A rich man may spend his money carelessly; but a man with a limited income must practice economy, so as to waste nothing and get the most out of every rupee he spends. Now, the time at our disposal is strictly limited. When we are young, with all life before us, we are tempted to be careless how we spend our time, because we imagine we have so much of it; but as the years slip away and we find that we are growing old, we realize how short, and uncertain, life is; and, we discover too late, that we have wasted the greater part of it in aimless pursuits.
To use our time wisely, therefore, it is necessary for us to realize early in life that our time is limited, and so every hour of it is precious. We cannot afford to waste it. To idle, aimless people, time goes slowly and life seems long; but to an earnest man, who has an lamination to achieve some solid success before he dies, life seems all too short for his work; and so he uses : Ars longa, vita brevis. He feels, as the aged Ulysses felt.
To get the best out of our time, some method of using it is necessary. Alfred the Great, the wise king of Wessex, used to divide the twenty-four hours of each day into three parts, devoting eight hours top work, eight hours to sleep, and eight hours to recreation.
A certain amount of time we must give to sleep, which is as necessary for life as food. But lazy people spend far more time in their beds than is necessary; and all time unnecessarily spent in sleep is simply lost and wasted.
A certain amount of recreation is also necessary.
`All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.’
But we must be careful that our amusements and leisure hours are really re-creative. Some forms of amusement, even if they are not vicious, are exhausting and do us more harm than good; and a lot of time is wasted in idle gossip or in simply doing nothing. A person whose occupation is sedentary wants open air recreation, such as sport, games, or gardening; while a manual worker will find his best recreation in reading or rest.
But the main part of life should be spent in honest, useful work. Most of us have have to work so many hours a day simply to earn a living; but those who are rich enough to live without working, should chose some congenial occupation, and do, not only achieves nothing in life, but, finding time heavy on his hands, is tempted to waste it in frivolous or even or vicious pleasures.
