To start off, what do you think of the
following story: Imagine that every morning your bank credits your
account with $86.400.
The bank doesn't require any
documents, signatures or guarantees. The bank simply deposits this
amount into your account for you to spend on that day. However, the
bank doesn't allow you to save the money from the day before. You can't
make transfers or additional desposits. When the day ends what you
haven't spent is lost. You can not save anything. So, what would you
do? Would you withdraw the full amount every day? Of course, you would!
This story
was read by Patricia
Hashuel and I thought it would be a suitable way to start
this course. As it is apparent that time is one of those resources that
you can not keep or save. You can not accumulate time.
No one has the option to
save or spend
time. The only option is to spend time or invest it. Therefore,
we need to know the most efficient ways to use it.
Throughout
life we have something in common with everyone in the world, despite
our different social positions, race, etc. We all have 24 hour days.
However, how we spend this time depends exclusively on us.
Here is an
interesting exercise written by the author K. Gleeson. Answer the
following questions, try to be spontaneous and sincere:
-
Do you feel that there's never enought
time?
-
Do
you feel that you have lots to do?
-
Do
you feel overwhelmed with everthing that
happens at work?
-
Do
you often feel that you are burried in
mountains of paper?
-
Do
you wish you had more time to do what
you want?
-
Do
you frequently work overtime, at night
or at the weekend to catch up with matters that you can't do during
office hours?
-
Do
you get stressed when you don't achieve
what is required?
-
Do
you find it difficult to focus on
improving your life and work in the long term because you are subject
to a continuous crisis or an excessive amount of work?
-
Do
you ask yourself if you are really
achieving what you want to do with your life and your work?
-
Would
you like to obtain better results
with the time and effort that you invest in your work?
-
Would
you like to relax or take holidays
more frequently?
Gleeson
found that the majority of people responded yes to the survey
questions. If you also answered yes, you are going to have a pleasant
surprise: you can solve all of these problems. You can achieve what is
important to you at work and for you as a person and still have time
left over for personal matters, for your family and for other things
that you want to carry out.