TEACH YOUR CHILD TIME MANAGEMENT

TEACH YOUR CHILD TIME MANAGEMENT 

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” 
― Charles Darwin

The consciousness of time and how to manage it has posed a threat to many individuals, parents, and corporate bodies as well. In Africa for instance, we often make reference to the term "African time" in a bid to attend some public functions later than the stipulated time. However, this notion of African time has taken a negative turn on our nature and attitude. 

Many feel no remorse about their inability to be punctual; instead they blame it on several factors such as, economy, traffic, children, weather etc. In the same vein, some event planners encourage the "African time" syndrome hence the audiences are accustomed to arriving late, due to the mindset that the programme will start late. Unfortunately, the consciousness of availability of time has influenced indiscipline in the society at large.

However, to integrate time consciousness into our society we need to start with our families. The family is a small unit of the society hence if every family cultivates the time management culture then the narrative will change. We can simply actualize this, by inculcating the sense of timeliness into our children from their tender age. Timeliness is a virtue that cut across every facet of life hence Parents need to be sensitive to their personal use of time, even as they encourage the sense of adequate time management into every activity in the home. One of the ways to train our children on time management is to lead by example.  When you take your child or ward late to school or any other gathering you are making a statement (the wrong statement).

Habit is said to be formed within 21 days hence the reason parents need to daily ensure their children value time. When your child observes that you prepare ahead of time for every event, you will hear them say,"My mum hate lateness" but when your child knows you are always arriving late at events, he would say,"I know my Mum will always attend only that she will come in pretty late but with good reasons". It is best to prepare to be on time rather than be caught in the web of  “How did it get so late so soon?” 

― Dr. Seuss

The Value of time

Our children understand; there is time to sleep, eat, go to school, parties and much more but more than anything they need to understand that time is life, time is money and that time means a lot. A slogan in Lagos goes thus" Time nah Money". What we value, we do not waste, hence we need to let them know there is time for everything and that, it is more important to get it right the first time rather than seek for more time. 

Yes there is always a second chance but once a time is gone, it can never be regained. They need to also learn to manage and maximize their time. A lot of children, teenagers and youths in recent time major in the minor due to their lack of understanding of the sense of time. Few months back, a teenage girl said to me, “I just need a place to go and while away my time” I had to correct her that by whiling away one's time, it invariably means one is wasting his or her life. The social media has aided in the waste of time of a lot of young people but if they are trained to be time conscious it will always guide them as they grow to chase the subject and not the shadow.

Allocation of time/Turn around time

Allocating a given time to a task is very crucial, as it would help us in our bid to consciously manage time. The implication of being time conscious in activities such as getting task done, attending to; friends, business, chats, chores, research, patients, clients and much more is that it helps us to determine the turnaround time of every task through an evaluation of its benefits and demerits. I know a friend who often sets a timer whenever he wants to engage in a conversation with anyone. He preset his time by allocating a time to his conversations. This helps one to adequately manage and maximize one's time. 

In conclusion, let us all make a conscious effort to be more disciplined with our time. The clock gets more attention than anyone else however, we need to be more sensitive to our use of time by setting our priorities right. Let us try not to postpone what can be done immediately. 24 hours is just enough to get it done and that is why our creator allotted to 24hours to each day. 

“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” 

 ― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

Thank you for your time. I remain your loyal host, Olabusola Olorunnowo.

REF: Observing Segilola Awolesi's Radio Programe: @Mindscopenaija
 Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin