It was 7.00 AM on a sunny Saturday Morning in Montvale, NJ. My friend Madan woke me up and asked me to get ready fast. He said "We have train to NY at 9.28 and the next train is at 11.15". He also added “To catch the 9.28 train, we need to leave the house at 9.24” as it would take three minutes to walk to the train station and one minute to purchase the tickets. He was very precise on the timings. I wondered on how exact he can be on timings.
I got ready fast and was having my breakfast by 8.45 AM. Soon Bhaky and Vijay joined me for breakfast. We finished our breakfast and were getting ready to go out.
Meanwhile Madan was checking on the Amtrak website for the connecting trains. At 9.23 he shouts “We need to leave the house fast, the train is at 9.26 and not 9.28”. Just 3 minutes to catch the train. He started running out heading towards the station. We started running behind Madan. Soon, we were very close to the train station, the signals were on and the train was arriving at the station.
The train had just arrived, and the doors opened. The conductor got out of the train to check if someone is boarding the train. He noticed us running on the platform towards the train. He said “Come on, Hurry up!!!” We all ran fast to get into the train.
Madan had stopped by at the vending machine to get four tickets to WTC (World Trade Center). I shouted, “Madan, make it fast”. Madan signaled “Get into the train I will join you in a moment”. We boarded the train as Madan swiped his Credit Card for the tickets. The machine took at-least 10 seconds to get credit card approval. We were all yelling at Madan, “You, Maddy, make it fast”. The vending machine started printing the tickets. For each ticket the machine would have taken close to 2 seconds to print. The machine dispensed the tickets one by one. Ticket one: Madan takes the first ticket and waives his hand. Then after a pause, the next ticket (second one!!!). Then the third ticket was printed. Madan shouts “Just one more to go”. The conductor signals the train. He was staring at the machine for the last ticket. Yes!!! The machine printed the fourth ticket; he quickly grabbed the ticket and started running towards the door. He stepped in and thanked the Conductor.
All of us had a smile in our face, signaling that we all achieved something great. The truth is luck had favored us. Had we been late by another 10 seconds, we would have missed the train. What a timing Madan!!!
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I realized that we all need a lesson in time management. Here is one from Randy Pausch. Hope this is useful.
Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management
