The Traveling Organizer Problem: Fun with Time Zones

Let's say you live in Los Angeles and you need to organize a meeting that will take place in Nashville, TN at some future date. To keep it simple, let's say that all of the other participants live, if not in Nashville, at least somewhere in the US Eastern time zone. Finally, on the day that you must schedule the meeting you are in Los Angeles.

How do you get the meeting request to apear on everyone's calendar at the correct local time for each participant on the day of the meeting?

Answer?

The only way to do it is to change your computer's time zone setting to the zone you will be in at the time of the meeting, send the meeting request, then reset the computer's time zone to your current locale.

Unfortunately, using this approach demands that you ALWAYS change your computer's timezone setting as you travel, because your appontments (at least those you requested using Outlook Meeting Request feature) will always be shown at the correct time for whatever time zone your computer thinks it is in.

If you're like me, you simply record items on your calendar as if it were a paper calendar. Such a calendar has perfect intelligence about your current locale and no intelligence whatsoever about where other participants might have been when the meeting was scheduled, or where they will be when the meeting occurs.

Though you may not realize it, such calendars are warped. Say you have an early morning meeting in Atlanta, then a 10:00am flight to Los Angeles that arrives at 12:00 noon, and more meetings starting immediately on your arrival that afternoon. Now, for the sake of argument, let's say you have a lot of work to complete on the flight and you like to keep a schedule. You've got five hours of uninterrupted time to schedule... but wait, there are only two hours of "white space" available on your calendar! Your calendar is warped.

Electronic calendars, such as MS Outlook, are not warped. Outlook stores all appointment times in UTC format, meaning that the locale of the meeting is effectively embedded in the time code.

Unfortunately, because of this, electronic calendars such as Outlook can be terribly difficult to use when you travel frequently. We need a better solution to this problem.

Unexpected Depth

It is an odd and rare pleasure indeed to find depth and even perhaps profundity in unexpected places. About halfway through the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day" (yes, you read that correctly) on cable recently I was stuck with the realization that this movie may actually be a profound allegory on how to achieve hapiness in life. Even more surprising is the apparent source of the recipie. Curious? Read on...

The movie begins with Bill Murray as Phil Conors, a TV weatherman who is thoroughly disillusioned with life and who wears his cynicism hillariously on his sleeve. Phil finds himself stuck reliving the same day (Groundhog Day) over and over, apparently forever, until he gets it right.

What follows is a thoroughly entertaining and light-hearted comedy with Bill Murray at his wise-cracking best. But underneath the hilarity can be seen a deeper message.

When Phil first realizes what has happened to him, he is terrified, and sets about trying to find a way out. First physically, by leaving town, and then mentally by consulting friends, a doctor, and even a psychologist. Phil's first transformation comes when he realizes that no matter what he does, he's still going to wake up in the same bed at 6:00 am on Groundhog Day. In other words, there is no escape, there are no consequences, and so there is nothing to fear.

From there, Phill sets out to satisfy every desire: food, sex, money, love. He even devotes himself to trying to save a homeless man who maddeningly dies anyway. Finally, having run out of desires to satisfy and being consumed with a sense of utter futility, Phil decides to kill himself.

His final transformation comes when even his most creative efforts at suicide fail and he realizes that the only thing left to do is to let go of himself altogether.

Finally, things start to go his way. No longer living for himself, Phil gives to everyone he meets just what they seem to need at that moment -- validation to the guy at the top of the stairs, appreciation to the hotel matron, a helping hand to a choking man in the restaraunt -- expecting nothing in return. And for his efforts, he becomes the hero of the town, gets the girl, and finally escapes Groundhog Day, a changed man, ready to live happily ever after.

Put another way, a self-absorbed man is finally released from his suffering and finds happiness by transcending fear, extinguishing desire, and ultimately letting go of himself entirely.

Bill Murray following the footsteps of the Buddha? One cannot help but wonder...