Dr Vishiesh Verma
Time, is a valuable resource. Time is a democratically shared resource; all of us have 24 hours every day. It does not matter how wealthy you are; you cannot claim more time. You cannot hoard it. All you can do is to make best use of the time available to you. One can increase one’s skills, knowledge, experience, wealth but time is strictly limited. Alan Lakein (well-known author on personal time management) said:
“Time is equal to Life, therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life”.
Chesterfield adds: “Know the true value of time; Snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it, no idleness, no laziness, procrastination never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”
Time is also described as unidirectional like an arrow, which has left the bow and does not come back, once lost, it is lost forever.
Above all, time is scarce and life is fleeting. The hours and days we have ourselves are more valuable than we think and it makes sense not to squander them. Like money time is also earned by doing the best currency of work with quickness and ease. Quickness and ease can be engineered by self-analysis and self-motivation. In the words of Peter Drucker (American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation), “Time is the scariest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed”.
In today’s overworked world, when even 24 hours for a day become too short a span to fulfill life’s commitments, understanding the essence of time becomes extremely important. For indeed, time is not just money as a wise man once pointed out, it is everything: our key to effectiveness, relaxation, happiness and success.
Briskness, said Ronald Dahl, was the most common characteristic of all successful individuals. In contemporary parlance, you can call that ‘time management’ a minute wasted is a minute gone and you have the same number of minutes as anyone else, you cannot get those lost minutes back.
The moral: you need to spend your time on things that matter effectively.
The way you manage your time determines the quality and quantity of the task you will achieve both at work pace and home. The value of time should become first lesson for our students. All our educational programs should reflect wise economic and fruitful use of time. Using time is a great art, in this context C.Nortcote Parkinson an economist said “More time you have available to do a job the longer it would take”. He stated work expands to fill the time available. In his book Parkinson’s Law he tells the story of the old woman who was to write a post card.
“An elderly lady of leisure can spend the whole day in writing and dispatching a post card. She spends an hour in hunting for spectacles, half an hour in searching out address an hour in composing and 20 minutes in deciding whether or not to take an umbrella when going to post.”
Many praise sky high the value of time but only a few realize its worth. It is vital to inculcate in the minds of students the time management attitude which will help them blossoming into world wise men with a rich time sense. They are to be motivated to feel the intrinsic worth of time so that may put it to right use. Proper planning, setting goals, analyzing the situations, working out the plans, keeping the deadline in mind will help the students, “Invest time for better returns”. In the words of William R.Wilkinson, “Time is something to be invested, not spent”. This investment can be made more efficient in small ways, day by day, because time is an hour by hour, day by day investment. The fact is if we take care of the minutes the hours will take of themselves. To manage time effectively and thereby to save time judiciously students are to be trained in the art of skillful listening, efficient reading, memory efficiency and effective communication. Lack of discipline is major time waster.
Holidays at the drop of a hat have become part of Indian Administrative Culture. Union Government and State Governments announce holidays as they like. Holiday Culture is closely related with work ethics and the value of time. We live in the world which works by 24x7x365 calculating hours. The economies all over the world are seeking to increase the working hours to boost productivity. According to an estimate of All India Association of Industries each day of Bank closure costs the economy a loss of Rs.100crores.
Politicians feel holidays reflect secularism wherein it is not the case. Secular India pays a heavy price in terms of economic losses as it celebrates the festivals of all communities with gazetted holidays more than fifteen in a year. In the absence of any definite policy on holidays, holidays have assumed dangerous proportions. In an article emphasizing the importance of a sound work ethic, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, to declare my birthday as holiday should be classified as cognizable offence”. Notwithstanding the will of the Father of the Nation, India has been enjoying it as a holiday in spite of Gandhiji’s written intention not to have his birthday as holiday.
Western Countries observe fewer holidays. We are inclined to look towards the west on many issues then why we don’t follow these countries in respect of celebrating holidays. Our constitutional aspiration is unity in diversity but our long list of increasing holidays reflects only diversity.
Holidays in other countries: One may find 13 public holidays in the US. Same is the case with Germany and Switzerland. Finland has 11, Austria and Philippines account for 10 each. Brazil Sweden and Britain enjoy only 8 holidays each. Pakistan observes 12 holidays. China celebrates the Labour Day, the youth day, the international Child’s Day, the People’s Liberation Army Day and the Spring Festival. Obviously these Chinese holidays are meant for celebrations only. The Russian Government sanctions only 7 public holidays. In Russia too, the International Women’s year, the spring festival, the labor and the defender of the father land day are celebrated. Due to our holiday culture, an average Indian works for 1400hours in a year while Japanese works 2100hours. The Americans works for 1700 hours in a year and the Canadians put in 2100 hours work. Average European worker records 1700-1800 hours work.
Thus we have the shortest working year in the world. Our judiciary too now draws flak for its long vacations and mounting arrears of cases. The Supreme Court working for 185 days and high courts for 210 days in a year are being publicly questioned now.
In all fairness, it must be added that the holiday mania, especially on tragic occasions, is not of recent origin by any means. It dates back many years and is indeed and is deeply entrenched in the Indian system. On March 1953, for example when Stalin died, Jawaharlal Nehru paid him an eloquent tribute, adjourned both houses of the Parliament and declared the Public holiday. Later in the day, he learnt to his dismay, that no such holiday was being observed in the Soviet Union. Ten years later at the time of Kennedy’s assassination many Indians were stunned when they discovered the American had suspended work for precisely two hours to coincide with the JFK’s Funeral. But when Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai died, Maharashtra Government announced two days holiday to mourn his death. These two holidays were followed by two public holidays which were in turn followed by weekend resulting in six days causing hardship to society in general because at the time of mourning banks, courts, government institutions, business entities remained closed. For a country struggling to forge ahead in a competitive world, excessive holidays are a scourge.
As Steve Jobs said , “ Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”
(The writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.)
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