Common sense is not so common

“Time is Gold” is a familiar old quote we’ve known I guess since our childhood.  It is one favorite saying we give when someone ask us for our motto in life.  It is engraved within us and weather we truly understand its meaning or not, we believe it to be true.  Thus, as precious as any treasure, it has been our lifetime desire to manage time efficiently and effectively.  I am Bernadette O. Purto from Manila, Philippines and I want to share with you some personal thoughts on Time Management.

"The Qur'an and the Sunnah make it clear that time is very valuable. Almighty Allah says: "By the time! Verily man is in loss."     (Al-`Asr:1-2)

Take benefit of five before five

"Take benefit of five before five:

your youth before your old age,

your health before your sickness,

your wealth before your poverty,

your free-time before your preoccupation,

and your life before your death."[Hadith- al-Haakim, al-Bayhaqee, Saheeh]

The importance of time!

 MANY people forget or neglect the importance of time although man's life on earth is a span of time. Islam gives due attention to the issue of time because if people waste their time, they are actually wasting their life.

The Holy Qur'an gives due attention to the idea of time and this is clear in many verses of the Qur'an when Allah swears using the different places of times of the day to reveal the importance of time, "By the break of Day," (Qur'an, 1:89) "By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),' (Qur'an, 1:103) .etc.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) says in one Hadith: "There are two things that people are not aware of how important they are: health and time." This Hadith stresses two facts: People are not aware of the importance of being in good health till they fall ill and people are not aware of the importance of time and therefore waste their time doing trivial things.

There was research published in one of the magazines about how man spends his time. The research revealed that if man lives for 60 years, he spends one third of his life sleeping because man usually sleeps eight hours a day. Remaining years are spent in public transportation, watching TV, eating, in the bathroom.etc. This means that the larger part of man's life is spent in worldly matters. If a person

Karen Armstrong, refers to this aspect of time in Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) life. She indicated that what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did in 23 years was miraculous and what he accomplished required thousands of philosophers, reformers, intellectuals and mentors to do in hundreds of years.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who has failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a pre-mature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage labourer who has kids to feed.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the bride who is waiting to meet her groom

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who has missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Adversity reveals genius; prosperity concelas it.

I’ve never really undestood what the saying “Time is Gold” really meant until I learned a little more about the world of money.  Time is an abstract concept that doesn’t really exist, just like money.  But the sheer mention of the word ignites a lot of emotions from different people.  Those without it, are stressed out.  Those with a lot of time on their hands are either bored or dreaming.While pondering this old saying, I realized there are actually 5 things that explain why time can be considered Gold.

1.You can never get it back

The only thing in this world that you cannot get back (aside from life itself) is time.  When you’ve spent 30 minutes of your time, you can not get it back, however you desperately want it.  You can invent the greatest time machine all you want, but at this point in human evolution, there’s just no way of turning back time.  That’s why the emotion of “regret” is very powerful.  If only you could turn back time somehow, you would give everything just to have it. The ironic thing is, all the material things we trade our time for can be taken back.  I know of someone who lost her home to foreclosure, but managed to get it back years after because of her determination.  Donald Trump, the billionaire real-estate magnate lost a lot of money, but managed to get it all back and more.  Unlike material things, once time passes you by, you can never bring it back.

2.You only have 24 hours in a day

This is really an amazing equalizer.  Everyone gets the same chance at life.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  Even the richest people on earth only have 24 hours in a day.  The poorest of the poor also have 24 hours in a day.  The only difference — they use their 24 hours very differently.

If you don’t like what your life is right now, there’s only one thing you need to do — change the way you spend your time.  You don’t need to place your hope in winning the lottery, or deceiving other people for your own financial gain.  You can get rich with integrity by learning to value your own time, and valuing other people’s time as well.

3.You can trade time for money

You can trade your time for money.  How? Simply get a job and watch the next 40 years of your life traded for a monthly salary?  How much is your time worth?  Are you earning enough?  Is your time worth that much?

It doesn’t matter whether you are CEO or an entry-level employee, you still trade your time for money.  When you don’t go to work, you stop earning.  Unless of course, you are investing that time to build your own business, or investing your earnings on income-producing assets, that, hopefully someday allow you to hire other people to do the work for you and you can then spend your time playing with your kids, doing the things you love to do.

4.You can leverage your time

Why is it that even though everyone only has 24 hours in a day, some people can get a lot more done than others? Reason? Leverage.  Henry Sy employs thousands of people to run his business empire.  By so doing, he multiplies his time by thousands.  With that thousands of hours, millions is earned by his businesses each single day.

Compared that into a one-man show employee.  His single-handed efforts, without any form of leverage, can only get to 24 hours, no matter how strong or skilled he may be.

5.You can make the most of what you have

The hard truth is that your time is limited.  You never know when your time will end.  But one thing is for sure, you can make the most of the time that you have. Spend your “golden” time with your loved ones.  Take care of them.  Enjoy what life has to offer.  Remember that we are just passers by in this world we call life.  When you live your life by the moment, you leave a long-lasting impression into the lives of other people…and your life’s meaning would be fulfilled.