TIME – THE WORST WASTE OF ALL

Everybody wastes things; there's no point in arguing that. Even the most careful, the most frugal person will wind up wasting something at some time. With most people, it's not unusual to waste food, gas in the car, and money on all sorts of things.

What would you say is the biggest waste of all? No doubt many things you purchase and never use or don't enjoy the way you thought you would may come to mind. You might waste money on a new cell phone that you no longer find exciting after the first week or on cable channels you never watch. You may waste gas in your car running too many errands when you could have and should have combined them into one. Perhaps you wasted food by not using it before it went bad or by cooking too much and throwing away the leftovers.

But with all the things that get wasted in one's life, probably time is the biggest waste of all. Many people waste time on useless activities that don't really serve their needs or on responsibilities that are not done right the first time. Time can be wasted from sleeping too much, from doing harmful things like overdrinking or using narcotics, and from just plain sitting on the couch watching television.

Often time is wasted, not just because people indulge in activities that could be considered a waste of time, but because of poor time management skills. You might compare this to how people waste money on food because they don't use it before it rots or because they cook too much; if a person had better skills when it came to preparing that food and had the discipline needed to use up the food in the house before shopping for more, they may not see so much go down the garbage disposal. It's not their eating that's

the problem in of itself and of course it's not the fault of the food that it rots; it's how the food is prepared and used that creates a waste.

So it is with time management skills. A person may work and work and work and wonder why they're not getting anything done. They may also honestly feel that they don't indulge in time wasting activities such as watching television or going out with friends to the bar every night. And yet, why are they not accomplishing anything or reaching the goals they once had for themselves?

Usually the problem is learning how to manage one's time and to maximize it for the most effectiveness. Just like learning to cook and manage one's shopping can mean better use of the food in the home with less waste, so learning how to be in control of one's time and one's schedule can mean less time wasted.