Time is your most valuable currency — Not the dollar, euro or pound. The latter can be devalued — Not time. Time will be to you what you want it to be. To those who understand and use it to their advantage, it will be a friend. But to those who misuse and abuse it, it will be an enemy. The good news here is that it doesn’t have to be that way. There are two pains in life — The pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The pain of discipline weighs ounces while the pain of regret weighs tonnes. Which would you rather choose?
“Time will be to you what you want it to be.”
I have misused and abused time like many of you have. We all procrastinate and push forward into tomorrow what we should have done yesterday. Someone once said that, “Today is the Tomorrow you once dreamed of Yesterday.” I totally agree with that. Procrastination creates anxiety and brings unnecessary stress and worry into one’s life. Little wonder the famous maxim describes it as “the thief of time.” I have always wondered to myself, why it’s so difficult for me to read months ahead of an exam rather than wait for a few days to engage in the usual shenanigans of drinking Coca-Cola, coffee or energy drinks to keep me awake.
“Procrastination creates anxiety and brings unnecessary stress and worry into one’s life.”
As a kid growing up, I always heard the phrase, “Time will tell”, from my parents when they admonished us for acting out of order, in a bid to let us know that the compound effect of our actions was bounded in time. And yes time truly does tell! I remember my days as a freshman at the University. Since transcripts and results were kept personal, there was no way of telling if your friends were acing their courses (like they claimed they did) because we all moved from level to the next. The only way you could know if someone was doing well was if you saw them during the convocation ceremony and even when some people still faked their way into the convocation ceremony, the convocation booklets ratted them out! Time eventually reveals all things.
So what’s the secret to staying on top of things and getting the best out of this time-bound world in which we live in? The answer is found in how you plan and spend your daily 24. Listen to this, “If you repeated today every day for the next year, realistically, where would you end up?” Take some time to think through this question because in it lies the answer to what has been holding you back — Not your poor grandma in the village. It amazes me that many people have time to plan vacations, birthdays and weddings but allow themselves to drift through their days, Binge-Watching Netflix, and spending countless hours browsing through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
“If you repeated today every day for the next year, realistically, where would you end up?”
You need to seize control of time and make it work in your favor. So how about having a picture of what your ideal day should look like and then allocating time slices to the things you really want to accomplish? Winners act like winners before they start winning. If you’re not acting like a winner today, you won’t be a winner tomorrow. Let me give you an example to guide you. Let’s assume your goal is to become a professional Web/Mobile Application Developer. This is a framework that will work for any field regardless of whether you are employed or unemployed.
YOUR IDEAL DAY TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL WEB/MOBILE APP DEVELOPER.
TOTAL TIME ALLOCATED = 14 Hours
These are the things that I must do everyday in order to achieve my goal. Look again at the total time allocated. It comes up to 14hours out of 24 meaning that we still have 10hours left! Assume again that you work a full-time job, yes the 9 to 5 grind, that will take 8hours out of the remaining 10 and you’ll still be left with 2hours. Let’s call the 2hours “fool-around” time. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you can successfully “fool-around” for 2hours everyday, work for 8 hours and hold down the remaining 14hours of your day for the things you have purposed to do, in 10years time I guarantee that you will standout amongst your peers. Question! How do I incorporate these 14hours or whatever number I have decided to take charge of into my day?
Winners act like winners before they start winning. If you’re not acting like a winner today, you won’t be a winner tomorrow.