Time as a resource by B L RAZDAN JK Latest News

Time as a resource

Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. 

Time is, therefore always in exceedingly short supply

Time as a resource

By B L RAZDAN

 Time and tide wait for none. 

This old adage prompted the 

celebrated English essayist, 

Charles Lamb, to remark, 

“Nothing puzzles me more 

than time and space; and yet noth-

ing troubles me less, as I never 

think about them.” Towards his 

ripe old age and while writing The 

Last Essays of Elia, he remarked 

thus: “I begin to count the probabil-

ities of my duration, and to grudge 

at the expenditure of moments and 

shortest periods, like miser’s far-

things. In proportion as the years 

both lessen and shorten, I set more 

count upon their periods, and 

would fain lay my ineffectual fi nger 

upon the spoke of the great wheel. I 

am not content to pass away “like a 

weaver’s shuttle.”

Everything requires time. It 

is the only truly universal condi-

tion. 

Time as a resource

All work takes place in time 

and uses up time. It is a unique 

resource. One cannot rent, hire, 

buy, or otherwise obtain more 

time. The supply of time is totally 

inelastic. No matter how high the 

demand, the supply will not go 

up. There is no price for it and no 

marginal utility curve for it. What 

is worse is that time is totally 

perishable and cannot be stored. 

Yesterday’s time is gone forever 

and will never come back. Time 

is, therefore always in exceedingly 

short supply.

Time as a resource

Time is totally irreplaceable. 

Within limits we can substitute 

one resource for another, copper 

for aluminum, for instance. We 

can substitute capital for human 

labor. We can use more knowledge 

or more brawn. But there is no 

substitute for time.

While we all know that time is 

precious, yet most of us waste it 

the most. While getting old most 

people reflect and realize how 

better their life could have been 

if only they had used the time 

available with them productively. 

Evidently, to get all there is out of 

living, we must employ our time 

wisely. Unfortunately, “Man is ill-

equipped to manage his time”, as 

remarked by Peter Drucker, the 

celebrated American management 

guru and author of the famous 

MBO doctrine, short form of Man-

agement by Objectives. 

I, however, don’t want to get 

too dark or depressing, but, yes, 

I have been thinking a lot about 

this recently. 

Time as a resource

All the same, it 

is important to realize that our 

life is short and that our time on 

this earth is limited and only get-

ting more so with every passing 

minute. For those who have come 

to regard time as a resource that 

is “a source or supply from which 

benefi t is produced” and that it’s 

just one that one cannot change in 

quantity, although one can change 

how it is allocated and that one can 

also change how it is used, one can 

be assured that, “Time stays long 

enough for anyone who will use 

it.” (apologies Leonardo Da Vinci). 

Time as a resource

Civil Services aspirants, in par-

ticular, and more so during the 

preparatory stages can ill afford 

to take this unique irreplaceable 

and necessary resource for grant-

ed. Even in management, noth-

ing else, perhaps distinguishes 

effective executives as much as 

their tender loving care of time. 

They only need to keep in mind 

the advice of John F. Kennedy in 

his oft-quoted witticisms like, “We 

must use time as a tool, not as a 

crutch.” and, “Time is at once the 

most valuable and the most perish-

able of all our possessions.”

Between the two God-given gifts 

– intelligence and fl air for hard-

work – I would prefer the latter for 

the simple reason that a host of us 

have simply wasted intelligence 

by sitting over this precious virtue 

and doing nothing. On the other 

hand, persons given to working 

hard at least achieve something 

even with lesser intelligence. Even 

if one may have thought up of a 

great idea but didn’t do anything 

about it, it is as good or as bad as 

nothing. Procrastination or dilly-

dallying or sitting over time is a 

bane that one should avoid at all 

costs. It’s not the things we do all 

through the day that create the 

time crunch but the way we handle 

them. 

Time as a resource

Our behaviour patterns and 

attitudes towards certain tasks 

developed over time cause the 

backlog! Taking a look at all the 

things we need in our life as well 

as all the things that need to get 

done, makes doing things and life 

easier. Remarked Eva Young, “To 

think too long about doing a thing 

often becomes its undoing.’ 

It would be worthwhile to 

identify the basic causes that con-

tribute to procrastination. If left 

unchecked, these leas to a project 

(like the CIVIL Services Prepara-

tions) that we have dreamed of, 

not be completed. These are tenta-

tively given below with a probable 

solution as well:

* We don’t know where to start. 

~ Making sure the preparations 

get priority at the beginning 

helps with planning as well as 

ensures its viability!

* We don’t know where we are 

going. ~ Getting expert advice 

reduces anxiety and time!

* We may feel overwhelmed. ~ 

Planning out the projects and 

time-line will ensure balance!

* We may strive for perfection. ~ 

Perfection is selfi sh. We should 

strive for excellence because we 

are faced with a tough task like 

the most competitive examina-

tion in the world! 

Keeping things simple is the 

*key* to good time management. 

We fi rst need to identify trouble 

spots, then implement time saving 

techniques we know we shall stick 

to. Shaving minutes off daily tasks 

could mean hours by the end of the 

week and it is time we can use on 

preparing more rigorously. Need-

less to say that .prioritizing what 

needs to be done is the fi rst step to 

getting organized and making sure 

you’ll be there on time with the 

right stuff So, choose the time now 

to save time and follow Confucius 

advice, “Study without refl ection 

is a waste of time; refl ection with-

out study is dangerous” 

*Bhushan Lal Razdan, formerly of 

the Indian Revenue Service, retired 

as Director General of Income Tax 

(Investigation), Chandigarh.