“There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.” Ecclesiastes 3.1 The Message
We have bee discussing the importance of time. Time is an indispensable ingredient to living on the earth. No one has more time than another. Every human being has an equal portion daily. Each human being whether young or old, rich or poor, educated or illiterate each gets allotted twenty four hours per day. What we each do with our daily allotment of time determines the quality and quantity of our output in life.
As we daily spend time second by second we are all inching gradually into our future so we can predict our future by how and what we use our time for. The seeds we sow with our time will yield a harvest in our future.
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C S Lewis
If our lives must count we must consciously watch how and where our time is being spent. When we mishandle time our lives becomes mismanaged. When we effectively utilize time life becomes meaningful and productive.
Time is so important that our life gets calculated by time. A day is made up of 24 hours and our age is calculated in years based on days. When a man wastes time he is wasting his life. “A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.” Charles Darwin
When a man uses time well he is using his life well. When we spend time oblivious of the future implication we are wasting time and consequently wasting our lives. We all desire to have more time but the issue is not more time but better time management.
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn
Time is a very vulnerable issue- it gets easily attacked and can be wasted hence we need to know what factors and issues waste our time and see how we can sort things out. We have no time to waste so we must be up and doing. We have only one life to live and we have no choice but to make it count. There is absolutely no excuse why we should not make it.
“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” Art Buchwald. When we spend time oblivious of the future implication we are wasting time and consequently wasting our lives. We must be determined to maximize every second we have the opportunity and privilege to be alive. We all have a past and we all desire a future but the only time we are guaranteed is the time we have now and to waste or squander that which we have time is unwise.
“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” Michael Landon.
We all desire to have more time but the issue is not more time but better time management. Many people crave and desire for more time but even the one we have we are rarely good managers of it. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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TO BE CONTINUED.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME Part 3
In the last couple of weeks we have been looking at the power of time.
“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.” Denis Waitely
Time is a very vulnerable issue- it gets easily attacked and can be wasted hence we need to know what factors and issues waste our time and see how we can sort things out. Once time is lost it is lost forever.
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” Seneca
Time wasters can be people or things. A time waster is somebody or something that trivializes, reduces or destroys the value and effective use of our time. Collins Dictionary explains the term time waster – “if
you say that someone or something is a time waster, you mean that they cause you to spend a lot of time doing something that is unnecessary or does not produce any benefit.”
Once we identify a time waster it is our personal responsibility to deal with such waster. A time waster can be a person, habit, circumstance or situation and the nature of the time waster will determine how to deal with it. We will start by looking at people who constitute time wasters and later we will look at habits, situations and circumstances.
“Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.” Michael LeBoeuf
The first thing we need to understand is that we will always reap what we sow. If we are a time waster, people will not respect and waste our time also. A time waster is likely to attract and have other time wasters as close companions, colleagues and friends. Birds of the same feather, they say, flock together. The first step, therefore, in dealing with time wasters is to ensure we ourselves are not guilty of being a time waster. When people see that we regard time as a very precious and costly commodity they will respect and not waste our time. We cannot demand that people respect and value our time when we ourselves are time wasters. Time wasters are life wasters.
“Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.” Michael LeBoeuf
Time wasters can be people or things. If we are going to deal with time wasters we have to be principled based on the understanding of our value of time. We will be misunderstood and criticized but we must base our principles and stand not on sentiments but on the fact that time can never be recycled, replaced or reserved. In this regard some of the steps that will have to be taken might sound harsh but understanding the value and perishable nature of time will justify whatever action that will be taken.
TO BE CONTINUED.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME Part 4
We have been looking at the importance of time. Time is an equalizer. Every human being has an equal portion daily. Each human being whether young or old, rich or poor, educated or illiterate each gets allotted twenty four hours per day. What we each do with our daily allotment of time determines the quality and quantity of our output in life. “Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life.” Michael LeBoeuf
We must guard our time and protect it from whatever will want to steal or squander it. We must watch out for time wasters.
Time wasters can be people or things. If we are going to deal with time wasters we have to be principled based on the understanding of our value of time. We will be misunderstood and criticized but we must base our principles and stand not on sentiments but on the fact that time can never be recycled, replaced or reserved. In this regard some of the steps that will have to be taken might sound harsh but understanding the value and perishable nature of time will justify whatever action that will be taken.
Private visits to offices are a time wasting exercise except in emergency or if there is any rare need to so pay private visits to an office should not last more than a couple of minutes. A private visitor is a time waster as his private purpose is a way of diminishing and distracting the office person from making maximum official benefit of his time. An office is for official matters and not for personal visits or for hawking and trading. Only a timer waster pays private visits to people’s offices. Private matters, except emergencies, are to be sorted out and attended to at private times like the break time or outside official hours. It amazes me when people just loaf around and “just stop by to say hello” for hours in peoples offices.
We need to also learn to deal with people who waste our time through verbosity. Valuable time is lost through rambling on and on without getting to the point. We must learn to politely but firmly make people who we open the door of discussion to go straight to the point. We must guide our time jealously and never allow people or situations to waste it.
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Carl Sandburg
People who are always late to appointments are time wasters. When people go late for meetings or come late for an appointment they are indirectly communicating that they do not value time and that the time of the people in the meeting is not valuable. To be late for a meeting without prior notice or apology is an outright show of lack of courtesy.
“People who are chronically tardy never understand the many ways in which they screw up the schedules of people who are punctual and ‘normal Lauren Kate.
One major advantage we have mobile phones to let people know in advance if we will be late for our scheduled meetings. It is annoying and an extreme lack of courtesy to see people saunter late into a meeting without rendering any apology and continue with the meeting as if all is well. “Promptitude is not only a duty, but is also a part of good manners; it is favorable to fortune, reputation, influence, and usefulness; a little attention and energy will form the habit, so as to make it easy and delightful.”
CONCLUDED.
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