MY TIME AND I

Money and Time are two things that are often equated in character and usage. For instance, expression like, time is money is commonplace in business and life generally. It is often used to warn that anytime that is not properly applied amounts to money not being properly applied. It is also common to hear people talk about buying time, which could literally imply paying for time. All these portray our perception of time as something we own and can use the way we deem fit as we would money. There is a process that either appreciates money or depreciates it. We make money, spend money, save money, invest money and sometimes waste money. In the same vein, we can make time, spend time, save time, invest time or waste it as the case may be.

MAKE TIME

Contrary to the process of making money, which involves adding value through sale of goods and/or services, making time involves planning for time. Reference to our first discussion on time consciousness, making time requires being time conscious. The major difference between time and money is that while man can control the flow of money because he generates money from economic activities, he cannot control the flow of time. Time is already created, man only created clock to regulate time. Regulating time is different from controlling time. When we regulate time, we ensure that events fall within particular time. To control time would mean determining the flow of time, being followed by time. No, we follow time by planning in the direction of time. When we plan an event in the direction of time, we have made time for that event. If we fail to control the flow of that event within the time that has been made for it, we end up not achieving the purpose of the event within that time.

SPEND TIME

The process of engaging the allotted time for a specific event is spending time. Expense is done in either of two ways. It can either be based on budget or not based on budget, often referred to as impulse spending. A true budget recognizes possible extraneous factors and provides for them. This is also true for time. When there is proper allocating of time to the various tasks in an event, there would be order in carrying on those tasks. The people whose responsibility it is to handle the times must ensure they work within the time allotted for their tasks. Then they would be spending time within budget. This is also what we generally refer to as managing time. It is time that has been allotted that can be managed; when there is no proper time budgeting, spending or managing time becomes difficult. What happens here is that all manner of ideas and tasks will be coming up and calling your attention, distracting. Time budgeting gives direction to time management and time spending.

INVEST TIME

One major good application of money in financial management is investment. The purpose of investment is usually to multiply money. When money is invested there is usually an increase that comes with it, such increase leads to multiplication and expansion as more avenues and investment opportunities are sought.  When it comes to investing time, it is about ensuring that available time is spent on productive tasks. Tasks that build the person’s mental faculty, improves the person’s chances of succeeding in life; those are productive tasks. Tasks like reading, especially for the purpose of learning something new or improving on something already learnt. Again this is subjective in application. Just as one form of financial investment may not yield as much profit as another, that way certain tasks may not appear productive to someone, but would be highly productive to another person. For instance, someone who does not like attending social events, may not see such events as productive. However someone else who gains business contacts from such events will always attend for that purpose.

What we must bear in mind is choosing what our time is spent on discreetly. If you are not comfortable engaging in a particular task, it really does not make much sense joining others to engage in it. Choose what you delight in, what gives you satisfaction and what benefits you mentally, intellectually, spiritually, morally and physically/materially. Just as Financial Advisers encourage us to spread our investment among our areas of interests, that way we must strike a balance about which areas we spend our time, so that we ensure maximum benefit of all areas of productivity we may be interested in.

SAVE TIME

Another very important aspect of financial education is savings. Savings does two major things. It ensures that we do not spend all that we earn at the same time. Instead we have something kept away or reserved for eventuality. It also helps us acquire some important things like academics, home appliances. The second major thing savings helps us to do is having a pool of fund for investment.

Likewise we save time by ensuring that time is managed well while we spend allotted time for various tasks. Saving time requires finding quicker and simpler ways of doing things, so that we do not have to spend all the available time on the tasks they are allotted for. For instance, if I need to travel a distance of six hours in a car, but have a flight that would be there in 45 minutes, I would save time if I add some money and travel by flight. What would happen is that I would get there much earlier; I may even transact businesses and return same day. If I had travelled by road, I would have to lodge somewhere because I would get there late. Then resume transactions the next day, and then leave on the third day. Time management is a tool for saving time; saving time is a tool for investing time.

WASTE TIME

Often times we hear people say, ‘please don’t waste my time’. How do we waste time? We waste time in various ways. When we engage in what is not productive at a time we are supposed to be doing something more productive; it is misappropriation of time. Also when we spend time on a task without restraint, thereby taking more time than was allotted to that task, we waste that additional time, because it should have been used for something else. It means that we were not able to manage time.  Again when we attend an event so late that the commencement time is shifted, we have contributed to waste of time. This is because that time that was shifted, would have been used for something else. When you engage someone in a discussion that is not adding value to them, you may have wasted that person’s time.
Time is a resource you do not have control over. It is however your responsibility to ensure that the time available to you at any time is wisely spent with focus on saving and investing it. The major key to achieving this is planning.