Our Concept Of Time

The Farmer - Does time mean the same to everyone? There are many different
concepts of time. Think about the farmer who plants his crops and then must wait
patiently for them to grow so he can harvest them. To the farmer this is a normal
cycle but to others it may seem to drag on forever.

The Prisoner - A prisoner may sit in his cell counting the bars and waiting for
seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and even years to go by before he can
experience freedom. His concept of time is certainly unique.

The Lovers - Think about a young couple, deeply in love and cherishing the few
minutes they can spend together. Unlike the farmer and the prisoner, time flies by
much too fast for them.

Control? - The one thing we know about time is that we cannot control it. It moves
on ceaselessly no matter what we do. Whether we want time to move faster so we can
harvest our crops or experience freedom, or prefer it to slow down to have more time
with our loved ones, it remains constant.

Managing - Finally, it becomes clear, time cannot be controlled. The best we can
hope for is to manage it. Better management of your time is the objective of this
course.

Where does all the Time go - We all know that there are twenty-four hours in
each day. That certainly seems like a lot of time. So, why does it go by so quickly?
Why do we almost always run out of time before running out of projects to complete?
For an answer to that question, let’s break down that twenty-four hour day
realistically.

Not For Everyone - Before we start, realize that the time spans described here will
not apply to everyone, nor are they considered any ideal. I use them only to outline an
example and help you to understand how we use our time.

24 hours? - Obviously, we never really have twenty-four hours of time available to
accomplish the things we want to do. Since we all need sleep and should have at least
seven hours a day, there are only seventeen hours left. That still seems like a lot of
time but all of it is not available for productivity. Let’s look at just some basics that
most people can’t do without.

Adding It Up - Our bodily functions, bathing and dressing take at least one hour and
often more. We all need a little time to relax during the workday, and this usually
takes about an hour of our time. Time for family and friends varies with each person
and situation but definitely requires at least two hours. Adding this up leaves us about
thirteen hours.

In the interest of flexibility, an hour is added to this total making the maximum
realistic amount of time available for productivity only twelve hours.

Do you really have twelve hours available for productivity? It isn’t that simple and
there is much more to consider.