Hello! I am Marcell Proust, a French writer and thinker. I wrote the famous series of novels "In Search of Lost Time", and that's the theme we will cover today.
The value of time is, of course, a tricky topic to discuss. But since you are here to learn how to use your time more efficiently, I have a few practical exercises.
What would you do today if you had an additional minute?
Just one minute. 24:01 instead of 24:00. It seems that it's so tiny—a drop in the sea.
However, would you reject it when given a choice? Probably not.
If you want to know the price of one minute, ask the son who missed his flight and was late to arrive home when she was dying on her bed.
Or the boy who is waiting for a girl on a date, being unsure whether she would come or not. For him, this one minute is eternity.
What would you do today if you had an additional minute in your day?
If we learn to value the minutes of our lives and think about spending them wisely, we will build an overall healthy attitude to our time.
Now, think of what would you do today if you had an additional hour?
Oh, that's far better—25 hours instead of 24. And now multiply it by every day for the next decades you will live on this Earth. Well, it's a lot of time now.
You'd probably want to spend this time on your passion, the thing you always didn't have time for as you were busy working or doing some other stuff but always wanted to do. Maybe that's another hour reading your favorite novels, or playing with your kids, or doing some team sport with your friends, or simply walking in the park and enjoying nature?
Many people would say that, but not so many would fit it into their existing 24-hour life. So why would you postpone it? If it's something you want to do anyway, isn't it possible to find that one additional hour by reducing the time you spend on some other less enjoyable activities?
So what would you do today if you had that additional hour?