Since I travel frequently it is my custom to turn off my mobile phone when I go to bed and then on again when I leave the room for breakfast. I have discovered over the years that unless I do this my sleep will be invariably interrupted by an innocent caller who always asks what time of day it is. My Tuesday in Taipei was no exception.
Tuesday morning two calls were on my voicemail. As I calculated returning one of them it was easy; my morning was their evening. A quick conversation and I continued on my way to breakfast. As usual, there was a question of what time if was at my location. “Tuesday morning.” The second call was challenging. How to I call someone by noon when it is six hours earlier? The answer came by waiting until the last possible moment and then trying to gently wake them up via the harsh, jangling ring of a telephone.
Twelve plus hours later I was between gates in San Francisco and the calls continued.
“It is still Tuesday morning where I am” began the first one. “Yes, I know I called you at noon; well it is three hours earlier now.”
Tuesday continued with four more hours in a plane, dinner with colleagues, and an update chat that lasted close to midnight. My day’s focus was business, then business, and then more business. It was as if I feared that the proverb was coming to life.
“Don’t be too fond of sleep; you’ll end up in the poorhouse.” (Proverbs 20.13)
It is Wednesday now. Why I crammed in so much business into Tuesday I am not sure. While there were moments of greatness; courtesy extended towards a more mature couple, helping someone with their bag, and extending a smile and laugh to another executive buried by stress. I also took time to lose my temper, sling a few barbs, and cut more than one person off. It is all too easy for forget that some things are more important than my sleep.
