CHARACTER OF THE TIME KEEPER

As a junior secondary school three student, I was appointed the school time regulator or what was informally called Bell Ringer. This meant that I was to call students and staff to the assembly ground, announce break time and resumption as well as any other form of call to action by ringing the bell. It was a position that demanded a lot from me, yet had no special privileges or rewards. Though just a teenager then, as I view it from hindsight today, I see some characters that helped me succeed. I also imagine that the position may have laid the foundation for the attitude of time consciousness I have today.

SELFLESSNESS

Many people have been known not to keep to time, especially in Africa. They even have what they term, ‘African time’. This refers to being at liberty to attend a meeting or an event at one’s preferred time other than the fixed time for that event. What happens is that you are then known to always be late. Some people call you habitual late-comer, others describe you with expressions as: ‘does he ever come early?’
The bottom-lime is that you have become increasingly selfish.   You do not think that your lateness to events affects other people’s time and schedules. A time-keeper i.e. someone who keeps to time, shows selflessness. He has grown beyond thinking about his convenience to acting for the sake of others also. If you must be a time conscious person, you must develop the character of selflessness.

HONESTY

A time conscious person is honest. It means that the person attends to events when the event should be attended to. If you are a time conscious person, people would expect to see you attend an appointment at exactly the time it was scheduled to hold. When you tell someone that you would do something at a particular time, the person would not be in doubt of your ability to keep to your promise. This is closely related to trustworthiness.
Artisans are fond of giving appointment and not keeping to it. When a Carpenter says he would deliver your table on a particular date and fails to deliver, he simply seeks various excuses to justify his inability to deliver. It would be nice if he explained at least a day before the scheduled date that he would not meet up as scheduled and ask for more time, giving definite alternative date. A time-keeper would rather inconvenience himself to meet an appointment, than seek reasons to justify failing to meet it.

RESPECT FOR OTHERS

This has to do with having courteous regard for other people’s feelings. This is an area we seem to be overlooking in dealing with time. It is the motive behind selflessness. It is important to realize that everyone wants to be recognized as being important. When we deal with people, we should realize that everyone young and old deserves respect. So it does not matter who we are and who we are dealing with, keeping to time demands respect for other people.
For instance, if a spouse normally gets home at a particular time of the day daily, he ought to inform the other partner whenever anything would lead to his coming home late. If he failed to do so, he should be humble enough to apologize if and when the partner demands explanation at home. It is lack of respect for the spouse and possibly the children if you simply stay beyond normal time and just get home expecting not to be accosted with queries to explain your late return home, either by the children or the spouse.
Likewise when you attend a meeting late, it could mean that you do not respect other people who may have been there at the scheduled time neither do you have respect for the institution that scheduled the event for that time.

ACCOUNTABILITY

A time-keeper is accountable. This means being willing to take responsibility for your actions before someone. It is the character of accountability that motivates you to be trustworthy. Knowing that he will have to report factually the activities that happened at an event, a journalist must be there before the event begins, to capture the moments as things unfold. Also knowing that you have your spouse and children to explain to for getting home late, the man would endeavour to work on his schedules and be home early or call home to explain or literally take permission from the family to stay away longer than expected.

PRECISION

This has to do with accuracy of actions. Anyone who must keep to time must learn to be precise in whatever they do. It requires proper knowledge of assignments with a view to finding easier ways of achieving results without compromising standards. It also means that there should be standards in place which everyone must adhere to. These standards should then guide actions and ensure they are taken accurately. Precision is achieved when action is measured in line with set standards.
When you work with precision in focus, you will plan your tasks based on the time available to you. When you plan based on available time, you will be bound to work within that time frame. You will discover that you would even save time and yet achieve exactly the standard you were expected to achieve.

EXECLLENCE

This is having the quality of goodness. It is often said that excellence is a journey not a destination. May I also add that excellence is an attitude not a habit. It is an attitude that should become a character. If you are excellence minded person, you would strive to keep to time no matter the cost. Excellence mindedness is having the character of wanting things to be done in order and of good quality. You hate mediocrity and keep working at it until you overcome it and achieve excellence in most areas of your life.

DILIGENCE

This has to do with making positive effort in the right direction. It is hard work in the right direction. Keeping to time is hard work. It demands brain and physical tasks. A lazy person cannot keep to time. A lazy person procrastinates; a diligent person takes action in the right direction. The willingness to act and achieve results comes from the willingness to meet with scheduled events. The lazy person is not mindful of the need to meet with scheduled event, so he procrastinates.

COURAGE

This is about acting in the presence of fear. Fear is a negative emotion that seeks to stop you from acting on the basis of imaginary danger. It is often described as false evidence appearing real. Courage is deciding to act in spite of those imaginations of danger. When there is an interfering event, seeking to stop you from keeping to time, your ability to break through such event and keep to time as required is courage.

INNOVATIVENESS

This is the character of finding new or better ways of doing things. This involves ensuring that maintaining status quo in modus operandi does not become a reason to make you late. Instead research into processes and find a better or new way to do it and achieve same or better results.  

 

It takes consistency to be known for keeping time; it takes persistence to begin keeping time. Everything begins with a decision. If you don’t get tired of lateness, you won’t learn to keep to time. Let someone be surprised you made it early today, then disappoint the person by making it earlier tomorrow.