If you are the impatient type, I will let you know that my 5 recommendations are at the end of this post . I couldn't in good conscience write a piece on the effective use of time and force you to read a bunch of fluff now could I ? I would suggest reading the recommendations first, and when you have the time to do so, go back and read the rest of my post. Unless you have time now, in which case, please proceed.
When you're a child the last thing that you have on your mind is time. You do what you want, until your parents tell you otherwise. Being in the role of a parent, I've come to realize that sometimes that doesn't work smoothly if the child in question, decides to put their mind into not wanting to comply.
As you grow older, your routines develop with you. Your first experiences in school often show that there are certain times for class, times scheduled to eat and probably most importantly times scheduled for play. This theme for time use follows us through college and afterwards into the workplace. Even though it's never really taught, it is something people intuitively pick up.
I hadn't really thought about time until I was a teenager. Science fiction had me asking a lot of questions about it but I still wasn't sure about how important it was. In Phillip K Dick's novel that became the movie Blade Runner, there are artificially created robots, called replicants, who as a safety protocol, have specific dates when their functioning ends. In essence, they die. Being very sophisticated to act like people they become very attached (as we do) to the idea of being alive, and they don't want it to end. When you realize that all of our end games eventually will result with the same outcome, you start to realize how important time is to you.
Then there are the real scientists. In eighth grade I was told in a class that time travel was possible. I heard these words very skeptically, but it was true, even if no one was able to do it, we knew how. As you approach the speed of light, time speeds up. So if there was a person on earth and they gave a person boarding a space ship, a watch that was synchronized to theirs, if that space ship could go very fast and return, the persons watch on the space ship would be different than the one on earth. I was amazed. Time travel could only go in one direction, but we knew it was possible, and someday if we get space ships that can near the speed of light it may happen on a regular basis. Try not to let this ruin all of the episodes of Star Wars for you. For that purpose, just pretend light speed doesn't do anything so Luke, Han and Leah can all be on the same clock.
So far scientists haven't been able to figure out a formula or a process to go backwards in time, except in the movies like Back To The Future, and unfortunately Doc Brown never got around to publishing any papers on the matter, but I digress. There are theories that by using black hole time may be able to be altered, but again these are just theories.
Stephen Hawking had a more practical experiment regarding time travel, he threw a party, for time travelers. He had champagne and hors d'oeuvres, and didn't send out the invitations until after the fact. Wait, what ? The idea being that this event would be widely published after the fact, that if any time travelers had read about it they would have made an effort to show up. Sadly, none did, that we know of.
So if you've made it this far in the reading I applaud you and I'll give you my thoughts on what you need to make use of your time effectively:
1 ~ Remember it's not how much time you spend on a task that's important it's how much time you need to complete it. If you need X amount of time but are given 3X, then don't sit on your thumbs for the extra time, work on something else. I always preferred teachers who gave a test and excused you after you were done. The ones who made you sit at your desk until the bell rang weren't allowing you to effectively use your time and in essence that was a bad habit they were creating.
2 ~ Some people don't relax well, they always want to be busy, and that's okay, but it is important to schedule some time for yourself. Whether that means reading a book, working out or meditating you need to make sure you and your body are getting what it needs. This was a good lesson most of us intuitively learned in our early years. We always knew when recess was, and lunchtime and bed.
3 ~ Is what you are doing as a career actually worth your time ? This is a question that people too frequently do not ask, but may actually be the most important. Many people would like a pay raise, or supplemental income, but after the basics are covered and we have most of our needs met, we don't think about it again. If you are unhappy with your job or your career, don't quit on the spot, but start working on what you can do to change it.
4 ~ Time seems to be a more precious commodity the older you are. The saying "time is wasted on the youth" is an interesting one because it causes you to think, "have I been using my time in life effectively ?" When you're older or retired you would like to do all of the things you haven't done yet, but if you've gotten too old to do them., you may have already missed out. This goes back to the question you should be asking yourself, "am I making enough time for me?" If nothing else, it may make you think, should I be playing Candy Crush or working on my resume.
5 ~ My last thought is that you should spend time with people you care about, and don't waste your time on people or things that aren't rewarding to you or worse have a negative effect. There are exceptions here but if it's something you can't eliminate, try to minimize. I had a colleague who told me that I would love being a father, because it was the greatest thing he ever did. He is a fairly successful individual and to rationalize that made me think consciously to make the decision, I will focus on how important spending time with my children is. He was right, and it's my favorite part of the day. My wife and I try to enjoy every moment we can with them and personally I think that we should all be striving for this step in evaluating how we use time. It is certainly the most rewarding.
