Before modern times made their way to our continent, before the calendar, and before the clock, Africans used seasons for time. Activities were not scheduled to happen at specific minutes and hours, but in bands – morning, afternoon, evening. Likewise, children were named after seasons, or the band of the day they were born.

The position of the sun or the size of shadow was accurately interpreted to show time and activities were done accordingly. Along the way, modernization brought forth the clock and everything became easier. Time would be known by just a blink of an eye.

However, managing time in Africa remains a complex issue. Despite the onslaught of modernization and changes in lifestyles, we have remained adamant in our ways of keeping time. In fact, we call it ‘African time’ where we schedule meetings at a given time but begin it almost an hour later. This has become part of our culture so much that no one raises an eyebrow whenever things get late.

Wikipedia defines this ‘African time’ as a perceived cultural tendency, in parts of Africa and the Caribbean toward a more relaxed attitude to time. It is used in a pejorative sense, about tardiness in appointments, meetings and events. I could not agree more on this because that is our typical tendency.

We have habitually taken time management for granted. The maxims such as there is no hurry in Africa are deeply rooted in us. We make excuses for our lateness almost on a daily basis. The same is transferred from generation to generation making more complicated on when actually we shall liberate ourselves from poor time management.

Although many may deny it, keeping track of the time is one of the primary considerations a person should have.

With so many things that must be accomplished in one day, it is necessary to constantly watch the time to make sure that everything is done on schedule, from our work stations to interaction with friends and family members.

Time is a special resource that you cannot store or save for later use. Everyone has the exact same amount of time each day. Time not well used cannot be retrieved. Time management is the ability to plan and control how you spend the hours in a day to effectively accomplish goals.

Poor time management translates to procrastination, as well as problems with self-control. Skills involved in managing time include planning for the future, setting goals, prioritizing tasks, and monitoring where every minute goes.

Africa’s underdevelopment has often been attributed to poor time management as a contributing factor. We spend much of our hours doing unproductive activities. Our economies survive on the brightness of the sun while in other parts of the world people work in shifts, round the clock, literally in every human endeavour.

It is high time we cultivated techniques and skills that can help us make use of the available time in the most efficient way and to accomplish goals, tasks and projects within the predetermined period of time.

Time management vary from, but are not limited to, prioritizing tasks, planning, scheduling, organizing and the delegation of functions. It is an invaluable skill necessary to live a quality life. Our achievements in all perspectives are as a result of how long and how best we make use of given opportunities.

The world has become a demanding society where people are constantly struggling to attend to their duties and responsibilities and hardly find time for leisure, family and self. In order to handle these demands of life without going crazy, one should learn the ability of managing this precious resource.

An individual conscious about time improves their productivity, which allows them to get more work done within shorter time. Time management allows us furthermore to take control of our professional as well as personal life, as it helps us to know what needs to be done and what goals need to be accomplished on a daily basis.

Time keeping is one of the skills that an individual has to learn to be productive. A person’s productivity is measured on how much they can do and achieve at a given period. Personal productivity is one of the vital elements of life management. If one can master life management, one can live life to its fullest.

William Shakespeare, the English playwright, once said better three hours too soon than a minute late. There are numerous cases where a senior government bureaucrat keeps members of the public waiting, a friend turns up late for an appointment, a judge holds up Court proceedings or a public service vehicle leaves and arrives late.

All this has become the norm rather than the exception.

Time management is not very difficult as a concept, but it’s surprisingly hard to do in practice. It requires the investment of a little time upfront to prioritise and organize oneself.  But once done, you will find that with minor tweaks, your day, and indeed your week and month, fall into place in an orderly fashion, with time for everything you need to do.  As they say time is money, our proper utilization of it would also make a greater economic sense! And one last question: Is poor time-keeping Africa’s worst enemy? Your guess is as good as mine!

oscar_kim2000@yahoo.co.uk