Michael Asiedu
Michael Asiedu

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The Value of Time

Note: This is not a technical essay. It's a pressing thought that gripped me once, and I felt compelled to share it.

It is an early Sunday morning (5:26 am), sitting in my study with fear and worry of wasting my life away.

There is so much to be done in this world by you, and the moment you realize this, '24 hours a day' becomes more valuable to you than any other asset on earth.

'Unfortunately'(perhaps), the most important things that ought to be achieved in a lifetime all take years of consistent quality input.

Transformation is basically a compound equation. You need years to be great at anything worthwile in this life.

A few things I personally consider ‘ought to be achieved’

(No specific order, just random things I am writing down on a Sunday morning as I prepare for church. Your list may be totally different).

  • Getting in shape
  • Building your spiritual life
  • Acquiring knowledge/education
  • Making money
  • Having a family
  • Staying in shape
  • Learning an instrument
  • Owning a house
  • Building an audience online

24 hours is stupidly expensive, the years go by so fast, and these goals compete for the same finite resource: time and energy.

But one dangerous thought you must not entertain is the concept of 'after success':

First, I’ll make money. Then I’ll get healthy, then I will spend time with my family, then I will go to church more often,

because life punishes extreme imbalance. You can be rich, then sick, or divorced, or dead spiritually.

In my opinion, the only solution is i.e., living a balanced life with intentional integration and prioritization.

By integration, I mean things like:

  • exercising while listening to an audiobook(if you want to stay healthy and acvquire knowledge)
  • turning learning into content(if you want to build an audience)
  • Make your family part of your journey instead of ‘after success.’

and so on.

By prioritization, I mean things like:

  • Skipping the 10th episode of a TV show to chat with your wife.
  • Waking up an hour early to have time for the gym instead of sleeping in.
  • Putting your phone on airplane mode to focus on work
  • Leaving work to go to that seemingly trivial PTA meeting(which means a lot to your kid when you are there though).

Stop treating random things casually.

  • Who gets your attention?
  • What habit do you repeat?
  • What environment do you stay in?
  • What do you consume all day, and what do you postpone until later?

Again, it all gets very complicated when you realise you don't have to intentionally invite destruction.

Modern destruction is ambient. It surrounds you by default. The algorithms will find you. Notifications will interrupt you. Entertainment is available instantly.

You can waste your life in fragments: 7 minutes reading group messages, 12 minutes scrolling, 2 more episodes, opening one 10-minute YouTube video.

As a Christian, I consulted Scripture on what it says about time.

  1. In Psalm 90:12, a prayer of Moses to God teaches us to realise the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom. The scripture basically says to

    • become aware of how limited time is, and
    • that awareness produces wisdom.

    Wisdom starts when you stop assuming time is endless. Time is finite and must be redeemed. Paul the Apostle says to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.

  2. The second point is that time is tied to purpose, not just productivity.

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "For everything there is a season and a time for every activity under heaven."

    This can also mean that you can be doing the right thing at the wrong time.

  3. Time isn’t controllable, but stewardship is expected.

    You can't control how long you live, but you can control how well you live. That’s why there are many great people in history that died young, yet their impact transcends generations.

    James 4:14 says, "Your life is like a morning fog. It is here for a little while, and then it is gone." Human life is brief and unsettling.

I also realise that diligence vs wastefulness is a strong moral theme in the Bible. The Book of Proverbs repeatedly connects time and discipline; good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

The awareness that life is short is meant to clarify your priorities.

Ask yourself, "What actually deserves my life right now?"