Meet Time: Your Best Friend & Greatest Enemy

The world’s most successful people, as well as the world’s most unproductive people, each have 24 hours in a day. Often though, students wonder how some individuals are able to get so much done and others, nearly nothing done. Why is this? The blame often goes to time, with common statements such as “I have no time” or “I’m just too busy”.

BREAK IT DOWN:

However, time is not the issue; rather it is how we use it. Time is both your best friend, and greatest enemy, depending on how you want to take advantage of it. Ensuring that you are being your most productive self (which can be hard to do all of the time, so strive for most of the time as yes, we are only human), allows individuals as a whole to get more done and thus, more ahead with their own personal or academic goals.

If used incorrectly, time can be your greatest enemy. Procrastination and using time poorly often results in a lack of time that is used efficiently or to the maximum, leading to stressful situations and perhaps disappointing results. Using all of your time, wisely, helps to avoid situations like these.

IT’S POSSIBLE TO OVER-COMMIT: THE PIE ANALOGY

The same goes for “overly busy” people. Time is often not the issue, but instead rather is spread out over so many things, that there is limited time dedicated to each thing - resulting in less work being done. Use the analogy of a pie - if all of the time in a day is a whole pie, and you have 100 different things to do, you’re spreading your pie out into 100 different slices - leaving little pie for each thing. Conversely, if you have fewer things to do, more time can be allocated towards each individual task - rendering a more productive day or week.

It’s important to prioritize what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. If you spread yourself out too thin (in attempt of doing as much as possible), you may not be doing as much as you think you are. In fact, this may even be considered as counter-productive. Dedicate your time to the most important things in your life (school, a club, family, time to destress, etc.), and be sure that you have enough time to fully contribute to whatever it is you are committing to. If you find yourself running out of time, re-evaluate your “pie distribution”. Remember, as David Allen once said, “you can do ANYTHING, but not EVERYTHING”!

On the bright-side, time can also be your ally. Though it doesn’t wait for anyone, taking advantage of the early morning, lunch breaks, or even just being as productive as possible will help to save some of the precious time in a day. If you use it wisely, you’ll see that there actually is more than enough time to get everything done.

So get started on what you need to do - the clock is ticking!