And we are in election mode again.
Unless the “one nation one election” proposal is implemented, this election process will continue throughout the year, year-on-year, perpetually.
One set of assembly elections gets over, panchayat elections take over. Then another set of assembly, and so on and so forth, until the Lok Sabha elections, and then rinse and repeat.
In our democracy, we spend an awfully long amount of time (and a lot of money) just making choices.
And so is it in life. They say life is all about choices, but that my dear, is an understatement. Take ordering food online for starters (pun intended). What cuisine, what restaurant, what discount, how fast, what dish..and then add the permutations and combinations when you have multiple members of the family making these choices.
Switch on the television and many an OTT to spot, but not a program to watch. And so one scrolls endlessly and on loop, until you finally arrive at something barely agreeable – the lowest common denominator, for the mathematically inclined. And yes, if it is a series, then Netflix makes the rest of the choices for you. A flash forward to the next episode with 3 seconds to reach the remote and choose an option to continue watching the credits. This can be a competition of sorts – successful avoidances of autoplaying the next episode/season. A metric to be proud of, in a few years time.
I digress. Coming back to the topic of choice, these seemingly mundane choices actually take up a lot of our time. Unless you are new parents. Then the choice is easy. Cocomelon on repeat – that’s it!
For the rest, it’s choices all the way – Movies, Amazon, books, shopping, where to go on the weekend – I can go on and on. I think if some academia research the time we spend choosing – they would come up with a very alarming statistic.
Ah wait – there is a statistic. Four to six months between the ages of 18-60 are spent in just choosing what to wear. And 100 hours per year in choosing what to watch on TV. That’s 5 days a year in browsing through OTT and not watching. Wow. Just extrapolate the rest and you will get an idea as to how much time we spend in daily choices.
Which is why some people choose to wear the same work clothes and go with recommendations to watch and eat out. Top 10 lists, best reviewed restaurants, that sort of thing.
Try to measure how much time you spend on such stuff, for a week. It may be that the “time you don’t have” for exercise is lurking in the shadows, behind that remote or that set of outfits in the cupboard. All you need is to dig it out:)
See you tomorrow!