“Time is precious. It is invaluable. It is one of the powerful factors. Our life is measured in terms of time. We grow in time, live in time and perish in time. Time is fleeting. It is changing. It never stops. Neither does it wait for anyone.
Time once lost is lost forever. It can never be regained. It can never be captured. It is the most potent factor. Even the strongest and powerful monarchs have been helpless before time. Even they could not command time to stop. So, we should be careful about the importance of time. We should never waste it. We are successful in life only when we make the best use of time.” – “The Importance of Time” By Smruti

I don’t think anyone would argue with any of the above. If you do than don’t write or call me – you would be wasting not only my time but yours. And yours matters most. In fact your time is always more precious than my time.

This was brought home to me over the last few days with two completely un-similar events although they all involve time.

Last Tuesday in the Cayman Islands Summary Court, Magistrate Valdis Foldats said too much court time was being spent correcting charges.

Correcting charges? You mean prisoners were being charged on wrong information?

Yes.

The magistrate said, “Too often the court is doing the job of counsel, pointing out defects in charges.” And he was referring to people like himself – the presiding magistrate.

On the day he made this startling revelation he pointed to 4 names listed for mention that had errors.

As last in the chain the magistrate has to find time to check the documents otherwise a grave error in judgment could result.

We have many examples where appeals have been granted and won because of errors in the original trial documents. An Appeal Attorney will find the time to meticulously look at every detail to see where he can base his case.

What a pity time wasn’t taken at the very start of the proceedings to check that everything was in order.

“I just didn’t have the time” is the excuse. But we all are given the same amount of time – it is how we make use of it and it makes me very cross when someone thinks their time is more important then mine.

The other instance involved my position at my church as Hall Manager. Last Monday we had a double booking at the hall due to someone not checking with me to see first that it was free. The reason given to me was that “I didn’t have time to call you”. It was my fault because according to the person I must put a notice up on the door of the church showing the dates when the hall is booked. I said if I do that is there any guarantee that he/she would inform me that they had booked it on the vacant date. If I didn’t know I could still double book it. The person said they would. In that case the person would be using the same amount of time in calling me but I would be using additional time in making out a notice that I would have to keep revising as bookings came in. All this for the person’s benefit because their time was more important than mine. Although it actually wasn’t. But the perception is there.

However, we are all guilty of this.

How many times a week do we say, “I haven’t got time for this?’

But we have.

We all have the exactly the same time – until we die.

Then we don’t.