Making Use Of Your Time

Do college students make the best use of time? How about teachers? Or, human beings in general. All to often we think about all we have to do and feel like we just do not have enough time. Sometimes this is true, but other times perhaps we are the ones who make it too difficult.

I once read a quote that said “The time we spend wasting is not wasted time”. I agree. Therefore, I am not suggesting that we waste too much time, rather I am suggesting we do not plan as well as we could. This point was driven home just a little while ago by my son.

He is watching cartoons on television and is engrossed. I asked him if he wanted lunch and he said, “nay, not right now”. I know he is so engrossed by cartoons he just does not want to be bothered or think about it. I told him that he needed to realize that it will take time for me to make his lunch and if he tells me now, it can be ready at the end of the show. He acknowledged this but still said he was not ready to decide on lunch.

Let me tell you what will happen. The show will end, he will tell me he is hungry and then he will start whining because he will have to wait for me to make lunch. He does not matter that I pointed this out to him.

As frustrating as this is, I think the rest of us are just as guilty of doing things similar to this. When we could be working on a lesson plan or preparing school work (or in some way have some of it prepared while we are relaxing), we do not think about it. Then it gets late in the day and we start looking to cut corners.

Hopefully, we will all learn the best way of making use of the time that we have (and yes, making use of that time includes relaxing so we have more energy for things when we need it). And, hopefully my son will not whine or have a temper tantrum.