Time is indeed the most precious resource we have, yet a good number of people around the world spend it in a manner that devalues the true worth of time.
Yesterday, whilst I was on the phone with my sister, she sounded sad and concerned about the fate of her exams.
She had just completed an online exam in one of her engineering courses in a prestigious London University, but was unable to submit her work within the allocated time. “Sis, I don’t know what to do, the time was too short and the online platform got automatically shutdown at the end of my exam and I just wasn’t able to submit my work before it happened. Oh my God, I am going to get a Zero for non submission. What am I going to do now?”
I felt genuinely felt sorry for my sister as she cried out to me in despair, and I asked her to immediately email the school to inform them of her predicament, which she did.
Before you wonder why I am telling this story, this is where it becomes interesting. All afternoon and evening my sister was so moody and thought she had failed her exams for not being able to submit in time.
However, there was light at the end of the tunnel because of one simple gesture. As soon as the platform got shutdown, she managed to email her work to the professor in question and the school IT department. When she woke up the next morning, her professor had replied. ” Dear student, thank you for sending in your work. The university’s cutoff time is 3.05pm and your work came in at 3.04pm, therefore, on this occasion your work shall be graded.”
That email brought a smile back to her face, as she hurriedly called me to share the professor’s response with me. She was elated!
This short story is important to the theory of time management because of the snowball effect that a one minute delay would have done to her life. Scoring a zero would have meant, not meeting her objective for an exceptional performance in her first year, in order to apply for fully funded scholarships.
Time management is critical success factor.
If we are honest to ourselves, we would agree that we have often fallen prey of staying on the phone much longer after receiving a message.
This then births a perfect breeding ground to go out of topic and stray into gossip.
When you we use our time so inefficiently, when do we work on our goals and the things that add value to our lives.
The only way to become financially independent is to master the use of your time.
“Time is the top resource given by God to every single human being completely free of any form of charge.
We all have 24 hours which cannot be spent in advance or accumulated, rather, It has to be spent as you live and breathe. How we use our time is what differentiates the rich from the poor and the game changing factor.
If you’d like to find out how to manage your time efficiently, kindly read this article of time management techniques.
I shall conclude this piece with this powerful quote from the first influential economist Peter F. Drucker.
Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else
Peter F. drucker
