Tidsoptimist: Uma bênção ou uma maldição?

‘Tidsoptimist—a person who’s habitually late because they think they have more time than they do’.

Had I only known this word earlier, everything would have made sense to me. But I guess I didn’t have enough time to Google it because I was too busy missing my deadlines and disappointing others for not showing up on time.

No entanto, um tidsoptimista é uma espécie de otimista da vida. Um tidsoptimista é totalmente otimista em relação ao tempo. Vêem as horas como segundos e é por isso que é tão difícil serem realistas em relação aos prazos e às diferentes tarefas que têm em mãos.

Ser otimista em geral é uma boa caraterística, mas ser otimista em relação ao tempo é um pouco complicado. Embora não seja bom estar demasiado ansioso por ser sempre pontual, também não é bom ser demasiado otimista em relação a isso.

Mas também tem alguns aspectos positivos e, se discutirmos o assunto com alguém, essa pessoa concordará que é muito difícil classificá-lo como mau ou bom. Os tidsoptimistas sabem-no muito bem. Eu sei-o muito bem.

I’ve almost lost my job because I would always be late, making lame excuses, and you cannot fool people for all eternity. Sooner or later, they will realize that you’ve got some issues regarding time and when that time comes, you better be good at explaining it to them.

A mente de um tidsoptimista parece um eterno campo de batalha onde o tempo é o seu companheiro e o seu pior inimigo ao mesmo tempo. You think you are rocking it until you realize that you’re late again and you have to face all of those disappointing faces waiting for you to apologize.

But the thing is, we’re not doing any of it on purpose. We really try to arrive on time but somehow we are prevented from doing so, either because we get occupied with something else or because we think there is more time than there actually is.

Queremos fazer tudo ao mesmo tempo

Começamos a fazer uma coisa e, se nos pedirem ajuda, passamos imediatamente para vocês e depois voltamos ao que estávamos a fazer. Mas entre as mudanças, normalmente perdemos a noção do tempo e é aí que começamos a entrar em pânico, sabendo que voltámos a fazê-lo.

A maior maldição de ser um tidsoptimista é que tudo tem de ser feito numa determinada ordem. Assim, se a sua rotina matinal inclui lavar os dentes, vestir-se, tomar o pequeno-almoço e fazer café, terá de a cumprir, independentemente das consequências.

We simply cannot skip making our coffee because it is a part of our ritual and no matter how late we are, we just can’t fight the urge to finish all of what we’ve imagined beforehand. And we know it’s silly and dumb but that’s just how we function.

Pensamos sempre que há tempo suficiente

If you ask an optimist what time it is, he will tell you that there is plenty of time instead of giving you the exact information that you’ve asked for. It is because we are sure that there is plenty of time, even though we have no evidence of that.

But it’s deeply ingrained in our being and fighting it only means making it worse. Sometimes it’s good to be stress-free and think that you won’t be late anywhere because time is your friend. It’s good to be able to relax and chill in your free time, not being anxious about all the things waiting for you to finish them.

But when it comes to deadlines, this kind of thinking simply kills us. And we realize it when it’s too late. We will be thinking that we still have time until someone comes to us to say that we fucked it up again.

Os prazos são o nosso inimigo mortal

Some people are afraid of death but tidsoptimists are afraid of deadlines. There is something about the feeling of being limited to finish something when someone else tells you or when it’s supposed to be so.

Deadlines feel like the biggest destroyers of our chilly world and we will never understand why people bother so much to arrive everywhere on time. Wouldn’t we be much more creative and passionate if we didn’t bother so much about time?

Perhaps the restriction of time is something that kills our joy inside but at the same time, it is something you can’t function without (at least, that’s why they say). So, when someone gives us a deadline, we try really hard to remember it, even though we know we’ll fuck it up again.

But there is this tiny spark of hope that maybe this time we will finish it right on time and not five seconds before or after the deadline. And we pray to God that He gives us strength and a release of anxiety while we’re on our journey to accomplish this ultimate task of finishing something in time.

Alarms simply don’t work for us

People who invented alarms probably didn’t have in mind a tidsoptimist. They couldn’t predict that people like me would find alarms totally useless. But who are we to blame them.

So, dear alarm people, I’m sorry to tell you that alarm sounds for tidsoptimists are just reminders that they have enough time to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and make coffee. Of course, they have enough time until they realize that they don’t.

And that is the beauty of being a tidsoptimist. You’re optimistic till the last second and you won’t let anyone contradict your beliefs because you’re sure of yourself (for the time being) and your hope never dies.

You tell yourself that you won’t be late this time, even though you know you’re fooling yourself and others. And then you have to face the dark side of being a tidsoptimist and that is missed deadlines, late arrivals and facing the disappointment.

Mas, por outro lado, por um segundo, sentimos que o mundo se tornou um lugar melhor quando encontramos pessoas da nossa espécie e elas nos dão aquele sorriso, o que significa que nos compreendem.