Is it measured in seconds, experiences, calendar invites, or something else?
Let’s begin with the undeniable truth: Time is the most precious resource we have, yet we treat it like it’s an infinite supply of paper napkins – grabbing handfuls, wasting most of it, and only realizing too late that the roll is nearly empty.
The average human has about 700,000 hours on this planet. That seems like a lot until you realize how many of those hours are spent on deeply unfulfilling activities like scrolling through your phone, rewatching the same TikToks, or debating if you should switch to another app because the one you’re on is “getting boring.”
On average, surveys show we spend four hours a day on our phones. Multiply that by a lifetime, and you’ve essentially spent 10 years staring at a screen. 10 years. Compare that with the time we spend with our parents, our friends, or doing anything remotely enriching. But hey, at least we know all the latest memes. Much of the rest of our time is eaten up by the unavoidables – sleeping, eating, commuting. You know, the basics. One-third of your life is spent sleeping, another third is spent working.
This leads me to ponder how exactly we should measure time and its value.
Should it be in seconds, or perhaps in experiences? At Harvard Business School, for instance, one day feels like six months' worth of activity packed into 24 hours. Back in my slow-paced village, on the other hand, six months feels like one lazy afternoon. It’s all relative, isn’t it? You meet old friends from work after a few months apart, feeling like a different person altogether – new ideas, new ambitions, new existential crises – while their lives seem unchanged. Time moves differently for everyone, or maybe we’re just all living in parallel dimensions.
Then there’s the productivity brigade. These folks don’t measure time in minutes or hours. Oh no, their metric of choice is calendar invites and tasks completed. Each day is a competition to see how many meetings can be squeezed into the same 24-hour period. To what avail? No one knows, but at least it helps them plan their next vacation in excruciating detail. At HBS, productivity is an art form – one that involves color-coded planners and a deep sense of existential dread.
Now, let’s get philosophical. What even is time? Is it just a mindset, a concept that exists in three modes: past, present, and future? It feels obvious to say we should live in the present, doesn’t it? Yet in practice, most of us spend our time either regretting the past or worrying about the future. Living in the moment? That’s a nice quote for a fridge magnet, but in reality, we’re all just time travelers stuck between nostalgia and anticipation.
The irony is that everyone seems to agree life is unpredictable, and time is indeed our most precious resource. Yet, paradoxically, we don’t treat it that way. We squander it on trivial pursuits, as if there’s always going to be more around the corner. Maybe there’s some comfort in that illusion, or maybe it’s just human nature.
And here I am, preaching the importance of time management, fresh off a four-hour procrastination session before putting pen to paper on this piece.
The only goal I have for this year is to be a little wiser about living in the moment, content with the time I have. And maybe not overthink it too much – because if I do, I might accidentally create a cheap knockoff version of Inception, and frankly, that’s probably not the best use of my time.
Adhitya Raghavan (MBA ’25) is originally from Chennai, India. He learned about rockets during his undergrad at Princeton, studying Mechanical and Aerospace engineering. Adhitya loves playing sports and attempting to write poetry, and hopes to build his own energy company post-HBS.
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