Arnold Bennett’s, HOW TO LIVE ON TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY, is an unusual book which has won a distinctive place in world literature. It is a small classic, designed to help us make the best use of the most priceless possession we have, TIME. What follows is a synopsis:
Time is the raw material for everything. Without it nothing is possible. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle. No one can take it from you and nor receive either more or less than you receive. And you cannot waste it in advance.
You have to live on this twenty four hours a day; out of which you have to spin money, pleasure, content, health. It demands sacrifices and endless effort.
Now let us examine the budget of the day’s time. A typical man spends eight hours (from 9 am to 5 pm) in the office. During the remaining sixteen hours (from 9 am to 5 pm) he has nothing whatever to do but cultivate his body and soul and serve fellow men.
In examining the typical man’s method of employing the 16 hours that are entirely his, let him spend 30 minutes daily in the morning, and an hour and a half every other evening in cultivating the mind. He will still be left with 3 evenings for friends, family and gardening.
We do not reflect upon genuinely important things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main direction in which we are going, upon what life is giving to us, upon the share which reason has in determining our actions and upon the relation between our principles and our conduct.
In the formation of principles and the practice of conduct, much help can be derived from books. I suggest Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. I may also mention Pascal, La Brayere and Emerson. But no reading of books will take the place of a daily, candid, honest examination of what one has recently done and what one is about to do – of a steady looking of one’s self in the face.
Many people remain idle in the evenings because they think there is no alternative to idleness but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have a taste for literature. This is a great mistake. There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which yield magnificent results to cultivators.
You need not be devoted to the arts, nor to literature in order to live fully. The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity which means life and the satisfaction which means an understanding an understanding heart.
I now come to the case of the person, happily very common, who does like reading. I offer two general suggestions for self-improvement through reading. The first is to define the direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a single author. And during a given period confine yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived from being a specialist. The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. To read the full book, click: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/24hrs11.txt (Thank you very much, Project Gutenberg, thank you very much!)
Time is the raw material for everything. Without it nothing is possible. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle. No one can take it from you and nor receive either more or less than you receive. And you cannot waste it in advance.
You have to live on this twenty four hours a day; out of which you have to spin money, pleasure, content, health. It demands sacrifices and endless effort.
Now let us examine the budget of the day’s time. A typical man spends eight hours (from 9 am to 5 pm) in the office. During the remaining sixteen hours (from 9 am to 5 pm) he has nothing whatever to do but cultivate his body and soul and serve fellow men.
In examining the typical man’s method of employing the 16 hours that are entirely his, let him spend 30 minutes daily in the morning, and an hour and a half every other evening in cultivating the mind. He will still be left with 3 evenings for friends, family and gardening.
We do not reflect upon genuinely important things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main direction in which we are going, upon what life is giving to us, upon the share which reason has in determining our actions and upon the relation between our principles and our conduct.
In the formation of principles and the practice of conduct, much help can be derived from books. I suggest Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. I may also mention Pascal, La Brayere and Emerson. But no reading of books will take the place of a daily, candid, honest examination of what one has recently done and what one is about to do – of a steady looking of one’s self in the face.
Many people remain idle in the evenings because they think there is no alternative to idleness but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have a taste for literature. This is a great mistake. There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which yield magnificent results to cultivators.
You need not be devoted to the arts, nor to literature in order to live fully. The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity which means life and the satisfaction which means an understanding an understanding heart.
I now come to the case of the person, happily very common, who does like reading. I offer two general suggestions for self-improvement through reading. The first is to define the direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a single author. And during a given period confine yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived from being a specialist. The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. To read the full book, click: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/24hrs11.txt (Thank you very much, Project Gutenberg, thank you very much!)
