‘‘You can always waste your money, and still bounce back by chance, but don’t joke with your time because the moment you waste your time, you have wasted your life.” Time is not just money but life! Don’t always assume you have all the luxury of time. No one can turn back the hands of time. Once it has passed, one can only remember the past experiences, then manage the present time and also look forward to a better tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, today is present and tomorrow is the future. An hour is not enough, if you can’t spend it judiciously let alone days, months and years.
According to Wikipedia, ‘‘Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. It is a juggling act of various demands of study, social life, employment, family and personal interests and commitments with the finiteness of time. Using time effectively gives the person ‘choice’ on spending/ managing activities at their own time and expediency.”
Everyone is a Time manager regardless of his/her education, profession and hobbies etc. it is not enough to have lofty dreams but it’s more applauding when these dreams have timeliness as regards their execution and realization. This prevents unnecessary wasting of precious time in a bid to fulfill our dreams. What happened to those beautiful dreams you had in your prime? Have you achieved any? It is also important to have a self evaluation so as to understand the root cause of your unrealized dreams.
It is obvious we cannot achieve all our lifetime goals at the same time. Therefore it is advisable to break them into daily goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals. Do you know the reason a lot of people hardly fulfill their new year’s resolution? The answer is simple: Procrastination! Do not postpone what needs to be done immediately till later time as you might not have such an opportunity again. Use your time wisely and maximize every opportunity!
The best time to do something is usually now! One of the Bruce Lee’s striking thoughts: ‘If you love life don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of ’. When you were younger, you probably had aspiration to write a book, have you achieved this dream despite your excellent writing skills? You might have an assumption that there is enough time in future. The bitter truth is that we will find it hard to achieve all our goals in life when we keep pilling them up for a supposedly ideal time! Do remember that time is ticking and it waits for no one.
What you are supposed to do today should not be postponed till tomorrow. You only have control over today as tomorrow might bring its own challenges and opportunities which need to be sorted out. If you cannot manage your own time then you should not be allowed to manage other people’s time. One of the attributes of a good manager is his/her ability to manage time well. An hour spent uselessly is an eternal loss. You would never get back the lost time therefore spend your time wisely. When it comes to achieving our life dreams, time management skill must be applied.
We all need to get rid of procrastination if we really want to achieve our goals in life. Let’s plan our daily activities carefully and stick to them in order of priority so as to achieve more. It is good to stay away from non-productive activities or people that consume our time. Unlike money, time is an ever available resource that cannot be stored or saved for later use. Let us learn how to spend our time wisely as this is the key to fulfillment.
-Kayode Ariba, LSSBB
Process Improvement Trainer
