Overtime, time has been a very important factor in our day-to-day activities.The word TIME was defined by a popular American author Michael Gerber as just another word for life.From this,we could deduce that time is the most precious asset a man can ever have.
Playing
around on the internet may seem like a “valuable” activity but what “value” is
coming from it? We’re checking our email countless times a day, surfing the web
for useless information, and seemingly living our lives through social media.
We’re all guilty, to an extent, of these behaviors that interrupt constructive
efforts. They are known as intentional time wasters.
I know it’s
easy to get caught up in these activities because they don’t require us to
challenge ourselves with critical thinking and pass us through the day with
ease. Whether it’s YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, there is no risk of failure
involved in the cozy online world of social media. There are possibilities that
you may learn something knew or gain a nugget of information that may help your
profession, but it most certainly won’t happen as frequently as becoming a
doer. A person in the mix of real-life interactions and when I say real-life I
mean face-to-face communications that are focused on growing your professional
hard skills.
Not
everyone is born into a family with wealth, power and influence. That simple
"luck of the draw" may or may not result in success and happiness for
those born into affluence. But there is one gift given to each person that can
level the playing field if it is used correctly. Each person has the same 24
hours in a day. How you spend or invest that time each day is the paramount
factor.
If you
squander the money in your bank account, there is a high probability that you
can, at some point, replace the money. If you lose a car or a home because of
adverse circumstances (job loss, illness) or through poor money management of
your finances, you can, at some point, buy a new car or home. Most people
handle their finances responsibly and would not squander money needed to pay
the mortgage or car note. And, yet, some of those very same responsible people
squander the one asset that is most valuable and an asset that cannot be
replaced.
In fact,
Time is the ONLY asset we have that we cannot create more of… all we can do
with this relentlessly diminishing resource is choose how to spend it. Consider
this: the Time that it took you to read this is now gone forever.
Sorry if
that thought leaves you a bit glum, but consider… in a survey of 90 year olds
who were asked what they would do differently if they could live their lives
over, the most common answer was they would reflect more on how they were
spending their precious Time.
The real question we need to ask then is not “How much time do I
have?”, but “How will I spend the time I have?” While it’s true that we cannot
control how we spend every moment of every day, it’s equally true that how we
spend the time is still largely a matter of choice: we can choose to be
disorganized, reactive and ineffective—or we can choose to be organized,
focused and productive.
Poor time
management is largely a matter of habit. But effective time management is also
a matter of habit, and having some proven tools and processes certainly helps.
There is
plenty of information available on time management. Folks with the best of
intentions routinely fail, though. The problem is usually in two
areas…Implementation and Accountability.
The most
common Implementation error is simply trying to do too much, too soon. Habits
are hard to break because our subconscious resists change in our established
patterns of behavior. One technique I’d suggest is to fool your own mind by
introducing changes in such small doses that your subconscious doesn’t notice.
For example, if you decide to wake up every day 1 hour earlier than you have
been, set your alarm for 1 minute earlier the first day, 2 minutes earlier the
second day, etc. At the end of 2 months (60 days) you’ll be in the habit of
rising one hour earlier.
Accountability
is established by working with your business coach on goal setting, with a
check-in on progress and results every month or on some other schedule. Your
subconscious has no problem derailing you when its just you, but your conscious
mind will take over and keep you on track if you need to report back to a 3rd
party.
In
Just
remember, if time is life, isn’t getting more from your time the same as
getting more from your life ? Where else could you find a better payback for
your effort
STATISTICS
on Time-Wasters (pingdom.com):
90 Trillion
emails sent on the internet in 2009
500 billion
minutes per month people spend on Facebook
14.6
billion YouTube videos watched in May
2 billion
tweets per month on Twitter
BY WOLI
KHALIL OKIKIOLA
DEPARTMENT
OF ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY
OF ILORIN.
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