MANAGEMENT OF TIME

 

 

Every person is given a lifetime.  The big computer in heaven projects and computes the time on Earth that ought to be given for him to attain a certain level of perfection.  Just like in corporate planning, the time is shortened or lengthened depending on one's performance.  If the person is incurring more karmic debts than he has to pay, the time might be shortened.  Criminals die sooner, usually of violent death.   Those that can help uplift mankind are given a longer stay on Earth.  Priests and ministers often live long Ives.

 

The management of one's time is a puzzle man must solve.  It is like money, but more valuable than gold that one has to spend on Earth.  Unlike money, it cannot be stored.  It is like the taxi meter that keeps on ticking whether the car is moving or stalled in traffic.  Time glides by whether one is doing something, enjoying the pleasures of life, or resting or sleeping.  Time is the medium of exchange one has to spend for achieving something.  One spends time in performing a task.  Sometimes one spends time by waiting.  Waiting tests your patience.

 

For general success in life one must allocate a days’ 24 hours to "things to do today" tasks, to rest, sleep, prayer, meditation, and leisure.  If one carries a small notebook and records the events happening for the day, one will discover how inefficient he is in using time.  One will discover that too much time is devoted to doing nothing worthwhile.

 

One way of managing one's time more efficiently is to have a small notebook with you, noting down "things to do today" and the corresponding time in which these should be done.  This will serve as the immediate goals for the day.  At the end of the day, the individual himself should evaluate his performance.  This is not hampering your freedom.  In fact, you are setting yourself free from the tendency to be lazy, to procrastinate, and to take the easy way.  It prevents you from traversing the road of pure pleasure without accomplishment.

 

When one goes through life, God gives him money to spend.  It consists of minutes, hours; days, and years.  One hour is equivalent to 60 minutes, one day to 24 hours, and 1 year to 365 days.  His lifetime, predestined, consists of the total minutes he has with him since the first breath of life.

 

As a baby he spends his hours in sleeping, eating, and mainly in growing up.  Later on, he spends his hours in learning to walk, then running, and learning to talk and conceptualize.  He begins to distinguish between right and wrong.  The parents are a big help in his formative years.  So are the teachers.  The child learns how to budget his time. The studious learns to devote some of his time to studying.  The lazy spends his minutes and hours with his barkada (peer group), daydreaming, fantasizing, smoking, drinking, and taking drugs.   Already the teenager is faced with the problem of deciding how to spend his valuable minutes --- whether for pleasure or duty.

 

From 21 to 28, he learns to spend his time in charting his course in life, career, and marriage.  The right choice will determine his future happiness.  From 28 to 35, he is on the course of building financial stability.  From 35 to 42, he is consolidating his possessions.  From 42 to 49, he should now be turning to spiritual life.  Then 49 and above, he should embark on apostolic work, trying to help the fellow travelers of life.

 

At each stage of one's life, there will always be the decision to spend one's hour and minutes wisely.  Already eight hours are wasted in sleeping or resting.  That leaves a person 16 hours.  If he is employed, traveling to and from the office will consume around two hours, thus leaving 14 hours.  Then you remove nine hours spent at the office for work, including lunch. That leaves him five hours a day to be spent on the road to perfection.  But after office hours, he relaxes and goes out with friends.  None of his time is left for his most important goal in life --- perfection to be accepted in heaven.

 

Fortunately, one is judged even under the simple things he does at home or in the office.  Even in the bus.  Even when he is asleep.  He could commit a sin against right thoughts even while dreaming.

 

That is why he is enjoined to pray, pray briefly even in the bus or in the office.  Just mentioning the name of the spirit, angel, or saint is enough.  But pray often and pray regularly.  For prayer is the food of the spirit of man.  Pray for even only 1% of your days in minutes.  Roughly that is 15 minutes. Is this asking too much?

 

In summary, God gave you a bundle of hours and minutes when you were born.  Most of them you spend on resting and sleeping.  The rest you are given the prerogative to spend as you wish: to lavish it on idleness, pleasures, leisure; to work for the acquisition of wealth; to help and love your neighbor; to search for the truth; to pray and meditate;  or, to uplift your spiritual Awareness. The choice is up to you.  Whatever you do, when you run out of hours and minutes, God will ask you to account for your spending.  Did you spend them in pleasures, in idleness?  If yes, then you are extravagant.  He will send you back to relearn the lesson.  Did you spend them wisely, allocating to the body what is reserved for the body and to the spirit what is due to the spirit? If so, then you learned the lessons and therefore are entitled to further higher perfection, but this time not on the plane of Earth.  If you want to attain material or spiritual accomplishment, efficient management of one's hours and minutes is paramount.

 

Fewer minutes should be spent on leisure and pleasure but more on goal attainment, for the betterment of body, and more importantly for the elevation of your spirit.