Time is a commodity. I consider it a luxury item when you get to do with it what you want and not what you have to do. If I could bottle it and sell it, I’d be a billionaire.
My older son is in seventh grade and I recently sat in on a seminar to help him be more organized. During the session the facilitator informed us that our children either had good time management skills or they didn’t. He called it “sequencing,” or the ability to count backwards from a deadline and plan activities to meet the deadline. This valuable skill was given (or not given) to our children by us; the parents.
Being on time is genetic?
Not to worry, he assures us. If we are big bags of constant lateness and disorganization then it is just important that we identified this behavior in our children so we can address it, and teach them these skills. I’m thinking to myself, isn’t that the blind leading the blind? How the heck are the parents supposed to suddenly master time management and help teach this to their kids?
I took this class several months ago, but I’ve recently been contemplating time as a luxury. The more efficient we are at completing the things in life we have to do the more luxury time we have. “Time masters” are more valuable commodities.
The bright light I took away from the middle school organization class is that “identifying” disorganization and time management as an issue makes it easier to discuss and improve. This skill deficit is often masked by perceived symptoms; procrastination, laziness, irresponsibility.
I don’t believe people are genetically any of these things. We just need to improve our skills set with the activities that work best with our personality.
Becoming a “time master” increases our brand value. We have more luxury time for ourselves and higher brand perception with others. Taking the time to organize pays.
