Hello, mi neighbour!

If you ask me, time will tell! If your time was/is well spent, it is now telling or will tell later in life. If it is ‘ill spent’, it tells another story. At the end of your journey, what story will be told about your allotted time? A life well lived? Or one ‘ill lived’?

After all that preamble, let me ask you: how have you been handling your time? Investing or spending? If you are investing, have you been a wise investor? Let us say that you have been spending. Have you been spending wisely? Whether you invest or spend time, do so sensibly.

I am positing here that ‘time’ means ‘measured opportunities’ granted to us by our heavenly Father to sleep at night, wake up in the mornings, move around the house, go to work, interact with people, make decisions, get a career, grow older, contribute to human developing, worship God, etc.

‘Time investors’ must also be cognisant of the fact that these opportunities are time-bound, and that missed ones may only resurface, at a very high price! Sometimes they are unaffordable.

You see, opportunities come to us in a timely manner to help us enjoy and live purposeful lives. Understanding how to use these opportunities will determine their impact on us and the rest of the community. If we do not prioritise our time well, we could be in serious trouble: time passes and that’s that. Not only that, we could spend the rest our time here grieving over irreplaceable opportunities. Time has no reverse gear. Remember?

How soon, then, should one consider using time wisely? From the ‘crack of dawn’: from being able to differentiate between wrong and right or good and evil. Time spent on things that lead to positive and meaningful outcomes is time well spent. Time spent on things that lead to negative outcomes, 10 to one chances, it’s time ‘ill spent’.

If you will spend your time well, you must understand a few things about time management! Check out these:

· Effective time management enables you to accomplish more in less time.

· Prioritising tasks and managing time helps alleviate stress and anxiety.

· Time management allows you to balance work, leisure, and personal activities.

· By focusing on priorities, you can achieve your goals more efficiently.

Let me lift a few time-management strategies from the textbook here:

· Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

· Plan out your day, week, or month using a calendar or planner.

· Identify essential tasks and tackle them first.

· Focus on one task at a time, to ensure quality and efficiency.

· Regular breaks can help you recharge and maintain productivity.

· Set boundaries and politely decline non-essential tasks.

And watch these time robbers:

· Mindless scrolling and excessive social media use

· Putting off important work and delaying essential tasks

· Gossiping or engaging in unproductive conversations

· Multitasking unwisely. This can lead to frustration, increased distractions and decreased productivity.

Now that this writer took the time to help you to take another look at how we handle time, may I implore you to carve out some time to look a little deeper into this matter? Could save you a lot of time and money going forward.

Please read up on these topics until next time:

· Creating a schedule and sticking to it.

· Eliminating distractions and minimising procrastination.

· Using time-management tools and apps.

· Overcoming social media addiction.

And, just before you go, remember to “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is”.

And I close with a prayer: “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”

Are these the end times?

Please remember to help a neighbour with an item from list below.

Next time.

1. Stove

2. Refrigerator

3. Bed

4. Food

5. Medication

6. Financial assistance to start a little business.

To help, please call Silton Townsend @ 876 649-9636 or 876 884-3866 Contact email: helloneighbour@yahoo.com [2]. Visit hellomineighbourja.blogspot.com. Townsend exclusively manages the collections and distributions mentioned in this column and is neither an employee nor agent of The Gleaner.