The ruler’s time was fading away. He needed to train soldiers and workers and find more resources. He also had to make some donations to the neighboring villages, as he knew that the more they all helped one another, the more likely they would be to defend their territory. Jack was still happy because they had at least put up walls around the village, built barracks for people, and two camps for soldiers. He was spending four or five hours checking the village every day, because he knew the ruler had to take care of his home. Suddenly, he heard the voice coming from the old and loyal tower. It was telling news of the war. Jack gathered all his soldiers because he was the only one to command them. Strategy was so important, because bad planning would mean the end of all the villages. After a brave speech, they started to march. All the soldiers’ attention was directed to Jack, waiting for his commands.

But suddenly, Jack lost all his soldiers. He was mad and ran away from his room to check the router and saw that there was no internet connection. What was he going to do now? Jack sighed. He supposed he would do homework instead. Exams were getting closer; all his enthusiasm faded away.

It does not matter what age you are, most people find it difficult to concentrate on the task they are required to do. There are books, seminars and many activities to motivate people to finish their work. These all show that we face an important problem with handling our responsibilities.

This is also one of the key issues in education. Much research has focused on how to improve the engagement and motivation of young people towards their school work. As you have probably heard, it’s almost a cliché that most parents complain about young people’s irresponsibility regarding school work and work around the home. While this has been a problem standing in front of us for a while now, we must ask: what makes these kinds of distracting video games so appealing?

The story told above is happening every day. That video game has been downloaded more than 50 million times and is being played every day by millions of people of various ages. The first time I had heard of this game was when I conducted interviews with children using a tablet PC in school. Although my focus of the research was not about mobile games, this was brought up when I wanted to make informal conversation before initiating the interview. One boy was so enthusiastic when we started to talk about this game, that he mentioned he would stop playing the game, go to sleep, but set his alarm for five hours later – his worker would have finished the task he’d been assigned, and the boy would wake up to assign a new task Not finishing such a task would mean lagging behind his peers, for his village would not develop.

I asked him, “what is so nice about this game? You are just building and upgrading buildings and fighting against others.”

The answer was, “I don’t know; it is just fun.”

I also installed the game. I had played it for two months until I woke up at 3 a.m. with a notification. One of my workers had finished his work and I assigned him another task. Then I tried to sleep. I opened my eyes again after a couple of seconds and saw my wife’s shocked eyes. She could not believe I woke up just for this. It was the last time I played the game. But the question was still in my mind: how could we trigger our sense of responsibility by exemplifying the methods of the game in real life?

We – people in education, parents – spend a considerable amount of time and resources to nurture children in a manner so that they become aware of their responsibilities. However, schools, teachers, homework, etc. are seen as boring and something to be escaped by most children.

Gamification is a trendy jargon nowadays. It aims at transforming real life context in a manner that adopts game thinking in online platforms. From this perspective, it proposes to increase motivation, engagement, sense of enjoyment, and the positive attitudes of people towards work (Huanng and Soman, 2013). While there is much research in the sector of business, gamification is also widely recognized in education. The educational purpose of gamification is that instead of blunting the way children best learn, the way they enjoy to learn should be adapted in an educational context. This is not a new idea, as this was also expressed in other contexts. For example, Said Nursi touches on a crucial point:

One reason why preachers’ advice is ineffective nowadays is that they invite people to change their nature. They advise: “Do not be envious or ambitious, do not feel enmity or be obstinate, do not love the world,” and so on. Such advice is useless, for it is against human nature. Instead, these energies can and should be channeled into good deeds and directed toward positive aims. (The Ninth Letter, p. 53)

If we want to apply this method in education, the first thing we should consider is what children like and enjoy most. Obviously, many of them enjoy playing games and any advice like, “Don’t play games! Don’t laugh during the lesson! Don’t spend time in front of the computer! Be quiet in class!” will be counter-productive. As in Said Nursi’s statement, this is asking the impossible from a child who is created to learn in an environment that offers play, social interaction, and competition.

Jean Piaget is a well-known theorist about play and the cognitive development of children. He emphasizes the importance of play and its contribution to healthy development of children (Sutton-Smith, 1983). Vygotsky (1967) also underlines social play and peer interaction in child development. However, while Vygotsky gives the example of a child who rides an imaginary horse with a stick, today’s children’s perception of play has changed and continues to change dramatically. Therefore, it should be understood how Jack’s and my sense of responsibility were piqued. While we both cognitively focused and spent a considerable amount of time on this game, we also enjoyed doing so.

From the perspectives above, the stimulating dynamics used in games could be transformed in a suitable manner into curriculum and the classroom environment could be redesigned. This can also be adapted into work environments, as in Google whose office buildings are colorful rather than plain, and there is even a slide for their workers to use instead of stairs. Their aim is to make the environment flexible so people in the firm do not perceive what they are doing as a work.

There is also educational technology that pays attention to gamification. ClassDojo is one of them. It is a simple but effective idea to attract student’s attention and change their behavior. Each student chooses an avatar that looks like a small monster and the teacher assesses various things on behalf of the students’ avatars. Teachers can give immediate feedback to students. For example, when a student shows a negative behavior in class or solves a question, students will see the changes in his/her ClassDojo app on their mobile device. The children I interviewed showed great enthusiasm about this application and interestingly, they perceive this application as a game, although the only differences between this application and normal assessment sheets were the avatars and the template. Kahoot and Socrative are two other mobile applications that these students have experience with. These mobile applications are also perceived as joyful, competitive, and rich learning platforms.

While considering how to transfer the strategies of the game into the real life context, it should not be forgotten that there are parents and teachers who have serious reservations about games, as some of their children are addicted to these kinds of games. They are right to have these doubts and I do not think games are absolutely innocent. In fact, most strategy games, including the one that me and Jack became addicted to, have many negative messages, from stealing to killing people. But when it is impossible to avoid them completely, it is best to focus on the positive themes and actualize them for productive outcomes in schools and family life.

All in all, I am still thinking about the situation of my village and neighborhoods. The rulers of neighboring villages were sad and angry when I said that I was leaving: “Winter” was getting closer and they needed my donations and the soldiers I trained. I am now consoling myself as my wife, who is a child psychologist, assigned me to do cleaning and made me think of all the bacteria as my enemies and a big threat to our lovely village (home). As parents and educators, it is our duty to discover the way your children and students learn and produce your own real games.

Ahmet Tugra is a PhD candidate in the department of Learning, Technology and Education in the UK.

He was few minutes late for the meeting, but not so late as to be unacceptable. After the meeting was over, Adam went to his office. He had a lot of things to do: a report was due in two weeks, there was to be a presentation for a project he had just finished, a proposal for a new project, and a bunch of minor office tasks. However, he did not feel like doing any of them at the moment; moreover, they all could wait a few minutes. He was curious about the up-coming election, so he decided to read the news online. Then he felt the need to look up on the latest technology news. Without noticing, he spent nearly an hour reading the news.

Adam then felt compelled to start preparing his presentation. He was intelligent and the project was innovative; now was the time to prepare the best possible presentation. He outlined the presentation in his mind and started working on the first slide. He spent quite a bit of time on the first slide, but he could not get it right; every time he tried something, he saw that it was not perfect and started again from scratch. Finally, he exhausted his energy and motivation and decided that preparing the presentation for this project was too difficult and postponed working on it later that day.

He decided to move to the report task, but first he needed a break. It was around 1 p.m. and it was time for the noon prayer, but this was not urgent, he thought; he could do it later. He decided to take a break and check his emails. He quickly checked his three email accounts to see if he had any unread messages-there was a message in one of the accounts. It was from his high school friend asking how he was doing. He was busy right now, and decided that he did not have the time to answer; he signed out. Finally, he started writing something for the report. Even though he had planned to work on the report last week, he had not been able to do it, not because he did not have enough time, but because it had not been due and he decided that it could wait. He started working on the report, but he noticed that the software he was using to write the report was notifying him of a feature update. Because he did not feel like working on the report, he went ahead and downloaded the update. Installing it took some time. Even though it was completely unnecessary at that moment, he convinced himself that it was worthwhile, at least for the future.

He jotted down some notes for the report. While he was working on it, his friend from the next office came and asked him if he could join them to play basketball at the weekend. He told him that even though he would very much like to join them, he was very busy and had no time nowadays. The time for the noon prayer was nearly over. He hurried up and performed the obligatory part of the prayer quickly. As for the voluntary prayers, he had no time for them right now.

After the prayer he remembered that he still needed to write the proposal for next week. He was planning to work on it this week, but, because he had not worked on the report last week, he had to work on that now instead of the proposal.

Without having realized it, it was nearly 6 p.m. already. He was married, so he did not want to stay in the office. After all, he could work on the report at home, he thought. He went back home, had dinner with his wife; his wife mentioned that it had been a long time since they had seen a movie together and wondered if they could go and see one. He told his wife that even though he would very much like to, he was too busy this week; perhaps they could go next week. He remembered that he said the same thing last week; he had worked well last week so he would have time this week. He knew that he was not working very efficiently, and he was not able to do so, even though he wanted to. He condemned himself of being lazy and not a very good husband.

Weeks passed. Adam continued the same style of lethargic life; he was carrying out all his duties (his job, volunteering tasks, duties as a husband, etc.) at the bare minimum; he was neither satisfied nor completely unhappy. However, his wife was not happy with the whole process; every time she asked something from Adam, he would promise to do it later; however this would almost always be delayed indefinitely. Once at the weekend she asked Adam whether they could go out. Adam said that he was very busy; perhaps they could go out later that day or next week. This time, his wife told Adam that she no longer had confidence in him. He was shocked; he had not expected such a response. He tried to explain himself to his wife by saying that every promise he had made was with sincere intentions, but his wife did not believe even this explanation. He said he was sorry, but his wife did not accept his apology as this was the hundredth time he had apologized. Adam felt that the most important thing between a husband and a wife was trust; losing this meant losing everything. He felt terrible; he tried to explain everything, but nothing pleased his wife. He felt exhausted; he blamed his wife not being more understanding and left.

Adam spent hours thinking about what had gone wrong. Indeed, his wife was right; every time she asked for something, he would promise to do it and even though he was sincere in his promise, he would put it off indefinitely. He felt awful about the whole situation, but he was not able to rectify it. Then he thought about all the promises that he had made to God, almost all of which he had broken. Then, he shivered with the thought of “what if God also says that He does not trust me anymore?” And what if God told him that He had given Adam enough chances and that he had used them all up, that he had none left and therefore, there is no need for him to be alive any longer? That would be a horrible end indeed.

It was time for the afternoon prayer. After the prayer, he made the following supplication over and over again: “Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtle, the Aware” (Mulk 67:14). Thus, he asked for help from the One Who is aware of everything, Who is the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful, and the All-Powerful.

This time, he was determined to solve the lethargy problem. First, he contemplated about what were the causes of being lethargic.

Indeed, Adam was very lethargic and there were many reasons for it. It was not that he wanted to be a lazy person; on the contrary, he wanted to succeed; he could be smart and successful when he put his energy into a task. However, he was very disorganized; because he did not assign tasks to different time slots, he could easily spend those times on tasks that seemed necessary but actually were unnecessary, such as spending long minutes or even hours reading the news, installing feature updates, etc. He was a perfectionist; he wanted to make the final product (report, presentation, etc.) perfect; this is a good habit to have. However, being a perfectionist made him overcritical of himself, and this dampened his desire to work. He procrastinated; procrastination made his tasks pile higher and deeper; delaying one task caused delays to others. The constant thought of piled-up tasks constantly preoccupied him and as a result he had no time to reply to his emails, no time for the optional prayers, no time for sports, no time for entertainment, and no time to read books, etc. However, had he set aside some time to do sports; however to support hard work he would have to have a healthier body and mind, he needed to set aside an hour for relaxation, and not spend long hours on the web surfing while thinking “I should not be doing this right now” at the back of his mind, yet at the same time he had to be able to relax and start the next day with a fresh mind.

To solve these problems, he would have to eliminate the causes; however, most importantly, he needed energy and determination. He had neither. Then, he remembered: “My Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer” (Furqan 25:77). Indeed, he was too weak to depend on himself alone, but he had learned that if he depended on God he could be the most powerful person in the world. He remembered all the things he had read and learned… The importance of “In the Name of God,” the need to put his trust in God, the fact that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had a prayer for almost every occasion, that it is very important not to sleep at dawn, that one should perform their daily prayers as early as one can, that one should eat, sleep and talk less, and that eating much meant sleeping much, that our Prophet used to go to bed after the night prayer, the importance of lawful earning and legitimate food, that the work between two prayers is counted as worship, that he should not leave today’s task for tomorrow, that he should know the value of free time before he became too busy, and so on. He felt that he could not do all of these; but once again, he remembered the verse above. However, he did not know where to start. Then, he recited: “Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtle, the Aware” (Mulk 67:14) and while making the prayer, he knew that God knew everything about him and that Adam had to extricate himself from this problem but he was not successful. He asked for help; he asked for solutions to all his problems, dilemmas, troubles and obstacles.

He thought of starting a new life-style tomorrow morning, but then he remembered that it was Satan who was whispering him to start “tomorrow”; he needed to put an end to this miserable life right now. He went back home; dinner was waiting. He thought “what a patient wife I have; we had a quarrel, yet she still prepared dinner for me.” The food was very good, but he did not eat much. First of all, he was not feeling well, but he also wanted to practice the “eat less” principle. When it was time for the night prayer, he immediately rushed to his prayer rug; he knew that if he does not pray now, he will delay it at least two hours. After the prayer, he went to bed.

He woke up early in the morning; he was able to wake up early because he had not slept with a full stomach, and he had gone to bed early. He made the supplication “All praise belongs to God; He gave me life after my death; we shall return to Him. There is no god but God. O God; increase my knowledge. Do not let me go astray after you have guided me to the straight path. Grant me mercy. Indeed You are the Bestower.” He thanked God for giving him another chance.

He performed the morning prayer and he thought about some of the wisdoms inherent in the morning prayer: By nature man is extremely weak, yet everything touches him, saddens and grieves him. Also, he is utterly lacking in power, yet the calamities and enemies that afflict him are extremely numerous. Also, he is extremely wanting, yet his needs are indeed many. Also, he is lazy and incapable, yet the responsibilities of life are most burdensome. Also, his humanity has connected him to the rest of the universe, yet the decline and disappearance of the things he loves and with which he is familiar continually pains him. Also, his reason shows him exalted aims and lasting fruits, yet his reach is short, his life brief, his power slight, and his patience little. Thus, it can be clearly understood how essential it is for a spirit in this state to have recourse to and present a petition to the Court of an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Compassionate All-Beauteous One at the time of prayer in the early morning through prayer and supplication, to seek success and help from Him; this is an essential support so that one can face the things that will happen to them in the coming day and bear the duties that will be loaded on them. He then sought refuge in God from laziness. He was feeling energetic, but still very deep in thoughts of all the things that had happened yesterday.

He felt very sleepy, but he resisted going to bed; in order to wake himself up, he took a shower. After the shower, he recited a few pages from the Qur’an. He was feeling very ashamed every moment he felt he was in the presence of God, but interestingly, he was also feeling very close to God.

After having a light breakfast, Adam left for the office. It was pretty early in the morning. When he arrived at work, he made a list of the things he needed to do. Then, he divided his day into five, according to the five daily prayers; he put the prayers down on his list first. He was determined to perform them as early as he could. Then, he arranged the other tasks between the prayers.

Now, it was the time to start the first task. It was a new project and it was always difficult to take the first step. He pushed himself to start the task, but he could not start. He was about to give up; then, he remembered the power and the treasures hidden inside “bismillah” (in the name of God).” He recited it and he also recited “O God, make it easy for me, not difficult. O God, finish it with a good and beneficial end.” Adam felt a little better; he recited the words a few more times. He was able to take the first step and the rest just followed.

When he tired of one task, he said “All Praise belongs to God, Alhamdulillah” for each task, and he moved onto the next with bismillah. But, after about two hours, he felt very tired. He was inclined to read the news, to relax; but he resisted. He asked himself “What purpose does reading the news serve right now? Relaxation? I don’t remember ever being relaxed after reading news. Being up to date about current events? Well, I’ll do that towards the end of the day when my mind is more tired.” He then went outside to get some fresh air. After a 10-minute break, he returned and realized that he could complete one more task before the prayer. He started the task with bismillah and before he knew it, it was time for the prayer and the task had been complete.

Now it was time for the noon prayer. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Adam thought about some of the wisdom of the noon prayer: the time of noon prayer, just past midday is the time of the day’s zenith and the start of its decline; the time when daily labors approach their achievement, the time of a short rest from the pressure of work, when the spirit needs a pause from the heedlessness and insensibility caused by toil, and a time when Divine bounties are manifest. Everyone can then understand how fine and agreeable, how necessary and appropriate it is to perform the midday prayer for the human spirit, as it is a means to be released from the pressure, to shake off the heedlessness, and leave behind those meaningless, transient things, clasping one’s hands at the Court of the True Bestower of Bounties, the Eternally Self-Subsistent One, offering praise and thanks for all His gifts, and seeking help from Him; through bowing one display one’s impotence before His Glory and Tremendousness, and prostrates and proclaims one’s wonder, love, and humility. He performed his prayer with great humility and submission. He was able to refresh himself with the prayer; he reminded himself of the source of the power and he reminded himself that the work between two prayers counted as a type of worship. While praying, Adam forgot all about work and his mind was rested. He made a supplication at the end of the prayer, thanking God for all the things He had given him and thanking Him for the work he had been able to complete in the morning; he also asked for help for the rest of the day and the rest of his life.

After the noon prayer, Adam continued his tasks that had not been finished in the morning. When he became tired, he took a book out of his bag and spent some time reading it as a break and then he returned back to work. When it was time for the final task on his list for that day, he remembered that the task was not due for another week, so he thought about delaying it. However, he remembered that he should not leave today’s tasks for tomorrow.

The day passed. It was a very productive day; he felt that time had expanded. Maybe, it had expanded because he had recited prayers in the morning, maybe it had expanded because he had not remained asleep at dawn, or perhaps there was some other reason. Whatever the reason was, it was a bounty from God and he thanked Him for it. Adam once again felt a great humility in front of God.

A few days passed like this. Adam would perform the night prayer on time and he would go to bed after the prayer, making supplications when he woke up; he would not sleep after the morning prayer, but rather recited supplications before he left for work. He was very happy throughout this time, but it was not easy. He felt that he did not have the same motivation or energy that he had had at the beginning. He was about to lapse again. He knew that to remain on this track would not be easy. From all his experience he knew that every time he made a resolution to adopt a new style of life, it would only last a few days. But, this time, Adam was more determined than ever. First of all, he was sick of being lethargic and all the results of this lethargy. It was destroying his life; his time was passing unused and he was not fulfilling his promises to his wife or those to God. He really wanted to put an end to all of this and he was successful for a few days. Adam was now afraid that he would revert to his former life-style. Then, he prayed: “Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate now after You have guided us, but grant us mercy from You; for You are the Grantor of bounties without measure.”

He finally decided to talk to his wife about the situation. He explained things to her, he discussed the lethargy and that he had constantly been fighting it for so long, but that he had not been successful. It was the cause behind all the broken promises. But, this time, he was very determined; he was constantly praying and he was also looking for different sources of information to solve the problem. He also told his wife that solving this problem would not be easy and it was possible that he would revert to his old habits on occasion, more frequently in the beginning than towards the end. He asked for her help in the entire process; he asked for her encouragement and he asked her to support him lest he stumbled. His wife felt the great pain that her husband was experiencing and she also felt the great determination he had. Additionally, she had witnessed very positive changes within the last few days. She said she would always be with him. Adam also talked about the process that he was going through with his best friend and he asked for help from him as well.

Things got better with every passing day; he was stumbling every now and then, but the frequency of such events was decreasing. He was very happy about all the goodness that had emerged from the “good work and determination” and he was very grateful to God for this blessing.

Finally, this manner of life became the norm, and his earlier life-style now seemed quite unnatural. In fact, Adam started wondering why he had led such a life. He repented all those lost days and hours. He decided to help his friends who were struggling with the same problem.

He knew that merely relating his journey to his friends would not help them much. They needed to find the causes, they need to be determined, etc., but most importantly of all, they needed to take action. However, he also knew from experience that taking action and continuing it for a long time was the most difficult part and that his friends might be too weak to do so. Well, they were human beings and this is the way things are; they were meant to feel weak without the help of God, for what value is anything if we do not have prayer?

And, as a first step in helping his friends, Adam changed the tone of his prayers; the “me” was replaced with “us” and he felt his friends’ pain in his supplications. He then remembered “O you who believe! If you will help (the cause of) God, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.” (Muhammad 47:7).

The skin, which covers a total surface area of approximately 1.65 m2 and which weighs in total about 9.5 kg, is surely the largest and the heaviest organ of the human body; yet its miraculous functions are still a puzzle to us.

A layered structure

The human skin is composed of three layers: the epidermis (outermost layer), the dermis (vascular connective tissue below the epidermis) and the hypodermis (the deepest portion of the skin), each of which has a very complex metabolism of its own. Each of the structures of which the skin is comprised has a wide variety of functions; all of these functions must be in order if we are to maintain our good health. In particular the epidermis and the dermis each have their own distinct functions, but also share some duties, and all of these are essential for the survival of the human. The thickness of the skin varies from 8 mm on the palms and soles of the feet to nearly less than 1 mm on the eyelids. Within the epidermis are found four dif¬ferent types of cells that undertake different tasks; the appearance of our skin, in terms of texture, evenness of color, hydration, and overall youthfulness and constitutional health, is greatly dependent on the interaction of these cellular functions.

A single organ with several functions

It is very interesting that the majority of people are not aware of the fact that the skin is one organ.

Not only does it cover the body, our skin performs many amazing tasks such as,

-helping with water conservation,

-helping with the maintenance of body temperature,

-perception of touch

-providing a barrier to harmful germs,

-storing fat,

-storing vitamin D,

-acting as a mechanical barrier against knocks or bumps,

-helping in the removal of the waste products of metabolism

-providing protection against environmental influences, such as cold or high temperatures, and destructive ultraviolet rays, as well.

It is common knowledge that the major task of our skin is to protect the human body from harmful environmental factors. It is, indisputable that the fundamental purpose of the skin is to provide a flexible, protective shield between us and the outside world. This is made possible by the layers of flattened epithelial cells which hinder micro-organisms and chemicals from entering the body.

Constant replacement

The benefits we have mentioned would not last long, however, if skin cells were not renewed. This amazing regeneration process happens through a replacement operation that is dependent on a continuous cell division in the basal layer. As the cells move towards the outer surface they lose their softness. Consequently, they gradually die off and stiffen. Dead cells are constantly sloughed off from the upper surface of the epidermis and are continuously shed; they are replaced by new cells that are generated in the deeper layers. This process is often referred to as “cellular renewal.” As cells progress through the various stages, they finally stiffen and die or keratinize. This dead cell layer, or keratinocytes, makes up the outermost layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum. These hardened and cornified cells are designed by our Creator to act as a protective barrier; otherwise, living cells would not be able to provide the protective qualities necessary to isolate the living tissue from exposure to possible detrimental substances and organisms. The living epidermal cells die by an extremely sophisticated process, displaying a voluntary self-sacrifice that enables humans survive, an evident blessing from our Most Gracious Lord.

Regulation of body temperature

The regulation of temperature is considered to be one of the major duties given to the skin. We naturally lose water through constant evaporation throughout our lives. It is of utmost importance that the loss of too much body fluid is prevented. By narrowing or widening the capillary blood vessels and also by means of numerous sweat glands, evaporation on the surface enables our skin to become cooler or warmer, in a strictly limited range of temperatures. The fat cells of the skin prevent losing too much heat, and when the body overheats, the skin’s extensive small blood vessels carry warm blood to the surface where it is cooled. So, as we can deduce from this, the main task of the skin is to prevent the loss of body fluids through evaporation.

Another task of the skin is the storing of fat and the production of vitamin D [25-dihydroxycholecalciferol]. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is found in food and can also be processed in our body after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. Sunshine is a significant source of vitamin D because the UV rays from the sun stimulate the synthesis of vitamin D in the skin. This fundamental feature of our skin is, clearly, indispensable to our skeletal development.

The witness

The human skin has also a function in sense communication with the environment. It gathers sensory information from the environment; this is performed by means of a great number of receptors (for example, those for warmth and cold) and intraepithelial nerve endings. Nerve cells in the skin form the body’s first contact with the outer world. At the moment of birth, an infant’s first experiences of the physical world are perceived through the sense of touch. Nerve cells allow the skin to receive and transmit signals from touch, pain, tickling, etc. As the skin is the boundary between a living creature and the world around it, it is also the physical interface between the creature and other creatures and the world. Hence it is the location of all contact, good or bad in kind. The Qur’an declares that the skin will also testify when we are called to account on the Day of Judgment:

Until when they reach it, their ears, and their eyes, and their skins will bear witness against them as to all that they did habitually. They will ask their skins, “Why have you borne witness against us?” They will answer: “God Who makes everything speak has made us speak.” It is He Who has created you in the first instance, and to Him you are being brought back. You did not seek to veil yourselves (when sinning) without ever considering that your ears or your eyes or your skins would one day bear witness against you. (Fussilat 41:21-22)

As pointed out in the verse …the abode of the Hereafter is truly alive (29:64), everything in the Abode of Hereafter will be alive. So, like every part of a human being, the skin will bear witness for or against them. The verse implies that it is the medium where all our contact is recorded and it will be an ideal witness.

Wounds and healing

Another astounding mission of our skin is its role in healing wounds. The human skin has remarkable selfhealing properties, which obviously point to an intelligent design. A skin wound heals from the bottom up and from the edges inward. In the first stages of healing, the basic connective tissue of the skin moves into the injured area. The depth of the wound determines how well it will heal; the regeneration process begins immediately, but we still do not know what the trigger is. As a wound heals, the edges are drawn together by a process called contracture. The most amazing part of this phenomenon are the later stages of healing. It is as if all the cells are fully aware when and where to end the repair. Nobody knows why they abruptly stop working and how they finalize restoration.

A shield against germs

Our skin also serves us by organizing and activating the immune system. Some specific cells, which form a network in the epidermis or in the outer layer of skin, play an important part in this activity, by regulating the immune response to germs. As a major contributor to the body’s immune system, constituting the first line of de fense in keeping out bacteria, viruses, and other organisms that invade the body, the skin is home to enormous quantities of T-lymphocytes, or T-cells. Those domestic defense soldiers attack and destroy bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, toxins, and cancerous cells that can cause disease. Thus, the skin is both a watertight barrier surrounding and protecting our body from a number of external assaults, never letting the undesired pathogenic germs penetrate.

Our Almighty and Everlasting Creator has granted us this gift of skin. He knows what those who are in need are in need of, and it is obvious that He is aware of the need of our cells, our organs, and our living metabolism, thus He has given the most favorable structural design to the human body. Just before we pray to Him, we should remember that the more consistent our demands, the more bountiful He will ordain. Frankly, there seems to be no way to explain the miracle of skin other than attributing it to the All- Beneficent God.

References

1. Cognis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG Skin Care Forum 2006.

2. ABPI – The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

3. Dr. K.K. LO, Social Hygiene Handbook – 2nd Edition.

4. Helmut Leonhardt, His, Zyt und Mikroanatomie des Menschen, Vol. 3, Thieme, Stuttgart 1990.

5. H. Brannon M.D., The skin anatomy ed. 2002.

6. Beauty Clinics Hashmi.com. Skin Analysis 2005.

7. Goldsmith LA, Biochem and Physiology of the Skin 2nd ed NY Oxford University Press, 1991. 8. Breathnach AS. Atlas of the Ultrastructure of Human Skin. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1971.

9. Elias PM. Epidermal lipids, membranes, and keratinization. Int J Dermatol 1981; 20: 1-19.

10. National Skin Care Institute 2005-2006 website.

11. Ali Ünal, The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, The Light, Inc., NJ:2006.

Ants and Ecosystem³

The abundance of ants on earth is legendary. They live almost everywhere except very cold places such as Antarctica and Greenland. A worker is less than one-millionth the size of a human being, yet ants taken collectively rival people as dominant organisms on the land. Lean against a tree almost anywhere and the first creature that crawls on you will probably be an ant. Stroll down a suburban sidewalk with your eyes fixed on the ground, counting the different kinds of animals you see. The ants will win hands down. The British entomologist⁴ C. B. Williams once calculated that the number of insects alive on earth at a given moment is one million trillion, 1018. If, to take a conservative figure, one percent of this host is ants, their total population is ten thousand trillion. Individual workers weigh on average between one to five milligrams, according to the species. When combined, all ants in the world taken together weigh about as much as all human beings. But being so finely divided into tiny individuals, this biomass⁵ saturates the terrestrial environment.⁶

Ants absolutely dominate in rainforests, which are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. Rainforests are so diverse that in a single leguminous tree (a relative to beans and peas) in Peru, 43 species of ants belonging to 26 genera⁷ were found, about equal to the ant fauna⁸ of the British Isles. In a single square mile of tropical forest in Peru or Brazil, there may be 1,500 or more species of butterflies-twice the total number found in the United States and Canada combined.⁹ In Amazon rainforests ants and termites together compose nearly a third of the animal biomass. In other words, when all kinds of animals, large and small, from jaguars to monkeys down to roundworms and mites, are weighed, nearly a third of the weight consists of the flesh of ants and termites.

All of the ants, composing in formal taxonomic classification the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera, contain about 9,500 species known to science and at least twice that number of species remaining to be discovered, most of which are confined to the tropics. The total number of species of social insects is about 13,500 out of a grand total of 750,000 insect species that have been recognized to date by biologists. These numbers show that social insects seem to constitute 2 percent of all insects yet, in terms of biomass, social insects are half or more of all insects. Why are ants and other social insects so successful in the terrestrial environment? Their strength comes from their social organization.¹⁰ In addition to the question of why ants and other highly social insect species have been so successful, it is also important to understand how such a large collection of individuals maintains order and collectively accomplishes tasks without producing chaos. With potentially thousands of individual ants to coordinate, how do they make decisions regarding who does what and when, especially critical decisions regarding reproduction?¹¹ These questions become even more intriguing when you realize that ants have quite limited sensory devices to experience the world. They also have relatively simple nervous systems that process only a limited number of stimuli and are aware of only a few minutes to a few hours into the past.¹²

What is Collective Intelligence?¹³

Intelligence can be defined simply as the ability to solve problems. One system is more intelligent than another system if in a given time interval it can solve more problems, or find better solutions to the same problems. A group can then be said to exhibit collective intelligence if it can find more or better solutions than the whole of all solutions that would be found by its members working individually.

All organizations, whether they are firms, institutions or sporting teams, are created on the assumption that their members can do more together than they could do alone. Yet, most organizations have a hierarchical structure, with one individual at the top directing the activities of the other individuals at the levels below. Although no president, chief executive or general can oversee or control all the tasks performed by different individuals in a complex organization, one might still suspect that the intelligence of the organization is somehow merely a reflection or extension of the intelligence of its hierarchical head. This is no longer the case in small, closely interacting groups such as soccer or football teams, where the “captain” rarely gives orders to the other team members. The movements and tactics that emerge during a soccer match are not controlled by a single individual, but result from complex sequences of interactions. Still, they are simple enough for an individual to comprehend, and since soccer players are intrinsically intelligent individuals, it may appear that the team is not really more intelligent than its members.

With the growing interest in complex adaptive systems, artificial life, swarms, and simulated societies, the concept of “collective intelligence” is coming more and more to the fore. The basic idea is that a group of individuals (e.g. people, insects, robots etc.) can be smart in a way that none of its members is. Complex, apparently intelligent behavior may emerge from the synergy created by simple interactions between individuals that follow simple rules.

How do ants succeed?

Now we have lots of questions to ask about the success of ants as a group. How do they govern? Who is the ruler? How do they foresee the future? How do they elaborate plans and preserve equilibrium? These, indeed, are puzzling questions. Every single ant in a colony seems to have its own agenda, and yet an insect colony looks so organized. The seamless integration of all individual activities does not seem to require a supervisor. For example, leaf-cutter ants cut leaves from plants and trees to grow fungi. Workers forage for leaves hundreds of meters away from the nest, literally organizing highways to and from their foraging sites. Weaver ant workers form chains of their own bodies, allowing them to cross wide gaps and pull stiff leaf edges together to form a nest. Several chains can join to form a bigger one over which workers run back and forth. In their moving phase, army ants organize impressive hunting raids, involving up to 200,000 workers, during which they collect thousands of prey.¹⁴

A harvester ant colony performs many tasks: It must collect and distribute food, build a nest, and care for the eggs, larvae, and pupae. It lives in a changing world to which it must respond. When there is a windfall of food, more foragers are needed. When the nest is damaged, extra effort is required for quick repairs. Task allocation is the process that results in certain workers engaged in specific tasks, in numbers appropriate to the current situation. Task allocation is a solution to a dynamic problem and thus it is a process of continual adjustment. It operates without any central or hierarchical control to direct individual ants into particular tasks. Although “queen” is a term that reminds us of human political systems, the queen is not an authority figure. She lays eggs and is fed and cared for by the workers. She does not decide which worker does what. In a harvester ant colony, many feet of intricate tunnels and chambers and thousands of ants separate the queen, surrounded by interior workers, from the ants working outside the nest and using only the chambers near the surface. It would be physically impossible for the queen to direct every worker’s decision about which task to perform and when. Consider the commercially available ant farms being sold. Since it’s forbidden to transfer ant queens, in the US ant farms are sold with only worker ants. Still they work in harmony. They build their nest, they build bridges, they collect food and they defend their colony. They do all these things without a queen. The absence of central control may seem counterintuitive, because we are accustomed to hierarchically organized social groups in many aspects of human societies, including universities, businesses, governments, orchestras and armies. This mystery underlies the ancient and pervading fascination of social insect colonies.

No ant is able to assess the global needs of the colony, or to count how many workers are engaged in each task and decide how many should be allocated differently. The capacity of an individual is limited. It cannot make complicated assessments. It probably cannot remember anything for very long. Its behavior is based on what it perceives in its immediate environment. Each worker needs to make only fairly simple decisions. There is abundant evidence, throughout physics, the social sciences and biology that such simple behavior by individuals can lead to predictable patterns in the behavior of the group. It should be possible to explain task allocation in a similar way, as the consequence of simple decisions by individuals.

Though ant colonies must respond to changing conditions, the response does not have to be perfect. It is not like clockwork, or an army, each unit snapping into place so the whole system ticks on without a hitch. There must be enough ants to collect food, often enough for the colony to survive and grow. The appropriate range of numbers should be allocated over a set of similar occasions. If the colony did not get enough food today, perhaps it will tomorrow. The process results in more or less the right number of ants engaged in the appropriate task, often enough for the colony to carry on.

Maximizing the number of ants that perform each task may not always be best for the colony. A task allocation problem for a human city is how to get the right number of firefighters to the scene of a fire. It may be a waste to have too many firefighters on the city payroll. Too many ants allocated to each task may be expensive for a colony if the excess ants could be doing something more useful than waiting around when they are not needed.

The most difficult thing to grasp about task allocation is that it is not a deterministic process even at the individual level. An ant does not respond the same way every time to the same stimulus; nor do colonies. Some events influence the probabilities that certain ants will perform certain tasks, and this regularity leads to predictable tendencies rather than perfectly deterministic outcomes. The ant is jostled in a stream of events that send it sometimes into one task, sometimes another. Task allocation is not a system in which each ant awaits the crucial event that defines its status forever. Like a twig in a turbulent river, an ant may tend to go in one direction, but there are many places it could get washed ashore, to be picked up and then swept in another direction altogether.

Stories about totalitarian societies, inexorable armies, and voracious monsters are often told as stories about ants. But ants have no dictators, no generals and no evil masterminds. In fact, there are no leaders at all.

In short, the basic mystery about ant colonies is that there is no management. A functioning organization with no one in charge is so unlike the way humans operate as to be virtually inconceivable. There is no central control. No insect issues commands to another or instructs it to do things in a certain way. No individual is aware of what must be done to complete any colony task. Each ant scratches and prods its way through the tiny world of its immediate surroundings. Ants meet each other, separate, go about their business. Somehow these small events create a pattern that drives the coordinated behavior of colonies.¹⁵

Elements of Collective Intelligence¹⁶

More is different. This old slogan of complexity theory actually has two meanings that are relevant to our ant colonies. First, the statistical nature of ant interaction demands that there is a critical mass of ants for the colony to make intelligent assessments of its global state. Ten ants roaming across the desert floor will not be able to accurately judge the overall need for foragers or nest-builders, but two thousand will do the job admirably. Individual ants do not know that they are prioritizing pathways between different food sources when they lay down a pheromone¹⁷ gradient near a pile of nutritious seeds. In fact, if we only studied individual ants in isolation, we’d have no way of knowing that those chemical secretions were part of an overall effort to create a mass distribution line, carrying comparatively huge quantities of food back to the nest. It is only by observing the entire system at work that the global behavior becomes apparent.

Ignorance is usually useful for ants. The simplicity of the ant language-and the relative stupidity of the individual ants-is, as the computer programmers say, a feature but not a bug. Emergent systems can grow unwieldy when their component parts become excessively complicated. Better to build a densely interconnected system with simple elements, and let the more sophisticated behavior trickle up. That is why an ant does not respond to all stimuli around her, namely she ignores until she decides that the stimulus is strong enough to be responded to.

Encourage random encounters. Decentralized systems such as ant colonies rely heavily on the random interactions of ants exploring a given space without any predefined orders. Their encounters with other ants are individually arbitrary, but because there are so many individuals in the system, those encounters eventually allow individuals to gauge and alter the state of the colony itself. Without those haphazard encounters, the colony would not be capable of stumbling across new food sources or of adapting to new environmental conditions.

Look for patterns in the signs. While the ants do not need an extensive vocabulary and are capable of syntactical formulations, they do rely heavily on patterns in the semiochemicals they detect. A gradient in a pheromone trail leads them toward a food source, while encountering a high ratio of nest-builders to foragers encourages them to switch tasks. This knack for pattern detection allows meta-information to circulate through the colony mind: signs about signs. Smelling the pheromones of a single forager ant means little, but smelling the pheromones of fifty foragers imparts information about the global state of the colony.

Pay attention to your neighbors. This may well be the most important lesson that the ants have to give us, and the one with the most far-reaching consequences. You can restate it as “Local information can lead to global wisdom.” The primary mechanism of swarm logic is the interaction between neighboring ants in the field: ants stumbling across each other, or each other’s pheromone trails, while patrolling the area around the nest. Adding ants to the overall system will generate more interactions between neighbors and will consequently enable the colony to solve problems and regulate itself more effectively. Without neighboring ants stumbling across one another, colonies would be just a senseless assemblage of individual organisms-a swarm without logic.

Conclusion

Ants, first of all, have something to teach us about how nature works. Any system whose behavior arises from the interactions of its components has something in common with ant colonies. Using ants and other social insects as models, computer scientists have developed software agents that cooperate to solve complex problems, such as the rerouting of traffic in a busy telecom network or internet. Another example, the famous traveling salesman problem, in which a salesman tries to find the shortest and fastest route between many cities, is almost impossible to solve definitively. But with the methods inspired by ants the problem can be solved at least approximately, because ants are very good at finding the shortest path between the food and the nest collectively. Collective robotics borrowed from collective intelligence in ant colonies is being used to manage systems composed of lots of robots in synchronization.

Nature is a book to be read by the people who approach it to live in harmony, not to dominate. We are not the owners of the beautiful things around us, but observers searching for signs which reveal the wisdom behind them.

Footnotes

1. Haskins C.P., Of Ants and Men, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1939.
2. Huxley J., Ants, AMS Press, 1969.
3. An ecosystem is a grouping of plants, animals, and other organisms interacting with each other and with the environment in such a way as to perpetuate the grouping more or less indefinitely.
4. The scientific discipline in which ants are studied is called myrmecology and it is one of the branches of the study of insects, entomology.
5. Biomass is the total weight of all living organisms in a biological environment.
6. Holldobler B. and Wilson E.O., Journey to the Ants, Harvard University Press, 1994.
7. The word Genera is the plural of genus. Genus is a taxonomic category ranking below a family and above a species and generally consisting of a group of species exhibiting similar characteristics.
8. Fauna (Flora) is the animals (plants) of a particular region or period, considered as a group.
9. http://www.savenature.org/images/pdfs/ecoandinsects.pdf
10. Holldobler and Wilson, ibid.
11. Bonabeau E., Dorigo M., and Theraulaz G., Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial System, Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Oxford University Press, NY:1999.
12. Holldobler and Wilson, ibid.
13. Heylighen, F. “Collective Intelligence and its Implementation on the Web: Algorithms to Develop a Collective Mental Map,” Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory. 1999, Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 253-280.
14. Bonabeau et al, ibid.
15. Gordon D., Ants at Work, W. W. Norton. 1999.
16. Johnson S., Emergence Simon & Schuster. 2001.
17. The pheromone is the semiotic chemical ants use to communicate with each other and with other colonies. Every colony has its own odor. That is why ants can recognize their sisters from the same colony easily.

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” – Mark Twain

Time is illusive, for it is hard to define, capture, or imagine. Just like the weather, we talk about it but cannot comprehend it or affect its passage. We complain about how quickly time passes, how modern life puts us into a permanent state of urgency, and how we cannot find time for such (usually indefinitely) postponed activities as reading a particular book, spending quality time with our family members, building new social or business relationships, or starting an exercise program. Yet nobody seems to be able to stop or even slow down time. Will better self-management lead to better time-management? Is managing time even important? What exactly is time? The General Conference of Weights and Measures defines one second of time as the interval needed for 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the Cesium atom.¹ A minute is 60 times that, and an hour is 60 times the latter. Thus we know what time is … or do we? Such definitions give no insight into time’s true nature. And there are further, more complex questions: Why do we seem to be unable to go back in time? What does it mean for one event to happen after another event? What do present and future mean?

Time-Management Is Really Self-Management

Even though we do not have a precise definition for time, we still try to manage it. Bookstores and libraries are full of books on time-management, and time-management seminars enjoy wide popularity within the business community. After becoming familiar with the field, one fact stands out: The subject being discussed is actually self-management with respect to time. To be more precise, we can manage ourselves only with respect to what we are doing as the rest of the universe continues to move.²

A successful self-management regimen requires a series of practical techniques, principles, approaches, methods, steps, tools, and strategies arranged in a way designed to construct a realistic framework. Erecting such a structure allows us to understand exactly what our goals are, how they will be reached, and how to begin internalizing the entire system. To make this a long-term program, we need to bring this new outlook from our forebrains to our hindbrains, thereby transforming them from abstract concepts into actual reflexs and habits.

A holistic approach to self-management with respect to time can help us accomplish this goal, for it is built around each person’s self. Incorporating the self’s physical, psychological, and sociological aspects allows a complete and coherent framework to emerge. And, moreover, it reflects the integrity of our existence because it is based on all of the various aspects of our existence.

Holistic Time-Management

The holistic approach to self-management is distinguished by its emphasis on self-knowledge. After all, both logic and common sense dictate that only that which is understood can be managed and led. If a business manager knew nothing about human psychology, behavior, or sociology, would it be logical to assume that he or she could manage a department successfully? Of course not. Using the same analogy, how can a person manage and lead his or her self without understanding its underlying dynamics and structure?

Both Western and Eastern schools of thought have developed definitions for “I,” the term we commonly use to distinguish ourselves from all others. They have many points in common. 

For example, both state that each person has:

A physical aspect to his or her existence (the body), as well as features in common with animals and others that are unique to him or her.

Various non-physiological aspects, such as a soul, mind, consciousness, conscience, ego, willpower, sixth sense, and so on. These indicate the existence of a non-material existence tightly connected to our physical existence. Sufism teaches us about constituents of our spiritual existence: the carnal self, the ego, the soul, the heart, the divine receiver, the evil receiver, and the mind, among others.³

Other people in his or her life with whom he or she has some kind of relationship.

Holistic Self-Management

The holistic approach to self-management requires that we understand the physiological, psychological and spiritual, and sociological aspects of our existence.

The Physiology Front. The logical place to start is learning how our body functions. One important aspect of this is familiarizing ourselves with its many rhythms, which can last anywhere from an hour to several weeks, as well as its timed release of the hormones secreted in our bodies.⁴ A realistic scheduling of our daily activities depends upon knowing which periods are conducive to what activities. For instance, it makes sense to schedule mentally taxing and difficult problems during the early morning, as that is a period of active energy hormones and mental clarity. On the other hand, afternoons are ideal for socializing and building relationships and long-term memory.

We experience mental lows during the day. Usually, we attribute these to the food we have consumed, a lack of sufficient sleep, or other external factors. While such assumptions might be correct, there is a more fundamental cause: our body’s circadian rhythm. This biorhythm, lasting for approximately 90 minutes, is the body’s way of asking for a short break. The most common manifestations of this are yawning, daydreaming, or loosing concentration. Listening to and honoring these signals allows our body to re-energize and achieve a peak during the next hour. Eliminating these signals with caffeine or other stimulants may bring a temporary rise in mental alertness, but also makes it impossible for us to obtain a natural mental peak. This need for a break does not go away; it either returns more strongly in the next period or causes us to experience stress during the rest of the day.

The type and amount of food we consume also affects our self-management. Just consider how much time we spend preparing, consuming, and digesting food, not to mention the time we spend in the restroom and what we do after the meal is finished. Furthermore, certain foods may energize or slow down our mental functions,⁵ and can even affect our sleep patterns. Another important element of our physiological life is regular exercise, for this helps us maintain good health. Certain exercises help reduce stress and increase energy levels throughout the day.

Establishing a suitable program of self-management with respect to time requires that we understand our body and treat it accordingly.

The Psychological Front. A correct understanding of those metaphysical inner faculties that affect our behavior helps us control that behavior. The self consists of such inner faculties as the carnal self, the intellect, and the heart. Each of these have different roles and tendencies in affecting our behavior. For example, the carnal self has the vital role of preserving our physical existence. If it is not disciplined, it can lead us to gluttony and other harmful habits that ultimately destroy our self-control and self-esteem. The key to controlling it is to exercise our willpower when experiencing moments of weakness or temptation.

Turning desirable behaviors into habits also allows us to take advantage of the resulting benefits. For instance, if we make it a habit to wake up early and do lightweight exercises or meditate, we reap the benefits of early morning energy hormones. Even if we cannot achieve all of our targets for that day, at least we will have the satisfaction of accomplishing one of our daily goals: spending time on self-improvement and spiritual advancement.

Another essential human trait is our need for simplicity. The best way to achieve this is to use only one planner and concentrate on one task at a time, thereby eliminating lost notes, misplaced contact information, and missed meetings. Concentrating on one task at a time and minimizing interruptions allows the brain to use less time when beginning to concentrate on a difficult task (start-up time). An interruption of only a couple of minutes can have a negative impact upon this start-up time. Most experts agree that the best way to overcome this is to establish, and then inform your co-workers and friends of, a personal “interrupt-free period.” Other methods are changing your location, turning off your telephone and cell phone, and posting “do not disturb” signs.

Such time robbers as procrastination can be overcome by determining their root causes. For example, procrastination is often caused by a fear of failure. But this is a self-defeating behavior, for procrastination does not make the task go away; it only makes it harder to deal with and causes us to miss an opportunity. One easy way to beat it is to break the task into smaller segments and begin working on it segment by segment. Such an approach takes away our fear of failure, because we can see how success in one segment leads to success in the next. Other root causes of procrastination, such as a fear of success, negative associations, perfectionism, and disorganization, can be overcome in the same way.

As we are by nature visual beings, most of our mental capability is devoted to visual processing. About 80 percent of all input to our brains arrives through our eyes. Our visual memory is also far superior to our auditory and tactile memories. Thus, as time is invisible, we find it hard to imagine and fit it into our overall plan. One way to deal with this difficulty is to make time visible through a time map (also known as a time budget or a time policy). For example, using a calendar as our sole scheduling tool allows us to map every piece of time we have for the next several months. Writing down our activities, tasks, appointments, and other commitments makes time visible. Drawing borders, as well as putting signs, cushion periods, and other visible indicators, allows us to budget our time effectively. It becomes just like a blueprint to our house.

The Sociological Front. Finally, we have to acquire an understanding of how other people think and behave, how they respond to our actions, and why they need to communicate with us, for such things have to be factored into our time-management policy. Since our relationships with others can affect our emotional state, and hence our ability to manage ourselves with respect to time, we need to learn how others may help or hinder our efforts to reach our goals. We need to learn how to support our willpower by cooperating with others, to delegate effectively so that other people can help us achieve our goals as well as their own, to set up and run meetings, and to communicate effectively in order to minimize potential misunderstandings.

Some tools designed to help us manage our time are now on the market: MSProject, day planners, cell phones, and a whole host of computer-related gadgets and software packages. Choosing and then using them wisely and efficiently can make or break our time-management program.⁶

Conclusion

In summary, time-management is really self-management and deciding what to do and when to do it. Success requires self-discipline and self-management. Therefore time-management is actually self-management with respect to a schedule. Effective self-management is predicated upon a correct understanding of the self’s physiological, psychological and spiritual, and sociological aspects. The better we know ourselves, the easier it is to manage and control ourselves. The absence of such control invites failure.

The comprehensive approach envisaged by a holistic self-management program makes successful and effective self-management possible by showing us how to manage the different aspects of our existence effectively and efficiently

Footnotes 

1. “International System of Units (SI).” Online at: www3.sk.sympatico.ca/gregtami/si-base.html; also see www.bipm.fr/enus/2_Committees/cgpm.html.
2. Harold L. Taylor, Making Time Work for You (Ontario, Canada: Harold Taylor Time Consultants Inc., 1998).
3. M. Fethullah Gulen, General Concepts in the Practice of Sufism (Fairfax, VA: The Fountain, 1999).
4. Michael Smolensky and Lynne Lamberg, Body Clock Guide to Better Health (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2001).
5. Michael D. Chafetz, Smart for Life (New York: Penguin Books, 1992).
6. Jan Jasper, Take Back Your Time (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999).