Tony Williamson

We are all members of the 1440 Club, from the moment we come into this world until the day we leave it. Man or woman, boy or girl, rich or poor, we are involuntarily members. What is the 1440 Club? The 1440 Club is the club of time. There are 1440 minutes in a day - no more, no less.

If you should ask people if they have enough time, most would say that they don't. You have heard many people sigh: "I wish I had more hours in the day." But this is the paradox of time, the enigma of the 1440 Club: Few people have enough time, yet everyone has all there is. Time waits on no one.

Time management consultant R. Alex McKenzie makes this observation: "Time is a unique resource. It cannot be accumulated like money or stockpiled like raw materials. We are forced to spend it, whether we choose to or not, at a fixed rate of 60 seconds for every minute. It cannot be turned on and off like a machine or replaced like a man. It is irretrievable." (The Time Trap). Chaplin Tyler puts it this way: "Time is the most inexorable and inelastic element in our existence."

In Jamaica, there is a culture of lateness. If you are old enough you may remember the hilarious comedy, 'Eight O'Clock Jamaica Time', in which a clock below this sign showed 8:30. We routinely turn up late to meetings, church, parties, work and almost every conceivable engagement.

Time management, of course, is far more than punctuality, but we shall begin here since that area of time management is often a symptom of a greater overall problem.

MINDSET

I once counselled a young man who was chronically late. Nothing I said to him, or what anybody else advised him, could make him arrive on time for his appointments. He just about admitted he could not change - until he migrated to New York. I went to visit him in New York, and much to my amazement, he had completely changed. He was not just on time for his engagements, he was early! What had happened to him? His wife told me quietly that the very first time he came late for his job in New York, by the time he arrived, someone else was in his place! That was the last time he was ever late for work - and anything else. He had a completely different mindset.

WHY MANAGE TIME

The management of time is the management of yourself. If you cannot manage time, you cannot manage yourself. If you cannot manage yourself, can you manage others with credibility? Management guru, Peter Drucker, has made the observation that unless he manages himself effectively, no amount of ability, skill, experience or knowledge will make an executive effective.

And Gerald Achenbach, a former CEO of one of the most successful chains of supermarkets in America, summarises his philosophy of managing time: "It's your time you're spending. You should be its master and not let it master you. You can't master time unless you're first willing to master yourself."

CHANGING YOUR MINDSET

Books are a dime a dozen in our bookstores on the practical details of managing your time - how to identify 'time-stealers', and 'time-savers' and so on. The purpose of this article is not to rehash the myriad bits of practical advice. The purpose of this article is to get you to change your mindset, to go far deeper than the practical tips. I am convinced that, unless a man changes his mind about time management, adopts a new philosophy, books on time management are about as useful to him as ice in Alaska.

And this is why people will go through their entire lives always late, regardless of the books, seminars, etcetera, that they participate in. They are late because of mindset. Teaching someone practical tips about managing time without a mindset change is like treating cancer with a 'bath' from a balm yard in St. Thomas. It is useless hocus-pocus, Mephistophelean mumbo-jumbo, destined to fail as surely as night follows day.

- More on time management next week.