I don’t have time

Very few athletes have managed to win the 5,000 and 10,000 metres in the history of the Olympic Games. MIRUS YIFTER did it in Moscow in 1980, when he demonstrated he could win in the category dominated by Ethiopian runners.

The difficulty was not only competing in two races of different lengths, but also recuperating in the short time between the finals of both races. You have to know how to use the available resting time.

"I do not have time!" is the excuse I hear most often when someone is asked to do something. The truth is that this well-loved phrase reflects more truth than it seems to, because none of us have time. We do not even have the next five minutes of our lives.

However, to use time wisely is one of the most important things we can learn. We have all felt many times this strange sensation that time "is escaping through our hands", and have felt frustrated faced with two hundred thousand projects we wish to fulfill but cannot do it.

There is no "magic solution" to make days with 60 hours, but there is some specific advice to help us use the time God has given us even better.

1. The most important thing is to recognise that time is a gift of God. If we wish to keep our time, we will lose it, because it will always escape from our grasp. If we accept it as a gift from God, we will not feel so burdened.

2. From the above it can be understood that we cannot use time better than when we give it to God, in every sense.

3. In the same way, the best we can do to gain time is to accept what God says regarding work and rest (we have spoken about this before).

4. Each year we have to define our goals. When there is nothing predetermined to do, time flies away.

5. We also have to fix our goals for each month and each day. It is essential to note down on paper, (our agenda, plan of action, etc.) what we want and what is important to do next.

6. We must give priority to what is important, not waste time in things we have not planned, or that are not good for anything.

7. Times of entertainment and pastimes are very important. But they should not rule our lives. If we allow them to steal our time, we are lost.

8. It is useful to divide days not only into hours, but into blocks of twenty minutes. If we write the goals for each block, we will control our time a lot better so that time does not escape.