How a Person Manages His Time Determines How Far He Goes in His Field

No achievement comes by luck. Human wisdom develops through day-by-day accumulation, like gathering fur to make a coat. To achieve anything in any field requires investing a great deal of time and energy.

Therefore, a person who wants to achieve something in a professional field must have the ability to manage his own time. The management guru Peter Drucker once said that the worst thing about modern people, especially intellectuals, is how difficult it is for them to manage their time effectively.

The temptations before us are simply too many. Every day, socializing, reading the news, watching television and movies, and playing games eat up large amounts of our time. Time is a non-renewable resource; once wasted, it is gone forever. If a person wants to go further in his field, he must guard his time closely and not let it be squandered away.

Research-type people are not suited to social, relationship-oriented work. Whether or not they are good at it, they should not over-indulge in socializing. Socializing inevitably sacrifices a portion of time and energy, and human time and energy are finite. If too much is sacrificed, the problem one is researching cannot receive sufficient attention.

I realized this only at my present age. Having reached middle age and watched the elders around me pass away one after another, I realized that my own time is also limited; if I do not get serious and do something now, my years will have been spent in vain. So I grow more and more tired of socializing. I have withdrawn from various social circles and quietly retired to a corner to read, think, and write.

In this life, nothing is more precious than one's own life and time. Spending this precious resource on unimportant matters is irresponsible toward oneself; one day it will be regretted.