I am writing about something that we all know and by providence provided freely and equally to everyone. Which is measurable and accountable, however we can neither save nor borrow any of it.

If you don’t feel hungry and skip the meal, vegetables can be saved for later.
If you don’t go to the market and shop, money can be saved in the wallet.
If you don’t take your car out for a drive, petrol can be saved in the tank.

You might have guessed by now; I am talking about ‘time’.

Time is on the same journey of your life more faithful than your best friend.
Your shadow may leave you sometimes, time will continue to be with you.
As you exhaust a minute another is provided till the last minute of your life.
One can’t reach into next minute nor can reach back into the one that expired.

Now the perplexing question – How do we attribute value to time?

Value of time changes based on activity and on individual.

Surgeon’s every minute is valuable while on surgery.
Not as much while he is chatting with friends.

Quality of time changes over time.

As the surgeon gets older, while value remains the same, quality may deteriorate.

As life is moving by at a constant speed (never zips by), we need to do the following.

a) Identify our purpose(s) in life (Mother, Father, Teacher, Engineer, Artist, ….)
b) Identify most values activities towards the identified purposes.
c) Identify among the most valuable activities which does greater good.
    Act of greater good – Act that does good to greater number of people.
d) Identify the activities that contribute actively, passively or in the opposite way.
e) Distribute time to activities based on their value.
    Maximize the time for active contributors.
    Maintain time for passive contributors.
    Reduce the time for activities that are contradictory to the purpose.

Illustration with an example is in order.
Let us continue with our example – Surgeon Dr. John.
His roles – Surgeon, Father.
His activities are surgery, basketball, and Netflix movie watching.
This trivial example helps to illustrate activity classification.
    Surgery –  Active contributor – Highest greater good (Increase activity).
    Parenting – Active contributor – Second greater good (Increase activity).
    Playing Basketball – Passive Contributor – (Maintain activity).
    Watching Movies – Contradictory to purpose – (Reduce activity).

If you are teacher then teaching is your greater good as your students will make great contributions in future. If you are a student then studying is the greater good as it provides the basis for all future contributions. Thus an activity that creates a value in the future could also be the best one to pursue most.

Each day as we use up the time that was allotted to us, though not knowing how much more is there, one needs to use time wisely by working with great efficacy and with little or no waste. Apportion as much as possible to the greater good, lest there will be regrets in future.

Hence, Every day, it is required of us to account how we spent time and to contemplate on how to increase it for the ‘greater good activities’ the very next day.