It’s politics season here in the UK, which is always a curious moment to reflect on the strangeness of time. Specifically I find that wherever I am in the world watching something very dull, like a lengthy political speech, it seems to cause time to slow down. And then there’s the way there never seems to be enough of it when you do get into something interesting.
Funny old thing that it is, it nevertheless continues to be a potent reminder of just how fleeting time is. It’s true that one minute will follow another minute as an hour will an hour, but the minute that just went by is gone forever, never to return.
That’s why the most important moment for any student is the present one, the time they are living in now. You can’t do anything about the past – it’s long gone! And the future simply isn’t here yet. But here in the moment you can change what you are doing and influence what your future might be.
This might seem obvious, but it’s astounding how many Students try to get by without any sense of prioritising their work. Leaving it to the last minute forces them to churn out substandard work that does no credit to their actual abilities. It’s always a little sad having to mark down, or even fail, a student who you know is fully capable but wasn’t prepared to spend their time effectively to ensure their work represented their talents properly.
For the student engaged in a course of study, the most important moment is always now. You must develop the discipline to ensure that the things you do in your life minute by minute combine to help you achieve your goals. Otherwise you might take longer, or indeed never, achieve them!
But this doesn’t meant that you must spend every hour of every day in study. Rather, you need to structure your time in order to support your studies. You require time to sleep and rest, you may need time to go to work to earn a living. You even need time to relax and unwind and enjoy yourself. Because the key, as with all things, is balance and neglecting any part will make the whole suffer.
So, how does your next ten minutes fit into the rest of your life?
Until Next time
Daryl Tempest-Mogg
Director of Vocational Studies
Academy for Distance Learning
