Time Compression (BA 181 vs. TIME)...

"I never thought that what my teachers were saying about the lessons they where teaching would be applied to my real-life situation. Indeed, they were true that I can ACTUALLY apply them."

Before, I never thought that what my teachers were teaching were actually true, since they only explain WHAT this concept means. They do not explain or show HOW this concept works in different situations, most preferably to real-life situations.

AND I PROVED MYSELF TO BE WRONG.

Here's my experience which actually gave me a realization that I was wrong.

Yes. It is already March 11, 2010. I looked at my wallclock, and it is 1:30 in the morning.


I slept for a few hours. I woke up and looked at my wallclock. Oh no! It's already 5:30!


This day was great, because I am planning for an unexpected surprise (now, this thing is redundant, since surprises are unexpected, but this surprise, I think, is assumed to be expected). I am from Antipolo, and now, I have to go to UP to surprisingly watch my friend's English 12 play! Approximately, I go to school an hour before the class starts. But in this case, it's almost an hour before her class starts, and I haven't prepapred yet!


THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS OF THIS ENTRY ARE WHAT I REALLY THOUGHT OF, USING QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS!


SCENARIO: There is no assurance on whether they will perform first or last. According to her, every group must have a performance of at most 10 minutes. The class starts at 7:10, and ends at approximately 8:15 or 8:30. Therefore, considering that there must be 10 minutes of performance, assume that the class will start at 7:00 and ends at 8:30. There would surely be 9 groups to present, but placing it to the real sense would place you to think that there might only be 8 or 7 groups.


PLAN: I am leaving our place at 6:20. That would be 40 minutes before the anticipated time of the start of her class. Since I would almost have traveled for an hour, then my expected arrival will be at 7:20, and either the second group is currently performing or the third group is starting to perform. The only way for me to shorten the time constraint is for me to reduce a few number of minutes to my activities, and take the shortest route from our house to UP.


Also, since I plan this to be a surprise, I have prepared a text message to send her at 7:00 AM, just to show that I can't come, but in the course of the plan, by 7:00, I have already left the house.


OBJECTIVE: Reach the site, secretly watch my friend's group performance, and surprise her as a contradiction of the message I sent, since it's a surprise. =)

I was so happy that I have developed a simple plan like this one. Thinking of the extremes, considering delays, meeting expectations, and a lot more. I know that in the work environment, I might be doing a lot of analyzing costs, time constraints, opportunities, optimality, and the like. Yes, it's not easy, but I have realized that taking it step by step will actually give you results rather than flooding a plan with all of the things that you wanted to achieve and avoiding constraints. I know that in the professional world, my plan wouldn't work at all, but the analysis might work.

I am happy because I was able to actually see that what I am studying in school is very important. Without learning these concepts, I know that I may not have met my objective. It might sound crazy, but it's very helpful.

THE RESULT:
1. I was able to reach the site at around 7:19, and it is ONE MINUTE EARLIER than my anticipated time of arrival!
2. Her group was the second group to perform. Although I wasn't able to start the performance, I could say, I have seen the majority of the play, and I watched it without being noticed by my friend, but soon, I was spotted. =)
3. She was surprised to see me because she knew I won't be able to reach. Well, it's because of the message I sent. NOW, IT'S A SURPRISE, not only to her, but also to me. :D

It was a though battle with time! Since I cannot control it, I controlled HOW it controlls the world.

(The story contains my real-life application of our BA 181 concepts- specifically on the SHORTEST ROUTE TECHNIQUE, and the CRITICAL PATH METHOD [CPM].)

-Agbayani, James Edward C.-
March 11, 2010