The One Truly Universal Condition

Like many pastors and most everyone else I know, I struggle to manage my time. We are all busy, busy, so dreadfully busy. There are many reasons for this busyness, many spiritual realities that can be both symptoms and causes of our crazy lives. Maybe I’ll explore some of them later (when I’m not so busy!). But for today just some good old commonsense from Peter Drucker. He’s writing about “the effective executive” but what he says about time applies to us all:

Time is also a unique resource. Of the other major resources, money is actually quite plentiful. We long ago should have learned that it is the demand for capital, rather than the supply thereof, which sets the limit to economic growth and activity. People—the third limiting resource—one can hire, though one can rarely hire enough good people. But one cannot rent, hire, buy, or otherwise obtain more time.

The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it. Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply.

Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time.

Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executive as much as their tender loving care of time. (The Effective Executive, 26)

So what do you think? Could you use more of Drucker’s prescribed TLC with your time? Personally, I’d like to explore this topic of busyness in more in depth. It would be good for my soul and perhaps for yours too. If only I could find the time.