We have all been in that situation. You fixed 6 PM as the time you would sit down to study, after watching that all important TV show. You feel lazy and switch off the TV five minutes late. You stretch your limbs, have a soft drink, check your texts and before you realize, it’s 6.15 already. You decide to start off at 6.30 with a fresh mind. Although you wasted half an hour, you would still get off at 8 for the birthday party of your friend.
Although unknowingly, you wasted a good half an hour; in fact, we all do. It’s almost an everyday routine- wasting time. However, it’s interesting to note why you really wasted the precious time. The true culprit here is Math!
It’s a human tendency to round off time. If someone asks you the time, you are likely to round it off to the nearest 5 minute. If a football match starts at 1.25 AM, you are probably going to report it as 1.30 AM. In most of these situations, you do it unknowingly. In fact, we don’t just do it with time, we do it with almost everything- no one says that the cost of a Chevy Camaro is $24343!
This impulse catches on during your study time as well. If you waste a little bit of time, you tend to round off to the next half hour before you start! Sadly, time is unidirectional and once it’s lost, you can never get it back. Therefore, the process of rounding off your study time can only lead to its loss!
You should probably avoid getting late in the first place, but there are times when it’s inevitable and you get off the right track by just a few minutes. The right thing to do then is try and ignore the urge to round off the time. If you have wasted a few minutes already, why waste more? Why not start it off right at that moment?
The next time you face this situation, remember this advice and make sure you talk yourself out of wasting the few extra minutes. Just give yourself the extra push to get over it. After all, half the battle won is just showing up!
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