Time, Its Value

From The American Horologist magazine, February, 1939

Time, Its Value

By DR. CHARLES STELZLE

Executive Director, Good Neighbor League

There are times when most of us are compelled to cut down our financial budget for perfectly good reasons. This may be due to unemployment, or sickness, or some other legitimate cause for which we are not responsible and which is beyond our control.

But here's one thing of which we cannot be deprived-no matter what may be our station in life-something which is often more important than money, namely Time.

Furthermore, it is far more important to learn how to live on twenty-four hours a day, than it is to make up a budget for the spending of ten dollars a dayor one hundred dollars a day. In this respect we art all members of the same aristrocracy. Everyone of us has the same amount of this wealth at his disposal- we each possess twenty-four hours a day.

There's a certain amount of this precious treasure which must be spent on the job of getting a living-let's say eight hours a day. The rest of it is ours, to spend as we please. But notice-some men "kill time," others "pass time" and others merely "fritter away time." This is the height of extravagance, which the worker, of all persons, cannot afford.

The way that a man spends this leisure time is a sure indication of his real character. What he does while he is making a living may not reveal the real man, because he may not be responsible for his job, but the way he uses his spare time-when he is his own master-betrays his genuine qualities. It's when he does what he really likes to do, in his own way, and in his own time, that he shows the kind of a man he is.

He can't plead that he hasn't enough time. He has all that there is. He will never get more than twenty-four hours a day, no matter what he does. He can't buy more, he can't borrow more, he can't steal more time. It is therefore up to him as to what he will do with this precious treasure.

There is no use charging one's failure in this respect to the prevailing social system. This is too weak an alibi. Furthermore, it is short-sighted to expect that any other kind of a social system which men may regard as ideal-and for which they are hoping-will make the slightest difference in the length and value of time. There will still be only twenty-four hours in each day, and the man who under any system spends these hours wisely will be richer than the spendthrift of the treasure of Time.