It is often said that, “time is as valuable as money” but I did not know why. When I was young I spent countless hours on what I liked doing, I did not understand what my likes cost. However, as I age, I have discerned that time is not as valuable as money, but essentially more ‘expensive’ than money.

I have always been a sensible person, easy-going and earthy. I did not follow a time schedule for I thought it deprived me of freedom. The biggest consequence of this belief, fittingly, was that I constantly found myself cramming for deadlines. This became agitating as I planned to mentally finish early, but tactically couldn’t. This situation began to bother me when I was still in primary school and kept affecting me until I was a seventh-grade-student.

When I look back now, regret not managing my time better. I could not enjoy myself when I was out with friends because my homework was concerning me. But when I had plenty of time to deal with it, I’d put it off. Then, I would end up having nothing done. What’s worse was that I didn’t use the time to do something meaningful, it seemed that the time I should have spent doing homework was used to worry about not doing it.

Then came change. When I was in junior one, I earned the lowest grade in my lifetime just before our winter vacation. My mother worried so she asked her high school teacher to lend advice. She suggested that I should make to-do list every day and disperse my time to preview every subject individually. It turned out that her advice was very worthy. Each night when I was lying on my bed at the end of the day, I took pride in accomplishing so many tasks. Not only did it help me to get it all done, it also gave me ownership of my time. I felt that I was finally getting ahead. I also found that I became calmer when troubles took place.

Today, following the to-do list, I realize dividing a day into several blocks of time could help me to become more efficient. I am still working on it, of course, but it has already brought me numerous advantages which money can never buy.