Time :What is Time? Power in Time.
Achievements which one attains in life must have taken sometime before they were achieved. How that time was consumed and spent might be the key factor that led to the person achieving. Achievers are planners of time and they use all methods to manage their time. Failing to plan is planning to fail and definitely those who plan, plan to succeed. So planning for one’s time is a measure of one’s achievement. Our ambitions in life should be SMART and the last T means they should be time bound and this translates that our achievements are time bound.
Many of those who fail in life do not manage, plan or spend their time properly. This leads to them misusing time and finally they do not have enough time to cultivate for their ambitions so that they can achieve. Achievers are time managers and they have management skills. Good time managers achieves as companies which are led by good managers eg Equity Bank achieves. So the big question is; how do I become a good time manager??
Let us look for ways to make us good time managers.
WAYS OF BECOMING GOOD TIME MANAGER
1. Having a personal timetable
Personal timetable should include all events which a person does in 24 hours of the day and 7days of the week. Many of us in school includes only academics in our personal timetable but within the week a person does not only study but also do non-academical activities. These activities should be included in our personal timetable. This method ensures that time is well managed and nothing is left behind.
Time theory of achieving
One boy by the name Kimarua was a poor performer in school. His biggest challenge was mismanaging time. He was reading hard but he couldn’t pass exams.
One day Kimarua decided to meet his class teacher to discuss the issue. He told his class teacher that he was a sportsman and he was reading hard on top of that but his grades were not pleasing. His class teacher asked him whether he has a personal timetable and Kimarua said no. His teacher advised him that for him to perform and achieve he has to have a personal timetable. Kimarua did as his teacher directed him to do and hence forth Kimarua’s grades started changing positively. He was pleased and he advised his fellow students that for you to achieve a personal timetable is mandatory and not optional.
This time theory address various time aspects namely time management, time consuming and finally time achievement.
Looking at Kimaruas situation Time management was the personal timetable which Kimarua structured for himself. Time consumption was how Kimarua spent his time may be in sports or academics or any other activity. Finally time achievement was how Kimaruas grades started changing in positive manner.
Time management is a skill where one controls his or her time. Achievements ought to be measured in a manner which addresses time aspect.
2. Developing a self-drive attitude
Being self-driven means that no one forces you to do things which you are supposed to be doing. Definitely this is created where one has self-discipline. Discipline means doing what one is supposed to do but not doing what one feels is convenient to be done. Time managers do whatever they are supposed to do as it reads in their personal timetable. This translates that they drive themselves and they do not wait for supervision as their supervisor is their time. Whenever a person want to achieve a certain dream he or she sets a certain period of time so that he can be able to achieve the ambition. During this time three things may happen namely; achieve before time elapses, achieve within the time allocated or extend the time. The third outcome is as a result of not being self-driven.
So for each an every person no matter you are a lawyer, doctor, businessman or a student we need to be time managers. Many students have big ambitions in life but most of them do not achieve their dreams because they have a big challenge of time management. This country vision 2030 needs people and personnel who will manage their time well since between now and 2030 there is time and it the way through which we manage this time that Kenya will achieve its ambition.
Looking at our title ‘time as a factor to determine ones achievement’ then from our explanation above we can tell that every second counts and time need to be managed well.
To comprehend this fully we need to look at two theories where time is a factor determining ones achievement.
GOLD THEORY OF SUCCESS
This theory explains an experience where four gold diggers uses their time and how they manage their time and their outcomes.
It happens that a land owner whose land has gold in it brings four people to dig the gold. The land owner gives the gold diggers a certain period of time and tell them that the person who shall have gotten the gold shall be paid for the good work he shall have done.
The land owner leaves and the four gold diggers starts digging. The first person starts digging but he misuses his time by doing other things due to lack of personal timetable. He also spends a lot of time preparing himself that is sharpening the jembe and cleaning the spade. The second person starts digging but he finds it tiring when he continues digging. He looks at his friend number one and compares himself with him and he finally give up. The third person digs somehow deep in the ground but in the process he loses consistency and he starts digging slowly. His friends number one and two encourages him to continue being lazy. But the fourth person digs continuously. Whenever his friends discourages him he closes his ears. He prepares early for digging that is sharpening his jembe and cleaning the spade so that he does not waste time. He has a personal timetable and he follows it to the letter. His personal timetable contains every activity he does in the seven days of the week and twenty four hours a day. Finally the time keeper who is the land owner finally comes and finds only the fourth person has gotten the gold and he buys the gold expensively rewarding the person. He further congratulates the person for showing up and doing something good and achieving amongst the others.
What can we learn from this theory?
Gold is very expensive and it is compared to success ones get after achieving ones ambition. This gold is located so many meters underground as well as success. This success to be gotten one need to manage time like the fourth person who managed his time. Success is only for those who have chosen to get it like we see the fourth person choosing not to listen to his friend’s discouragements. Listening to discouragements is wasting time because no personal timetable has a section of listening to discouragements. The second person compares himself with the first person and by doing so he wastes a lot of time and this leads to his failure. Comparing yourself with another person makes you to waste a lot of time and this reduces your time of accomplishing your plans towards achievement.
So in conclusion we can confidently say that time is a basic element of measuring ones achievement.
The big question you should ask yourself which kind of gold digger are you in your current setting?
Are you the first gold digger who never got the gold?
Are the second gold digger who did not get the gold?
Are you the third gold digger who never got the gold?
Or are you a time manager who is like the fourth gold digger who got the gold?
ANSWER IS PERSONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SPRINGBOARD THEORY
This theory explains about time elements and how we manage our time as we are assigned tasks by our administrators e.g. when a teacher or a lecturer assigns students assignments and expect them to do it by a certain time.
The theory goes that a certain rich man buys two springboard and assigns two different people to maintain the springs of the boards. Each person was assigned his spring board and the owner of the springboard gave them a specific time to undertake the task.
The first person greased and oiled the springs only once and went to relax. The second person oiled and greased the springs of his board. He further went ahead to try and practice whether the springs could work by trying to jump on the board to test whether the springs could perform a nice compression. He went on oiling and greasing the springboard regularly. Finally the owner came to see whether the springboards had been maintained and he asked the two people to do a simple test to prove to him that they had been maintaining their springboards. He told them to step on the board to see whether the springs were in order. The first person step and he pressed the springs but the springs could not function since they had rust. The second person pressed the springs and the springs produced a fine compression and he jumped so high in the air since the springs were functioning well. The owner of the springboards rewarded the second person for the good work.
Avenue to success need to be maintained. All springs need to be oiled for effective operations. The first person relaxed and by doing so he wasted time of doing some operations which could have been accelerating him towards his success. Everyone walking or driving along the avenue to success need not to relax until you get to the destination.
A form one student who is performing should not relax since he or she have not gotten to the destination. A standard four child should not relax until he or she gets to the destination. A businessman or any other person with any ambition and is driving along the avenue to success need to outdo laziness and relaxation.
In learning environment as we focus it the above theories can be explained as the components used
Due to this let us focus on the power the word time has. There is power of winning and power of failure in the word time. It is due to time that young people grows to maturity and country’s economy grows.
POWER IN THE WORD TIME…………………….
Time to many people is a factor that determines their destiny. In defining the word time it means moments or periods which passes and in collaboration with the factor of durability time is experienced.
Time has an element of spending in it. People may spend their time well while other will spend their time so bad. Through this a difference occurs between people because the difference between successful people and failures is the way each one of them spent their time. That means there is power of winning in the word time and contrary there is power of failing in the word time.
For Example; Each an every human being was born in a certain time and after that due to time………and the power in the word time……….there is growth and development of the baby to an adult.
I remember when I was in high school in Form one, one of my friend called Mr Roy was poor in mathematics but this boy happened to sit down and look forward about his life ahead. He realized that poor time management was a key factor that was contributing to his failure in Mathematics but he resolved that he was going to spend his time well and he believed through that he was going to win the battle since there is power of winning in the word time.
To many youths nowadays they don’t control time they are controlled by time. Most of them don’t do what they are supposed to do but they do what they feel is convenient for them to do at that particular time. Example; When a university student is given an assignment or homework they don’t do it but on top of that they are controlled by the time due of the assignment. Electronics nowadays have been consuming like around seventy percent of the youths. Social media have been the main avenue of time wastage amongst the youths.
Time power is misused and this lead to the generation growing weak as time management issue is concerned. Time has the power to overturn events to various outcomes.
So as we conclude this topic and chapter, let us ask ourselves the following questions;
· Am I a good time manager?
· What do I need to improve my time management skills?
· Really do I have a SMART personal timetable?
· Finally which kind of gold digger am I?
Self-Assesment Test on the time management skill.
This is a test where an individual (the book reader) evaluates on his or her time usage. The evaluation is strongly based on the fact and an aim of improving ones time management skills. Most of us as we discussed earlier we need a constant evaluation to analyze our time usage and incorporate some of the missing features in our life style.
A test is given or administered with an aim of improving skills or even promoting perfection.
The following is the time self-assessment test,
1. Do I really spend my time on useful things?
2. Do I need to sharpen my time management skills?
3. Iam affected by my friends activities hence they control me such that I cannot be able to manage my time?
4. Iam the likes of lazy people who always stay in their comfort zones?
5. Do I require a personal assistant to manage my time or secretary? (This is specifically to the executive).
6. Which of these theories described in this book talking about time management is easy for me to embrace?
7. Do I sometime use my time in emergency things? Do I have the ability of time compensation. In this case I mean that, sometimes we find ourselves in some emergency situations and we need to compensate our time by creating time to replace the time used off. Some situations for example in school we need to weigh them before deciding whether to do them or not.
For example if there is a certain Maths Contest you have to attend on a particular Saturday, and according to your timetable you have allocated entertainment as Saturday event you need not to replace the lost time of entertainment with academics time. But if academics time was affected, then you need to plan well and effectively for you to replace the lost time. This happens to students who are in sports and other co-curricular activities in school. Whenever they attend any event, they need to know first things first and the first thing in school is academics. If any event comes along, they need to plan to replace the lost time.
For you to consider replacing the lost time, you need to do comparison of the most considered activity and the least considered activity.
The most considered activity also known as the co-business need to replace time for the least considered activity. Entertainment time can be used to compensate academics time that is during weekends you need to use the entertainment time to catch up with the teacher.
Some the famous quotes about time-management which you need to put in your finger-tips to constantly remind you about time-management importance.
1. The difference between the successful people and the failures is how the two used their time. Here you should refer back to our sub-topic which is power in the word time.
