“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it’s longer than an hour. That’s relativity.” Albert Einstein
According to the Dictionary.com, time defines as “duration regarded as belonging to the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration.” When we talk about time concept, it reminds us of Albert Einstein and his famous relativity theorem. This theorem is based on the assumption that perception of time can be changed by the place and the person we are together with. Today’s topic will be a bit different from this, and you will read an article that emphasizes how little time we have.
Time is an intangible concept, so it can not hand-held, and it is invisible. Unfortunately, our brain is not very successful in terms of perception about intangible concepts compared with the tangible ones. It could be challenging to understand the intangible concepts for our minds. Fortunately, humankind has embodied the concept of time. Have you ever thought about what kind of life we would have if we were not using the concepts of the hour, day, month, or year?
Although humankind has found a way to scale life and use it more concrete and potentially more efficiently, it can not be said that the 7.5 billion people living on our planet are using their time efficiently.
Corporate companies have begun to pay more attention to time management issues, especially over the last ten years, and they regularly take time management courses, workshops, and training for their employees. In that way, they ensure their employees do more useful at work. Why do we not apply the same attitude to ourselves? If you are doing that, do not take it on. For you, this article is just a pleasant reading. My target audience for this article is that the people who have not yet experienced this awareness.
Have you ever thought that you did not have enough time? Do you ask yourself how you can use your free time most efficiently? You do not want to waste your time with activities you did not really like or with the people you did dislike.
If this happens to you often, then it means you are already aware of the situation. Frankly, we do not have much time! Like Steve Jobs said “Your time is limited “(I share the youtube link of a part of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement Speech where he tells graduates “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” in the reference section)1
We will embody this by calculating how much time we have. But first, I want to touch on a point where we are lucky. Compared to 100 years ago, our time has increased considerably. Did you know that the average life expectancy in the 1900s is 31 years and in the 1950s is 48 years? According to the World Health Organization’s 2016 data, the world’s average life expectancy has risen to 72 years.2 This means that we have two times longer life expectancy than a person who lived 100 years ago. This fact is happy for us. But how do we use our time? The other question, how much time do we really have?
Do you think how many hours you have to use as an investment for yourself in a week? Have you ever calculated the time you have to improve your skills, which could make you more knowledgeable, more respected, and more robust in the future? I have asked this question from time to time and each time I have encountered different answers of my own according to my working conditions at that time. But the main thing is I realized each time that I have quite a limited time. So, I have to make a plan for using my time more efficiently. And I even have to remove some things from my list that I want to do because of the time limitation. I will mention about this topic in a future article.
Now, let’s calculate our time together:
A ) How much time do the working people have in a week?
One week is seven days and 7×24 = 168 hours. An average person spends 7 to 8 hours a day sleeping. So, in the beginning, we subtracted 1 out of 3 of our lives from this calculation.
Let’s give 8 hours for sleeping and multiply it by 7, and the sum is 56 hours. The remaining time is 112 hours a week. How much of these 112 hours is spent working? If we are lucky, we might have a Monday to Friday 8-17 job. If not, 7.00 in the morning to 19.00 in the evening or 20.00 or 21.00 or maybe worse. And also our working hours may even include Saturday and Sunday. I will think of a more optimistic situation here and calculate over the time of our lucky ones.
Let’s say we are working 8.00 to 17.00 and our workplace is very close to our house, so it is enough for us to wake up at 7.00 and we can usually be at home at 17.30 after work. So from 7.00 to 17.30, we spend 10.5 hours per day for work. It means 52,5 hours in 5 days. Let’s round it down to 52 hours and subtract this number from the total time; 60 hours left. We can call this remaining time our base lifetime.
So, if we have the time to be fruitful, plan our lives, and dedicate ourselves to our development, all of this in 60 hours. But to be honest, it is a gross calculation. Because we need to complete our daily routines and life responsibilities with these 60 hours.
Let’s dig it in detail: Assume that our breakfast and lunchtime during the week are within our ongoing work schedule. We need to save time for 7 dinner times a week and breakfast and lunch on weekends. Besides, we should do housework, shopping, and other daily requirements. We will also need time to going to the cinema or theater, do sports, spend time with our girlfriend/boyfriend or our wife/husband and with our children, or our friends. You got the point, right? Many of us may not save a single minute from these 60 hours for their personal development.
My recommendation is that you should spend at least 10 hours per week on your personal development. For this purpose, you may save 1 hour each weekday, and 2.5 hours for the weekends. During this personal improvement time, you can read books, learn a new language, or get a new hobby. Now, we know that our time is so limited, so we will need a specific plan.
B ) How much time would we have if we were unemployed?
While we are not working in a corporate job, we also have seven days a week and 168 hours in total. Additionally, being unemployed does not provide any advantage in sleeping time. So it is again, on average, 8 hours sleep and we have 112 hours on remain. As you may realize, time is rather limited as well for those who do not work in a regular job! There are 112 hours for themselves. We calculated that it was 60 hours for someone who worked. According to this calculation, they have about two times more time.
Let’s dig it in detail: They need to spend seven days of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they also need time for personal care, housework, and other responsibilities. And if this person is a mother, she may not even have a minute for herself.
Nevertheless, we can say that a person who is not working is more advantageous, and if he/she is only responsible for himself/herself, he/she can have 40-50 hours a week. The critical point is that planning is necessary! Otherwise, time will pass very quickly!
These calculations showed us how short the time we have. We have to know the value of our time. Otherwise, the time will already be gone, until we realize that our reflection on the mirror is getting older. In my next article, I will mention the thieves who steal our time. See you soon.
K.
Ref:1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yB6C0KByqA2.http://www.who.int/gho/mortality_burden_disease/life_tables/situation_trends/en/