When time goes past you.

When time goes past you.

How many time have we been brushed aside by the changes brought about by time? Even when we stay afoot of happenings, time has a way of creeping past us, without us being aware of it. This is especially true in the new realms of technology. Isn’t it disturbing when you discover that the state of the art gadget that you purchased barely months ago is deemed obsolete by your next door neighbour, when he purchased a vastly advanced version of the same gadget, today? This is the trick of technology. The same could be said about information too. What was news yesterday is not even valid today. I daresay, when they come together as Information Technology, the lesser said the better.

However what catches you, in the worst possible manner is the realization that the time you spent thus far, in the sense that time is a resource, has not been well invested. Often people fail to understand that time is a resource because it is intangible and every day, the clock turns the same way. This for sure creates a sense of redundancy of time in our lives. This is a grave misconception of time. Time as a resource is the worst managed and least studied or understood. It is the lack of this understanding that results in the worst investment of time.
We often find ways of making up excuses for the way we spend our time. Sometimes, we do not even bother to do that, with the conceit that your time is yours and needs no justification. Have you ever said to someone “Sorry, I don’t have time”? Yes for sure because without time you cannot do anything. Reason number one, keep time because it is a resource and more importantly a scarce resource. Time once lost can never be regained.

As all resources time is limited. Let us not argue that time has always been there and will be there after us! The time here is our time to live and do things. That time is limited. If you have ninety years to live you probably have only three to four decades more to accomplish all that you want and anything that will come your way. This implies that you have to do the most in the least of time you can.

Reason number two for you to keep time is that time is money. I’m sure you may be asking yourself what is the conversion factor? Or 1 minute equals how many dollars? To understand this, consider people who are paid for working hours. They usually have an hourly rate. Or when you take your car to a service station and they charge you the materials and labour indicated in man hours. This should make you understand the money value of time. This conversion factor is not uniform or equal for everyone. When you need an eminent person for public speaking, his hourly rate is surely very high compared to the mechanic who services your car.

I said earlier that our time is very limited in the sense that the time we have to live is limited and it is the only time we have to do everything we need to do. We look at time relative to our activities at a day’s level. A day is only 24 hours and for sure because sleeping is mandatory we don’t have the whole day for our activities. With the recommended 8 to 9 hours of sleep daily, an active day remains with only 15 to 16 hours. I used to tell my students who often complained that there was no enough time to study that a day will remain 24 hours long. This is another reason we need to make the most out of the little limited time we get.
Let me end up here that time management is a behaviour we need to adapt to be successful in keeping our time. Let us not allow time to pass us by.