We all know how precious time is. It is the only resource that no matter how rich or how poor you are, everyone has the same amount. What you decide to do with it is entirely up to you. The rich have the luxury to employ or outsource duties to other people while they use their time for whatever they want. Workers exchange time for a salary. It is an interesting construct, time. At the end of everything, everybody dies. I aim to leave behind a legacy before I go. Everyone has their own life goals. Whether you’re rich, poor, tall, short, smart, or not so smart. God has given everyone the same 24 hours. I’ve been doing some thinking lately. This post is about the energy that we have and how much time we allocate it and to which side. A social experiment can be made out of this but that’s a story for another day. My focus is on how much we distribute our energies and time to one thing ahead of another.
The 100 Rule
This is not a rule per se but let us imagine we are given 100 points to distribute among things we decide to put more focus on. Let’s say each skill takes a total of 30 points. We can choose to spread 10 points over 10 skills. That will mean you will have little knowledge of 10 specific skills. Not enough to make significant money out of, to be honest. Then you could go the middle route and learn 5 skills by sharing 20 points each. You’ll have zero ideas about the other 5 skills but you’ll be a pro in 5 skills. You can then make money by working for someone or yourself. You can choose the final option where you master 3 skills and use the last 10 on something else. You’ll be ahead of the majority in the world in that skill and that can fetch you top dollar. This analogy explains how time spent doing something sharpens your ability or knowledge in that thing. If you spend time sleeping, you’ll know a lot more about sleeping. If you spend the most time on social media, you’ll know more about the dynamics. That’s life.
The Daily Plan
This discusses how we spend our day and what we spend our day doing. Are we proud of the things that consume our time? I’m guilty here as social media can easily steal time from your life. This goes hand in hand with the 100 rule but the main difference is it talks about what your daily activities look like. Do you wake up early? How much time do you spend on mundane activities? What do you accomplish on a daily? Are you on a schedule? To be honest, anytime I try putting myself on a schedule I break bounds easily. I’m now trying to lay a few tasks to be achieved each day and I’m already failing. Good use of time takes a lot of discipline and effort.
Meaningfulness of time/efficient use.
There is one thing about time that many people do not pay enough attention to. It is a meaningful usage of it. Certain people in offices have made it their specialty to appear super busy every single time but when you look at the output, it doesn’t match at all. You can study for 10 hours but if you don’t understand or consume what you read then the time use has been meaningless. It is up to us to know what makes us the most productive and at what time are we the most productive. It’s not about who appears to work the hardest but who works the smartest. You may appear to not be doing much if you’re working for someone but when you leave or start working for yourself then you’re more than likely to notice.
Background passive/active time usage
This focuses on the amount of focus we use put in our time. Let me illustrate an example. You can listen to music without doing anything else. That’s active time usage where all your focus is on the song. Also, the music could be playing in the background while you perform a more arduous task. In this instance, you’re passively listening to music. There are a few things that may be done both passively and actively.
