It seems time enjoys playing tricks on your mind, leaving you curious to understand why. Guilty of endlessly trying to align with it, you often find yourself picking up your phone, Googling phrases like “Quotes about time” or “Effective time management.” Your jaw drops as countless definitions and philosophies about time flood your screen. You should have known—everyone sees time differently.
You’ve always been aware of time. Images of a well-decorated wall clock flash like lightning through your memory. Perhaps the image of the Rolex watch your favorite artist wears comes to mind. Childhood memories resurface—watching your father’s wall clock adorned with an image of Jesus holding a lamb. At 5:30 a.m., it was time for family prayers. You didn’t always understand the hour, but you knew that when the long hand stretched to 6 and the short hand pointed to 5, it meant devotion time.
Even Juliet wondered why the second hand never stopped to point to a number. “Why does it keep moving?” she thought, too young to understand the concept. Bright, on the other hand, often stared at the clock, waiting for it to strike 7:00 p.m.—the time for dinner. She is hungry. She wants to eat.
“I should bring down this clock and reset the time”, she thinks. Unscrewing the clock, she adjusts the time forward, smiles in triumph, and waits. Yet dinner is delayed by thirty minutes. Puzzled, she discovers that her mother’s watch shows the original time. Bright is left wondering, “Why can I control only my time but, not others?”
Nathan hates how time flies by when he is asleep but crawls lazily along during his waking hours, especially while performing tasks. Seconds feel like minutes, and minutes stretch endlessly into hours. Frustration simmers until he realizes that his anger cannot stop or hasten the clock. Instead, Nathan adapts, studying time religiously. Every morning, he wakes up, glances at the wall clock, and wipes his blurry eyes. Time has become a constant in his life, something to be respected and maximized. He learns to value every second, determined to achieve something tangible with each tick.
Faith, always busy yet never productive, struggles with her growing list of unfinished tasks. Old plans meet new ones, piling up into an unmanageable heap. Exhausted and overwhelmed, she procrastinates one day and stumbles upon an online article titled “How to Keep Up with Time.” Intrigued, she reads:
“One whole day has 24 hours. 24 hours is segmented into three; morning, afternoon and evening. For the human body, in the morning, energy is fresh and sparkling for about 6 hours. During the afternoon, humans can barely sustain the energy. By evening and approaching night, the human body’s energy has reduced to its barest minimum, and at this point needs rest. Then comes the night. No human can beat that; nature cannot be cheated”. A stitch in time saves nine.” The line summaries.
Inspired, Faith vows to improve her time management and tackle her tasks with renewed vigor.
Childhood memories flit through Ruth’s mind. She remembers simpler days when critical thinking wasn’t required. Nights when the moon shone brightly, casting her shadows in the dark. How her shadow mimicked her every move, pausing dramatically when she did. Delighted, she always tried to outrun it but never succeeded. As a child, she believed that the moon followed her everywhere and was just within reach. “It’s at Mama Nkechi’s house,” she once thought, determined to follow it. But now, Ruth knows she can’t rewind time or relive the past. All she has are memories, fleeting yet precious. Her life moves forward, and she embraces change, letting go of what once was.
Hope, a curious and skeptical young man, ponders time deeply. “Time is a concept—an abstract phenomenon. It cannot be seen or touched. We only assume its existence, guided by the long, short, and ceaseless second hands of a clock. We were born into this rhythm, and each person must find their own pace.”
One day, Maxwell stumbles upon a phrase: “Time is an ace up our sleeves.” It resonates with him. Time is a valuable resource, he realizes—a tool for planning, preparing, and adapting to life’s changes. Effective time management allows one to seize opportunities and tackle challenges with precision. A sigh of relief escapes Maxwell’s lips as he smiles, murmuring, “Time truly is an ace up our sleeves.”
Written by – Hope John Okon.
