forces

It is alleged that the single – minded pursuit of economic growth has led to the relative neglect of the welfare and well-being of urban factory workers most of whom have come from rural areas. The pndia's record of economic growth over the past three decades has been impressive. However, it is alleged that the single-minded pursuit of economic growth has led to the relatroblem of inadequate services provided to factory workers – especially those who work in relatively small manufacturing units – has not been addressed effectively.

The factory owners and the civil society should identify the current status of urban services in urban industrial estates, with particular reference to the problems of factory workers; examine and assess existing policies and programmes, if any, for industrial workers; identify the needs of factory workers and the community in which they live; and provide policy recommendations with a view to improving the lives and well-being of factory workers. Our advice to these factory workers is to cut down overtime work and limit their wasteful expenditure. They should identify their avoidable expenses. NGOs could play a major role by counseling thesefactory workers. agriculture, science and technology are doing well. We can launch any satellite ourselves. We are as good as anybody and nothing to worry about R&D. I think our R&D is not doing bad. I accept that there are pockets which could do better. We can do much much better if more money is spent on R&D. We have limitations and are not doing as well as others are.

Commuting for work
Lower middle class people – especially those working in factories – often have to travel long distances to reach their places of work. These are the people whose employers do not provide residential quarters in the neighbours. Their lower middle class pride prevents them from staying in slum clusters that usually mushroom around the factories where they work. Either they own modest properties in neighbouring towns or prefer to stay in rented accommodation. They spend considerable time in commuting. After they return home they are too tired and exhausted to give quality time to their families.Our suggestion to this workforce to try to avoid at a place that is too away from their residence. But if it not possible, they should try to relocate their residence nearer their workplace. This may cost them a little extra, but it is worth spending for securing a better way to live. This extra expense could be absorved by saving money through cutting down avoidable wasteful expenses. If relocation is also not possible, then they should plan for a vacation  with their families a few times a year according to their affordability. Low cost  vacations are available in India

People in entertainment and media sector
The Indian entertainment and media sector is poised to enter a golden era. One of the largest markets in the world, the industry is seeing strong growth and has the potential to garner huge amount of money. The main players in this sector – actors in cinema, theatre, and TV; writers and journalists in the media; and creative people in the advertising world have to work very hard and live a stressful life to build and maintain such a huge empire.

Films

Film actors and creators of hugely popular films have to work really hard to remain in the limelight. Their life is extremely stressful and usually disorganised. Their family life is usually disturbed, not necessarily because of amoral proclivities, but probably because of their inability to manage their time. Actors may succeed in maintaining a harmonious lifestyle if they emulate Shahrukh Khan. The King Khan is a total family man with his wife Gauri and

two children. Because of his undying obsession for his family, he always sticks to his moral values. That is no kisses on the screen or no poses for photographs with his lady actresses for magazine covers. He knows how to have control over his work schedule and give quality time to his family.

Workholics in MNCs and corporate houses
There is a possibility of these ambitious workholics turning into alcoholics if they do control their lifestyle and reserve their quality time for their families

Call Centre Employees
Cities like Bangalore and Gurgaon are becoming true destinations for the young IT professionals – be it for software development, or IT support or even Call Centre or BPO jobs. Young Indian professionals have gone a lot ahead of their generation, having a good salary and cosmopolitan lifestyle in their young ages, they are becoming an integral part of the consumerism culture and therefore taking Indian economy ahead. But what cost? Their family life is absolutely shattered. Their body clocks are changed, causing health hazards. Their life is centered around their work stations and colleagues. They are almost invisible to their families. They do not have any quality time left.

What needs to be done
Give ample evidence that you care for them. Prove that you are concerned about their happiness and their wellbeing.

Prove that you care
People are sometime unable to – and often unwilling or unable to – share their quality time with their families and the people they love. You can make them all immensely happy and satisfied if you spend your quality time with them. Talk to your children about their studies, their hobbies, their extra-curricular activities, about their favourite TV programmes. Talk to your spouse about the day's activities. Encourage your family to practice yoga and meditation.

Take your spouse out after dinner for a few minutes walk. It may make you feel romantic and revive the memory of old days. Spare weekends for visits to historical monuments, neighbourhood forest areas and other places of interest. You do not need to spend money if you cannot afford. Take your family on vacations to places of interest that you can afford. Do not forget birthdays of your spouse and children. Give them surprise gifts. Take your family on vacations to places of interest that you can afford. What is important is to prove that you care

Conjugal love

Here also you have to prove beyond doubt that you care for your spouse's happiness and satisfaction. You have to give evidence that your love for your spouse is absolute. The common view that love is a feeling is quite misguided. Feelings come and go, while love is steady. Feelings are passions in the classical sense of “passion” which shares a root with passive. They strike us slightly unbidden. Love, in contrast, is something actively built. The passions suffered by teenagers and composers of romantic lyrics, felt so painfully, and often so temporarily, are not real love – though in some cases they may be a prelude to it.Conjugal love inloves all this. But it is also more than this.

In conjugal love, one commits oneself to seeing one's life always with the other in view. One commits to pursuing one's major projects, even when alone, always in a kind of implicit conjunction with the other. A deep faith and trust must underlie true conjugal love. That trust is the most sacred and inviolable thing in a marriage, because it is the very foundation of its possibility.

As the world is increasingly turning to ancient wisdom in its search for peace and happiness, the recurring theme is the need to banish negativity and excesses.

Innovation is the key
Use innovative sex plays in bed during your love making times like French bath (virtual licking sensitive parts of your spouse till she reaches her orgasm), indulge in foreplay before you start full sex, and yes do not forget to see her comfortability. Ask her likes and dislikes. You will be more sexually satisfied if you share with her your mutual desire so that both of you are fully satisfied. So be a different person next time when you wish to satisfy your physical desire by forgetting your self interest and ensure that your partner is also equally enjoying the mutual physical proximity.

Summing up

Are you the ambitious competitive go-getter obsessed with an overpowering desire for achieving quick success – craving for power, wealth, fame, and the status and money-oriented aspects of life? Do you value material possessions more than peace of mind? Is external achievement more important than inner tranquility? Having going through this article you should be able to remove the obstacles that are preventing you from being a happy, satisfied and contended person – in case your answers to these questions are in the affirmative.

The highest value of time is when you are doing what you love and want to do. During leisure you are free to choose what you want to do and enjoy doing. So leisure enables you realize the highest value of your time!

Why do we work? Is it for job satisfaction? Or is it to earn money so that we can enjoy satisfaction off the job? In fact, most of us work for our leisure, because there is nothing we enjoy more than leisure. Time is useful because it is not being used. Leisure is like unoccupied floor space in a room – it is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable. Those who are wise and want to be happy won't be workaholics, and those who are incorrigible workaholics can neither be wise nor happy.

We should be happy where we are and be content with what we have. Let us savour the feast of life and its joys, then let us chart out an uncomplicated approach to living life to its fullest in today's rapidly changing, fast paced, competitive, ambition dominated, money and status oriented, commercialized world, enabling each one of us to enjoy inner peace and happiness. Let us spread our happiness by sharing our quality time with everybody we love.