As life get busy and as we grow older, TIME seems short, and is constantly moving faster than we can catch up. For the next couple of days I will be discussing Time Management here .. something that i am striving to get a handle on.
This excerpt from a poem attributed to T.H. Wells- possibly tells how we view time.
When as a child I laughed and wept, Time CREPT.
When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time STROLLED.
When I became a full-grown man, Time RAN.
When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW.
Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time GONE.
Time is that one resource that we share equally; no one has more than the other, yet we achieve differently with the same amount of time. 24 hours a day is what we all get and for most people (at least for me) it feels like it is not enough. Managing time effectively therefore can dictate your achievement and the level of excellence.
The old cliché “time is money” is very true. However, it is hard sometimes to quantify the value of time but TIME is certainly and truly a precious resource.
While time might be quantified in monetary value, and we are to be good stewards of time as a resource that God has given us, if we are not careful, we can fall into the trap and a mindset which sees time strictly from the performance and productivity standpoint – being the ultimate goal; and lose the capacity to simply enjoy ourselves, our families, and other opportunities that God gives us every day.
Time is different from money because you can recover money if it’s lost, but you cannot recover lost time.
Value of Time
This table illustrates the value of an hour saved annually
| Annual Income |
Hourly Pay |
Daily Pay |
An hour per day in a year is worth |
| $25,000 | $13 | $104 | $3,120 |
| $50,000 | $26 | $208 | $6,240 |
| $75,000 | $39 | $313 | $9,360 |
| $100,000 | $52 | $417 | $12,480 |
| $125,000 | $65 | $520 | $15,600 |
| $150,000 | $78 | $625 | $18,720 |
| * This is based on a 240 working days in a year and an 8 hour work-day- rounded off to the whole numbers. | |||
This assumes that one has a ‘paying’ job, but some other things that we do with our time cannot be directly quantified into money.
The bible reminds us of the need to redeem time:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16)
Some Characteristics of Time
- Time is LIMITED
- Time can be SPENT
- Time is PASSING.
- Time can be WASTED
Tomorrow we look at Time Management Part II – Setting Priorities
Do you think time is quantifiable?
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I think time is definitely quantifiable, but not always in terms of money.
Time well spent could be:
– Reading a good book
– Catching up with a loved one
– R&R
These things may not effect your bottom dollar, but will impact your health, social well-being, mental state, etc.
Thanks Lakita!
Realizing the value of time -not necessarily in monetary form, should sensitize us to spend it wisely and on things that matter most – and those things that add value to our lives.
You’re on to something with this Joe. Most of us tend to measure life mostly in terms of money. When you do that, life works a certain way, ie, time and people just aren’t as important as making an accumulating enough money.
But shift to assigning a higher value to time and your whole perspective changes. Suddenly, it isn’t all about money, and not to implicate money as unimportant, but time really is more important. By realizing that time is a limited commodity–most of us are only here for 70, 80, maybe 90 years–converts it into something much more important than money.
If money is the center, than time is almost worthless; the only thing that matters is how much money we can convert time into. Time on the other hand, represents the unit of measure of our very lives. That’s much more important than money. It may not be THE most important, but it’s most definately more important than money.