Sleep: 8 hoursExercise: 1 hour
Work: 8 hours
Eating: 2 hours (leisurely)
Hygiene: 1 hour
Travel: 1 hour (Commuting back and forth)
That would leave you a whole three hours for time with friends or family, shopping, preparing meals, chores, errands, sex, and of course homework. If you have a dentist appointment, or your talkative relative calls, or if American Idol has a two-hour special, you’re tapped out.
It’s a challenge to live a happy life if you aren’t giving enough attention to all of those categories, yet doing so is nearly impossible.
One time management strategy is to become independently wealthy, freeing up eight hours a day. But that option isn’t available to many of us. And apparently it isn’t all that fulfilling because most rich people continue to work full schedules.
Another strategy is to ignore the fact that you would be slowly killing yourself and decide to sleep and exercise less. That frees up several hours a day. The only downside is that you get fat and die.
A third time management path is to work less than you could, live economically, enjoy each day as it comes, and try not to think about living on cat food when you retire.
Which strategy have you picked?
Well I am here to say there is a better way!
Time management skills are especially important for chronically stressed New Yorkers, who often find themselves performing many different jobs during the course of a single day. These time management tips will help you increase your productivity and stay cool and collected.
1) Realize that time management is a myth.
No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn't change. All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.
2) Create goals.
Remember, the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by figuring our what the goal is for your day. Prioritize everything else around this. You should start each day with a time management session prioritizing the tasks for that day and setting your performance benchmark, using something like the chart below. Put your day's tasks in one of the boxes depending on if it is URGENT or NOT URGENT to get to today, and if it is IMPORTANT or NOT IMPORTANT to your long term goals. If you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you truly need to accomplish today?
3) It’s all about PLANNING!Think of this as an extension of time management tip #2. The objective is to change your behaviors over time to achieve whatever general goal you've set for yourself, such as increasing your productivity or decreasing your stress. So you need to not only set your specific goals, but allocate your effort to meet those goals. Write down how much time you will spend on your priorities each day, and track them over time to see whether or not you're accomplishing them, and what is derailing you.
4) Eliminate personal time-wasters.
For one week, for example, set a goal that you're not going to take personal phone calls while you're working. Or you’re not going to reply to text messages as soon as they come in. Or you’re not going to check e-mails every hour and stop to respond to them. We eat up a lot of unnecessary time during our day by interrupting our productivity with other distractions. Control the time you spend on such distractions and you’ll accomplish more during the day. For instance, reading and answering email can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.
5) Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible.
While crises will arise, you'll be much more productive if you can follow routines most of the time. Routines are time savers because they lessen the amount of time you need to decide what to do next.
6) Be sure your systems are organized.
Are you wasting a lot of time looking for things? Take the time to organize. Develop systems. Is your computer filing system slowing you down? Redo it, so it's organized to the point that you can quickly lay your hands on what you need. What other things can you organize?
7) Don't waste time waiting.
From getting stuck on the subway to doctors appointments, it's impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But you don't need to just sit there and twiddle your thumbs. Always take something to do with you, such as a report you need to read, a checkbook that needs to be balanced, or just a blank pad of paper that you can use to plan your day. Technology makes it easy to work wherever you are; your PDA and/or cell phone will help you stay connected.
You CAN be in control and accomplish what you want to accomplish - once you've come to grips with the time management myth and taken control of your time.
Which one(s) of these ideas would work for you? Are there any other time management ideas can you think of?
63 comments:
I see you have read your students management problems (which are 90% based on "time management" issues lol). And now you have come to our rescue by posting this!
I believe the best way to manage a day is by setting deadlines and meeting them. Have an agenda and stick to it! Break down your entire day into various time slots. This will ensure that everything is done within the alloted time and you are on track. I have recently started doing this and have noticed quite a difference within my productivity level throughout the day. I've also noticed that my stress level has decreased and I somehow end up with spare time, which is rare!
I love tip number 7- "Don't waste time waiting"
I think this is so true. I can't go a day without my Blackberry. Anytime I find myself waiting, either for the train, class, or that one person who stays extra long in the bathroom fixing their hair while I'm in desperate need of defecating, I whip out the Blackberry to check and send emails. Ironically, I also have all the updates on my blogs and certain blogs I follow pushed to my phone so I can keep up with the daily posts.
Interesting analogy:
Technology to many may seem to have eased the process in handling our daily tasks. But it also, in a sense, increases the workload for us because now more work is thrown our way and expected to be completed instantly,if not, at least within a short period of time. Think about it, it's actually true!
That is my 2 cents.
Francis Cho
Hello Professor,
I agreed with you, completely. The most important task for me is planning. And doing all I can to achieve what I PLANNED on achieving. I think we need to prioritize everything we have to do in a given day. Know what are the most important and least important. I think it’s also important to know and acknowledge that sometimes you might not attain everything you want to, but that doesn’t mean you give up. Eventually you will get there.
- Ray
Well, I will have to agree with all the techniques up to certain limit. They are good ways to manage all the time we have during the day but as a theory. I do believe in the line "There is time for everything, we just need to give it the space to complete them". I am an organized person, I am constantly planning everything that I have to do, I make a list with all the things that I need to do during a day and during specific periods of time; but either way I do think it is not enough. I don't see where my leisure time goes to. Maybe when I sit to watch some cartoons with my daughter?, or when I am talking to my family over the phone or on line? I really don't know. I do like routines, but I believe they are not healthy nor in the long or short run because it limits creativity and spontaneously within priorities, in my case: my family. To plan ahead of time is another way of saving a couple of hours. Like that, you know where to jump on the next day. We do have time, we just don't know exactly where it goes.
These are really great suggestions most of which I use when managing my time. Everyday I write a list of things that I have to get done that day, in order of importance. After the list is written I star the ones, that if time will not permit everything to get done, MUST be completed, such as an assignment due the following day or the most important load of laundry to get completed so I have socks for tomorrow. In my life lists are one of the most important things that I cannot live without.
In addition, item #4 is very true. Anytime I stop to answer a call or send an email, not only am I losing time talking or typing, I am losing time even once I get back to work. It always takes me a few minutes to get back into the flow of what I was doing before I became distracted. One way I try to minimize the number of distractions I have is by answering calls or emails during "down-time", when I am on the train to and from the city (I live on LI), or in between classes.
Another way I manage my time is by having routines. Although routines can become boring, I love them! You always know what coming next and you never have to waste time thinking about what you have to do now.
Another idea that I agree with and follow is the idea of being organized. Everything in my life is organized. Everything from the order of my notebooks in my bag, to where the pens are, to what pair of jears are where in my closet. Now, it's very OCD I admit, but I never have to waste time finding the epair of jeans I want to wear in the morning, and this allows me to sleep an extra 15 minutes, which I love!
These are some of the ways I manage my time. Hopefully some of this will help somebody else do the same.
I think taking a little bit of every one of the options you gave would be the best way to go. I personally can't easely stick to a plan, so what would work better for me is to mix all of those ideas up and see what can come out of them.
Ahhh, the old time management issue, quite hard to get away from. When I know I have a busy day in front of me I always make a list of things I need to get done and I also allot a time to each. Usually, I don't achieve everything but I definitely get more done compared to if I didn't have a list at all. Basically, if I had to answer the time management question in one word I would say "planning." Having a plan minimizes cognitive processes that go on in order to figure out what has to be done, in essence saving time from our busy days.
Don't waste time waiting is actually a good time management skill. If I have to wait for someone (appointments, subways, etc.) I would usually take out my phone and do my homework/reading. Most of the time I would just bring a portable game system and play. The time waiting can be used as a break.
I absolutely agree with your solutions for time management. I think people can accomplish their goals or live a fullfilling live by following those rules. however, we are always affected or impeded to succeed by our psychology. people are sometimes distracted by their emotion. in my case, I cannot focus on what im supposed to do if Im unhappy at that moment. I want to be alone and need time to calm myself down. I probabably take one hour or few days or more days to revitalize all of my energy, depends on the case. Then I waste the period of time and procastinate my goals. therefore, it is also important to manage your emotion and adjust your mood back to the work. your post also reminds me of what I have done in the past weeks. I think I have wasted those weeks on doing nothing meaning. Time passes so quick and we never can keep the time. I dont want to waste my remaining 2 years at college so I need to study hard and work hard for my future. I hope I can overcome my psychological aspect and manage my time effectively every day.
On day my aunt told me: "as long as you have passion to the things you want to do, you will get them done regardless of any external factor" And seriously, she is absolutly wright. I truly believe that each person has their own way to manage their own time. For example, in my case, the routine not only save me but give me extra time to do more things I thought I could not do. Everything in this life is a matter of how much the individual wants to get everything accomplished and get things done with the time they have available.Not matter if we have agendas, blackberry, or different methods to manage time like the ones you stated, as long as the determination and organization factor is present, we can be in control of our time instead of the time controling us.
As already mentioned, many spoke of time management as their problem to solve this semester, and I’m glad you chose to write about time management as your next topic, Professor.
It’s interesting how you brought up how we don’t just have to manage our time but that we need to manage ourselves, especially since the solution for time management is different for everyone. The problem lies within us and how we each handle ourselves with the time we have.
Slowly, I’m trying to enter into a routine. I already plan out each day by writing down all the tasks I need to do and star the most important ones that have to get done right away. I also utilize my cell phone as an event reminder. Despite all of this though, it’s quite difficult sticking to a routine. Then, I thought about my class schedule. It’s the same every week, yet each class session turns out differently somehow; I started to think of my routine like that and it helps in a way. Even though each day is set and may seem the same, no day is exactly like the last. So, I’m going to continue working on sticking to a routine because I noticed that it certainly does leave me with some extra down time each day.
Tip number seven is a very great idea to not waste anytime will waiting but sometimes it's hard to do that when you have a crowded train and a heavy bag on your shoulder. I mean waiting to see the doctors is a pain in the ass. People around you keep complaining and it annoys the hell out of me. I've worked in a doctor's office and I understand that some times you can't get to the appointments in order because there are walk-in patients and they just messes up the schedule and you can't say no to them. It's excellent to have a organized planned out schedule for your day or life but won't that make your life boring and too discipline. I mean I love to have things planned out but sometimes other things just pops out and that ruins the whole thing. I've tried very hard to have everything plan and printed on the calendar, but it's just hard to stick to everything according to schedule. However, sometime it's best to have a planned schedule in life to keep you on track of everything.
We all feel that we never have time to complete anything that we set out to do. So time management is extremely essential, I agree with all the points. I totally agree with the point about separating tasks into urgent and not urgent and important and less important. When I go to work I can think out everything I plan to do but do I ever get it done? Well sometimes, I know I have never been able to say that I will get everything done I set out to do because it is nearly impossible. However it is good that I start out with an idea of what I plan to accomplish. That's why I separate my tasks at work and school into these categories. For example, I might want to clean out my emails so my inbox does not say that I have exceeded my mailbox limit. However unless I cannot send out emails that is an important task but not urgent enough for me to stop everything. Well that is unless I am not allowed from sending email and then it becomes urgent and extremely important. So to be able to accomplish about half of what I plan to do t work, I am not overjoyed but I can deal with it. What I can do to make myself more efficient is stop texting and emailing from my personal accounts. I think I am going to input a time limit of how much I should email or text in a day; possibly an hour or two.
I never really thought about it that way. 3 hours a day of leisure is nothing when you consider the fact that many of us have other activates we have to attend to that weren't even listed (studying, babysitting, school, appointments, etc).
I think it is all about planning was the one I use the most. If you plan ahead, you save so much time. I think this is taken for granted by many people, mostly because they feel they are organized already.
I also think another time management tool you can use to help you manage your time better is to enjoy your leisure time! What is the point of working so hard throughout the day if you can't enjoy it? Some of you may think it's a waste of an hour just sitting outside, or watching TV, but studies have shown the more relaxed and energized a person is, the more efficient he/she becomes!
I unfortunately have been trying to sleep less to squeeze more hours into the day. I get up for work at 5:30 am and twice a week I get home at 10:00 Pm. Every time I try this method I think it's going to work and that I can handle the day with a few hours less sleep. However it works for about a day or two and then i crash and end up falling a sleep early one night and I don't get any work done.
I have to agree with a with most of those ideas. I think taking personal calls during the day or when you are focusing on your work are very wasteful. I also agree that you should try to bring work with you when your are waiting for the doctor or riding on the subway. thats where I get most of my reading for school done. However the prof. posted a lot of good ideas that I will be trying in the future.
I agree with you that prioritizing can help with time management but that can only go so far. I am an organized person but procrastination sometimes gets the best of me. I try to get as much done when I can, but there are times when I put things off for the last minute and then end up having to rush to get it done.
As I was reading through your blog, I noticed tip #7. It is very true. I spend most of my time traveling in between the Bronx and Manhattan and I accomplish a lot during that time. I read for my classes or I make a list of the tasks that I need to get done on that given day or during that week. Making every second count is a good way for me to get more done throughout my day, and it is definitely something I am going to try to do more often.
Pick a goal....
Set a plan...
Then execute!?!
Thats so crazy, it just might work! Thanks Professor.
Every one of the steps is very important. I think that my task should be to "eliminate personal time-wasters". I put too much time in reading and answering emails and texts.
However, the first thing i would cut on is sleep; for me 6 hours of sleep is more than enough. When you sleep you waste time that you could have done other things. When I was in the army, all we got was 6 hours of sleep and we went through the day GREAT! If I did it then, I could do it now. Anyway, these are great ideas on planning out your day.
I agree that planning your time, your future, your day, your week or your time at the College for that matter is very effective in becoming a timesaver. I personally try to be very organized and on top of things. I just want to give one example. Above my computer screen on the wall I have the courses and semesters mapped out that I still need to take in order to graduate. It took me some time to think it through and decide what courses to pick when but now I just look at the outline and I feel at ease. I realize that I might have to make some adjustments along the way, but it is something that won’t throw me off or make me start from square one.
I agree strongly that routines can help save time. One of the routines I always follow through is to pay bills that I receive by mail, immediately. It is one of my things that I just do but I know it helps me stay on top of things and avoid late payments or possible bad credit ratings for late payments.
I think that many of the mentioned approaches of saving time and becoming more productive are approaches that I think work wonderfully towards that goal.
Above all the most important thing is to be aware of time management, to be aware of wasting practices and to be aware what techniques are out there to help you with becoming more time efficient and productive.
I don’t believe in the “one size fits all” concept and accordingly I think that people should find out for themselves what works best for them.
I know that some of my strengths are planning ahead, organizing thoughts, papers and files and to consult trusted people about their opinions.
I believe that all these steps are a great model to how we can improve and fix most of our time management problems, and its very obvious how a well planned schedule can free the mind from so much stress, but it is still only a theory until applied by the actual individual. Most individual will always have bad habits of procrastinating and detouring from plans which makes them even harder to follow, it seems that only the really urgent events hold high priority in most peoples lives while the rest will be juggled around regardless, it's sad to say but unless the intiative is taken then regardless of the plan, it will still be proven useless.
Hi professor, I'm impressed by your biography which you posted next to your blog. What you have done shows that you are an expert on managing your own time. Otherwise, how can you have done so many things in limited time?
You have noticed that the common problem we have is time management. You are right, we waste too much time on others and waiting, so that we don't reserve the time we need for ourselves. I have this kind of experience quite a lot. Replying text right away I received it, inducing an endless circle; checking facebook all the time; msn at night; standing still while waiting in the subway station. I think it's time to stop all these bad habits.
The other thing you mentioned, priority among things we have to do reminded me that sometimes we got lost and definitely need to pick it up and practice. Otherwise we will always lost track of life.
time management is most definietly my biggest problem. i try my best but i seen to have to worst luck with it because of certain responsibilites that always pop up right when i plan on doing work. not to mention that sometimes my free time is 45 minutes here 2 hrs there it becomes diffucult to utilize that time effectively. it is too easy to say "you know what i will relax for 45min an study later".
Lets be generic!
"I agree with these suggestions!"
My time management issues stem from the problem of dealing with other people that dont manage their time, which in turn messes up my schedule.
I work with my brothers, the work i do depends on their decisions, so when they mismanage their time, they in turn mess with my schedule.
My hobby of racing is also shared with my brother and father, again, don't plan things. Having to drive out to performance shops last minute notice, or stay at work late messes in turn with my school work.
Other than that, all of my time is managed rather well.
Wow, I have to admit; I've never heard anyone describe my life as well as you did in those first 8 sentences. Especially the talkative relative part. I love my uncle, but man when he calls he just wants to talk and talk for hours and I am a very busy kid. I have a girlfriend, friends, work, homework, I coach a baseball team; But then again, I am in college, and I would bet that almost everyone in class has a schedule similar to mine. If only there was a way to slow down or reverse time; Could you imagine a palm pilot, blackberry, iphone, or google phone that instead of managing your time, stopped or slowed time? Well, one day I suppose in year 3012. Until then, I guess planning and time management will simply have to do. Personally I don't think that I have even picked a time management strategy. Suprising isn't it? Don't get me wrong, I do not simply do things on a whim, but I most definitely do manage to get them done-However, I noticed that I a few of your points I have adopted into my "life plan" and they have worked wondefully; They are, adopting goals (loose), establish routines, organize systems, and not to waste time waiting. The combination of the afore mentioned in my life has helped me to become more organized and reach a certain level of productivity that I am very happy with. I have noticed that when people set goals, they set themselves up to fail and that is not a good thing. Sometimes, we all have weeks in which we have 4 tests, lots of homework, work, extracurriculars, baseball practice and a kid brothers championship basketball game to go to, on top of predetermined goals like reading a chapter in a book; Clearly I am speaking from experience :-) To avoid the terrible feeling of failing, I have simply set up loose goals-Quite simply: Set up a to do list, and finish things as they come up-If something is due soon, then that gets priority and moves up the line-Quite literally I have had things on my to-do list for 6 months and I tackle them bit by bit throughout the year, and eventually they get done. I realize that I am only human and can not finish everything all in one go; Therefore why should I add the extra stress of setting myself up to fail. Another issue is that time can really put pressure on a person. Therefore it is practically imperative that time is a valuable commodity. That is why organizing, routines, and using free time to the fullest payoff so much in the end. Not only do the three aforementioned help save precious minutes, but they help to keep you sane and focused. One of my best strategies which saves me hours of time is studying for tests that I have in the upcoming weeks while on the Long Island Railroad heading for school. Not only do I get to learn the information in time that I would otherwise be spending sitting and watching the scenery that I see multiple times every week, but I have the material fresh in my mind for the next time I study it, which helps the whole process to go by quicker. Clearly, this is a big advantage to me, which I hope that others will one day take advantage of.
I agree with these suggestions but it is really hard to keep up with these suggestions. Every once in a while, I would try some kind of management planning but in a week or so, everything is back to the way it is. As a result of this, I chose to the first suggestion. I know that we only have this much time on hand, all I can do is simply do everything I can in the time I have, I would also make sure that I will do the things that are close to its deadline, this way I will manage to do everything on time.
These are good points to take into account. But I would like to disagree on some areas of your points. Yes changing your behavior is good in order to figure out our goals for the days. But with a fast pace environment an important goal that we think of at 8:00am in the morning could take several steps back once we are on our office seat. Activities such as checking out soccer news in the morning to me I know is a time waster but I can't start my day without knowing the news of my favourite soccer team.
Yes it is very important to manage your time, how? well wish I had a set formula but I don't. All I say is my family, work and college get speacial attention in no particular order.
I found tip number 4 [Eliminate personal time-wasters.] to be most helpful out of all of the seven time management tips listed above. I myself am an obsessive email checker. I'll check number one through number four personal emails, and then have to check again to see if there are new ones, which there usually are, since it takes me a bit to respond and interact with links in the emails. I don't know if I can possibly eliminate checking my email at least twenty times a day but I know that I should at least be able to forgo the second check that comes riiiiiight after the first. I do somehow survive/manage to not do this when I am without computer/internet access, but I get a little stressed out.
From now on, I'm going to try doing the email thing only one to five times a day [yeesh!]
i totally agree with the idea that "the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time". however, try change our behavior is one of the most the difficult task. The chart showing in the middle of the blog i have used to see it in my psy class, which is also about how to manage our time and help us do the most important things. i try to follow it for a while, but things don't always follow my plan. there is always somethings that is not include in my plan and that one little thing usually mass up my whole plan. So i end up totally ignore the planning process and do whatever i want to do. i think a lot of people know the correct way to manage their time, but just as me, most of them fail to change their behavior. From now on, i will try my best to follow the time management tips and try to maximum my time.
I definitely think that I try to implement a plan of action in my personal life aside from my academic life. I'm still tweaking the whole time management and planning process when it comes time to my academics and studying. I commute 16+ hrs in 4 days and lose a lot of time for school work. The other two days I work all day leaving just Sunday which by then I want to crawl up into the fetus position for 24 hrs straight. Its not easy. However, I have come a long way in terms of planning and do recognize the beauty of it. The accomplishment of cross of the things on a to do list give such a great feeling. Thanks for the ideas!!
My days are so packed with school, work, eating, sleeping and what little time I have left I’d like to think it would be consider my social life. I agree time management is a myth because even my weekends which I have “off ” go by way to quickly and I still don’t feel I’ve gotten enough done. I thinking starting each day with a time management session will be difficult to get use to because it requires something I have a lack of (TIME) but never the less it certainly worth a try. Eliminating time wasters could definitely help me I’m always checking the phone for text messages, emails, and instant messages. I’m excited to try eliminating my time waters and planning out my day. These two tips can be very beneficial because I must admit those time wasters do get the best of me.
Tick #2, 3, & 7 work really well for me because I always do things last minute. I suffered a lot because of this habit and I learned it in a hard way in Freshman year when I had to read 6 chapters of History Book the night before the test. Also, most professors won't remain us that the assignment is due or they remain us the day before its due. I started using a planner first time in my life to write down all the assignments, their due day and estimate the time that would take to finish it. Like many Baruch students, I live 1.5 hours away from Baruch, reading books and do my assignments on the train became a really easy and good habit. Also, I got into the habit of checking my personal email at work once every morning.
Time management is a great problem in our society. Although I do agree that having all those steps for planning is a great idea, but planning it and actually doing it are totally different. Even if you have your whole week planned out, many factors can change your plan for time management. Many time I'm doing homework, I get distracted by phone calls, dramas and all sorts of things. Or when I'm trying to get to school on time, the train might be delayed or something. So even if there's a great steps to plan your time, problems occur inevitably.
I feel that all the points you made are extremely useful and all part of the process of "managing" your time. For me it would be hard to manage my time with out the use of all the points you have made. They are familiar to me and yet I am unsuccessful many times these days. Why is that you may ask and the reason is simple. For myself and I'm pretty sure for many others, managing time is a lifestyle change. It comes with repetition and practice, trial and error. You should firs acknowledge that you are inefficiently using your time, then think about how much leisure and work must get done then want to implement the changes into your life and finally you must commit to the changes in order to be successful at managing your time. I used to be very good at managing my time when I was working all the time. Now that work has taken a back seat in my life I must admit that I have been falling off. The lifestyle changes are like any skill you hold, if you don't use it you'll lose it. The only way to regain the skill is through acknoledgement, application, and commitment!
wow! time management!! i like the way how you pointed out that time management is an illusion, and how no matter what, there are 24 hours in a day and therefore it is ourselves that need better management. one technique I've been using and find extremely useful is PRIORITIZING!!! in reality, an assignment due tomorrow needs to be finished today so tomorrow you can work on the assignment due the following day and so forth. Ok, maybe it should've been done before hand, but thats not always the case. i remember last week (midterms week) i had a midterm followed by a midterm which was then followed by another midterm. i found myself beginning to study for a test the day of (almost 7-8 chapters covered in depth within a span of 6-7 hours) first time ever taking such a risk but i felt cornered and had no other choice. and if your wondering, i did pretty well on the exams. great post. prioritize, in my opinion, is the key to "self" management.
Many people nowadays live in a defected life since they don’t know how to manage their time and resources. It’s true that a good managerial life is vital to everyone so that they don’t feel regret and totally messed up. It’s especially important to college students while many of us are studying, working and also having errands at home at the same time. We are just all under pressures and management is just a fundamental need in solving all these occurred problems. I like all your suggestions in management and there are two ways of planning you advice that I use most often.
Firstly, I think that “Create goals” is significantly important in our daily life, everyday I wake up thinking what is my priority today, and what is the most important thing I should do first. It helps me to set goal and steps of achievements. So that I don’t have to rush since I know what to do first and then second. But I sometimes find that it’s hard to get things in control such as dealing with my time. I always find it’s hard to get myself to be ready for a task. I always have a hard time to get up early in the morning to spare more time for more things. I always feel relaxed, no rush and that I have much more time left for the tasks when it’s actually not. It’s simply because I’m pretty lazy and I am trying to adjust myself for that.
Moreover, “Don't waste time waiting” is also critical to all college students. Being a student, we all have a lot of duties and assignments that are never expected to be finished since there are always more and more coming up. So this point really helps us on how to efficiently use our time to do more than we can expect to do. I do take your advice to read regularly while taking subway, this method saves me a lot of time on my assignments and reading tasks.
I find out that the strategic you give us is very useful. Yeah, I agree that all is about planning and create goals. If we have a target to finish things in a day, it will give us motivation to do better. The chart tell me that I should finish the stuff which is urgent and important first. That means everyday I have to find out what is most important and urgent for me to finish. I think this idea really work for me because now I realize that I am not good in planning task. I have to overcome my weakness and be a better time managerment person.
deers are lovely animals said...
These tips sound very good but the truth is that most of us commute about 2 hours daily. My working day, for instance, is 10 hours, instaed of 8. That would make 3 extra hours that I need to borrow from a day. It is very true that having a daily routine helps a lot. I tried that for 3 years, but my day was so overbooked that I never had time for myself. i feelt like a robot.
Many of the things you said will definitely help with time management. I especially agree with 3,4,7. For number 3 I think planning would be a great step to be able to better manage time. Usually during the day I just do whatever I feel like doing for that certain time. For example If I'm suppose to study a certain day but I feel tired I would just forget about studying. With a schedule to stick to, I would not get to caught up in certain activities and the chances of me slacking off will decrease.
I feel eliminating personal time wasters are very important as well. This is the main reason why my time management is horrible. If I'm getting ready to do some work at home on and I decide to go on the computer to do a quick task. I would eventually check other things and I would end up being on the computer for hours wasting time.
Number 7 is also good. Don't waste time waiting. A good time to get things done is when waiting. I tend catch up on some reading or just review for a class.
7) Don't waste time waiting.
i think this time management idea works for me the best. When i take the train, i'm always reading the newspaper, a book, etc.
Many people have time management problems because it is difficult to organize things. Keeping anything organized and on track is nearly impossible because life can be unpredictable. Thats my problem.
Time management is different for everyone. Some people can manage themselves by months while others manage by day. Some people can manage their lives very well with a messy schedule. whatever works for each individual is what they should follow.
I think that tips #5, 6, and 7 are all really helpful since those are things you can control and make work regardless of whether a crisis happens or not. That said, in the end it's all about being organized and sticking with things no matter how tough things get or might go. If we can all do that, I believe that you can get the things you need done earlier and then be able to make time to do other things that may not be work or habitually related.
well i find it diffucult to manage time for school because there is so much time wasted that i cant get back. my commute probably kills 2 and 1/2 hours a day, add to the fact that 5 different subjects require 5 diferent needs and soon enough you cant spend as much time as you would like on your studies.
I tink in the end it comes down to having employers or teachers knowing what we have to deal with and helping us out by not using so much of our time resources.
After reading this post a while ago, I thought that the creating goals method would work best. I decided to follow the idea of creating goals. It is helpful but I ended up modifying it a bit, by mixing it with creating a schedule and planning. I would look a week or a few days in advance to plan a schedule and list all the important things that have to be done that week on the specific days. Then, as the day comes, in the morning I would re-look at what has to be done and then categorize the plans into what is important, not important, should be taken out or should be included. It was helpful because it helped me keep track of what I have to do, but as usual somethings slip from mind and you forget to do them. For the most part, it was helpful and worked out.
Time management is always a big issue for me. I used to plan out my schedule very detailed, but there were always interruptions came in to destroy my plan. As you mentioned for tip #4, “Eliminate personal time-wasters,” I think that is the most I need right now. Starting today, I will change my schedule to do a trial for a week. The following is my plan for the coming week.
Sleep: M-S 8 hours
Exercise: M-F 1 hour (try my best)
Class: M&W 5 hours; T 2 hours; Th&F 3 hours
Eating: 1 hour
Hygiene: 1 hour
Travel: 2 hour (commuting back and forth)
Work / Study Time: Avg. 5 hours
Others: subjective
Your post reminds me of a quote from an article that i recently read from seattlepi.com:
"Let's abolish the word "busy."
We all have the same 24 hours to fill. Everyone's are filled with something.
The difference is that the "busy" people feel frenetic during those hours. Those of you who walk around telling everyone how busy you are, get a grip. Make some choices and calm down.
There's a big difference between a busy day and a full day. The former is so frantic that you aren't effective."
i think that time management is such a sticky topic because everybody feels that their time is so precious and is often more valuable than others.
I agree that an effective way to deal with the situation is by planning-and sticking to the agendas.
i also believe that the reason many people procrastinate until the very last minute is because they actually work well under pressure. I find that at times, not only do i work during these high-stress moments, but that i actually work BETTER.
However, being that the downside to doing this is stress, i actually tried this semester (with the exception of commenting to your blog) to finish my work in advance to the scheduled due date.
Much to my surprise, i was able to do so and i found that i had a relatively stress-free and enjoyable semester. Thank you so much for your advice!
Many of the points you made in the entry, I totally agree with them, especially the part with the email checking which totally apply to me. However, many times, people would plan really well with the grid of important vs. urgent but still, nothing gets done. Like what others mentioned in their comments, what we also lack of is commitment. We can plan so well with a neatly-organized to-do list, if we get distracted easily, time will tick on and we remain in idle. For me, I came up with a new idea that works well for me. Since I use my phone very often (ranging from gaming, phone-calling and messaging), I set up a to-do list every day/week right in the main screen. Therefore, whenever I would use my phone, I would see that “annoying” reminder there and so that kind of motivated me to do whatever I need to do on the list so I don’t have to see it anymore when the tasks are done.
Hey Professor Kurpis,
All of the points you have listed sound very valid to me, but i think in the end its up to will power, focus, and the person. I feel that most people have a certain switch in them that takes certain conditions for it to flip. Once the switch is flipped then the person will have a sense of what kind of situation they're in, what needs to be done and what they have to do to get it done, that switch can probably also be called working under pressure. But when the pressure hits is all up to the person, it can be the minute classes begin, after the first exam, or maybe right before a final. But it's all up to that person. The reason i say that is because, say for your example #2 create goals, i think even if we were to have our life's goal laid out in front of us, we wouldn't care for it, until the right time arises. But if managing time were that easy, we wouldn't find ourselves spending time, thinking on how to save time.
Having been through numerous peer mentor trainings and having attended my own freshmen orientation seminars I have had countless seminars on time management. I have found that making a list of things to do, broken down by importance has always helped me prioritize what was most important and remind me of where my head should be. These time management exercises and trainings have also taught me that I spend entirely too much time sleeping, a habit that I've had a lot of trouble breaking and is one that many people can not sympathize with.
Everyone's weekday breakdown varies. I spend a great deal more time traveling but less time in class/"working." Which also seems to be my biggest problem. I spend so much time commuting and am so burnt our from it, it has become a burden I am unable to fix. Travel time is something I simply cannot change and it accounts for at least 2 hours, daily, of wasted time in which I could be (hopefully would be) doing something productive.
Amount of television that the average American watches per day is over 4 hours.
I think that spend a lot of time checking all my emails, weather and etc. I know that food shopping takes a lot of time for many people; I eliminated this problem by ordering everything through Fresh Direct. I don’t watch TV, and I save a lot of time; and if I need to know something I either check it online or read newspapers.
“Don't waste time waiting” is my number one priority. I hate spending my time. I always carry with me a book, an issue of New Yorker or papers I need to read for my classes.
“Create goals” is a very helpful tip, I think that many people aware of it, it’s just hard to follow it. My personal problem is that I always procrastinate: I think I have a lot of time to finish something but actually I don’t.
Hmmm all the tips are really good. However, most of them would not work for me considering that I am very lazy and lack the determination to follow them. But what does work for me is to create goals and get them done. I mean the most important thing in a day is getting things done right? If i accomplish the things i need to in a day, and i have time left, that would be great. I can use that as relax time or do something i want. If i dont have remaining time, it is okay because i've got things done. another tip that i like is dont waste time waiting. I realize there are so much time we waste waiting for something. perhaps the two hour commute that we waste sitting there staring into space, sleeping or just listening to music. If i could put those two hours into studying then i would be less stressed when finals come around.
I've been told I live my life in choas. Your post was helpful to me and I do have alot going on and time management is something I lack very much. However, I feel it's very hard to have someone who has an issue with time management(which could mean they have organizational issues) follow a planned procedure on how they acomplish their tasks. What I mean by this is that, even though it's a good planning process by setting goals and having different importance levels on tasks, Someone who needs this in the first place, doesn't generally follow order.
I might just be gerenal by saying this, but I've tried this way of planning and it just doesn't work out for me. It only would last about 2 or 3 weeks then off to my old routine again, (which is completly wasting my time by watching tv) Procrastination also has alot to do with my lack of organization and time management as well. I figure if I watch 8 hours of tv today then tomorrow I have to do 8 hours of work. I think breaking old habits is the hardest thing to accomplish before setting up these plans, which will ultimatly be broken if your anything like me.
I think i have tried all seven ideas beforeand somehow at the end of the day i still feel like i had not accomplish enough yet. However, time management idea number two i follow the most. Every night before i sleep i try to plan out what is the most important thing that i must do the next day and how to accomplish them as soon a possible so that i can do what i actually want to do and what is not as urgent or as important. Somedays this plann works really well but on some days where unexpected things come up than i would sometimes have to change the goals up and just go with the flow and see where it brings me. I hate these days because at the end of the day i realize half of the urgent things are either not completed or not done correctly. Another idea that stuck out to me was time management idea number 4. i feel as though that is impossible. Most of all with the text message and email. there is no way that you can set yourself to not responding until 2 minutes have passed or not to check your email when they come in but every four hours instead. To check and respond to text and email is very compulsive i highly doubt that it will work. It sounds very good besides the fact that you might try to do it but will probably find yourself wasting more time checking to see if you can read and respond yet.
it's just hard to put theories into pracitce. We've been heard about all all kinds of tips for the past years but how many of us are really successed to come over the problem. it's hard.
I love tip 7 and I actually started to do it since I got transferred from other college. taking subway to come to Baruch takes forever and I have to suffer that pain every single day. But it's amazing to find out that i can do so many things on the train or waiting for the train. I started to memrize vocabulary, read textbook, write diary and so on. I found out that it's more efficient to do those things on the subway than sitting in the library, which I dont know why.
I do agree that you have to plan ahead in order to manage your time wisely. Many times, I do not plan my time because I get lazy. This can create many kinds of problem, such as not having an enough time to do all the tasks that I have to finish. Also, if you do not plant your time, you tend to get distracted and waste your time. Therefore, it is very important to plan your time and use it wisely. As someone said, time is money.
#4, eliminating time wasters, is definitely my biggest problem. And therefore the most important one for me to tend to. I see how your tips make sense. I've told myself the same tips for years, the problem is implementing them. For example, after studying for 3 hours straight, and wanting to let myself have a 15 minute break to browse facebook or some other similar time-waster of a website, how do you stop after just 15 minutes? Usually, 2 hours later, i find myself wondering how 15 minutes can turn into 2 hours. I could have sworn it was magic. And little things like that add up (not to say that the extra hour and 45 mins is "little") and before you know it, its the end of the day, and you haven't even accomplished HALF the things you set out to do. I guess like you wrote, it really is vital to be stricter on ourselves when dealing with such a valuable, yet limited, resource.
My biggest obstacles is that I am a procrastinator. I tend do lots of things last minute, especially the things I don't enjoy. Every time I tell myself: Next time you have to start earlier! However, that never happened. Thus, good planning and its actual fulfillment are very relevant; also eliminating all the time- waster are helpful to not to procrastinate. I started to make a weekly list in which I write all the things that have to be done. It works quite well for me: Much better than before when the planning stage was very loos.
Finally, I have to force myself to read something that will benefit me in an immense way. Time management is something that I need to improve for myself. I used to be able to do this but upon entrance into college, it's been getting harder and harder. One that I think would be a major help is to establish routines. I have a lot of spare time but for some reason I still can't get things done. For example, I have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 550 to 920. So I have the entire morning and afternoon free. Eliminating personal time-wasters is an interesting concept. I bet a lot of people would have trouble doing this, especially not answering phone calls. But I believe that I could work with this. The only problem I have is with not wasting time by waiting. It would seem very easy to do but I honestly like to sometimes just get away from the world and just stay idle. I may be doing this too much though. One thing that I think would be helpful is to have someone to make sure that you are doing what you are suppose to be doing. This will create motivation and further your intentions to actually get things done. A person like this could be your parents or your boy/girlfriend
Time management is the single most difficult problem a person has to go through. Sadly it is impossible to completely manage your time so you dont waste it. But with a little bit help it is possible to go a long way. I have great difficulty in time management. But i am slowly getting better and better with it. Number 4 in your list is something that i should adopt. I do waste time doing nonsense sometimes. I try to stay ahead when it comes to certain things but maybe i should learn to prioritize better. This way i can improve myself immensely. I find myself checking email or doing things that i have already done for absolutely no reason. If i cut this out then i will be able to take care of more work. I have been trying to adopt this for a while but its all about small steps. Eventually i will be able to get better with my timing.
Wow, I've been having some serious time management issues! With work, school, homework, and long commutes, I realized that I've weeded out things like hanging with friends and family, exercising, chores, and sleep! Ugh, so it seems like I am going to die faster, become fat, and become a anti-social loner with a messy room. It's so hard to manage and juggle all these things when there is not enough hours in a day.
However, like you said, time would never change... so there has to be a change in us. I am definitely going to utilize my time more efficiently by doing some reading and planning out my day during my long commutes.
Also, I completely agree with minimizing the time checking emails, taking phone calls, and also instant messaging. Also, things like facebook is a bigggg time eater. Spending less time on facebook, aim , and youtube, I would gain a great chunk of time.
Obviously, I'm one of the people who decided to sleep less to accomplish my work. Actually, you forgot to take into account that most of the personal activities are now left for weekends but you raise a valid point. In terms of planning, I would have to say my biggest problem would be wasting time. I choose to do activities early (a few days for homework, a week or two for a project) and most of the time I end up working on it last minute. For some reason, I end up getting stuck, taking a break and then getting distracted. Therefore, the best method for me would probably be eliminating time wasters. I will try to stop doing them while working, though I don't really remember what I do to waste time ^^;;
(haha) You're right about the "time management", I've definitely already listed that several times on my blog as an issue I have.
Everything you said were good points, the hard part for me is actually doing them. Sometimes my routine set is to not have a set routine, so it's contradicting and difficult to break that habit.
I always do better when I make a list of the most important things I need to get done, and work down the list (like you said, in order of importance). Unfortunately for me, sometimes there's a very fine line between what is priority and what isn't. And sometimes my priorities are fluctuating.
I guess getting in a better habit of creating these routines will be the most challenging part, and once I'm there time management will become at least a little easier.
Ahhhh the dreaded time management issue!! I think I have dealt with this more in the 3 years that I've lived in NYC than I ever did when I was back home in Baltimore. The dynamics of how my days go have changed alot. I've gone from driving to and from work to commuting, blah blah blah.
I tried to have a schedule each day of what I need to do (outside of work and school) - such as homework, making time with friends, etc and 90% of the time things have not gone as planned.
I like the tip about eliminating time wasters. I have definitely accomplished that because that precious time you lose cannot be gained back and even 2 minutes means something especially when delegated to an important task.
I have started using each day to focus on a goal as you said and in doing that I find that I reach that goal quicker and may have time to dedicate to a possible second goal of the day.
I will continue to do the two things I mentioned above along with some other tips and see if I can come close to perfecting this time management thing..
The one that I would say that would work for me is eliminating time wasters. Although having a cell phone such as the Blackberry can help you not waste time by being able to check emails or type up a draft of a report, when your doing nothing-- at the same time it can distract you. For instance, I am accustomed to doing that when I have nothing to do, BUT because I am so used to that, I even catch myself doing that while I work. Example: While working on a project, I'm constantly checking my phone if I've received an email, text message, or even a notification from someone who's posted something on my facebook. Now I've tried the whole, keep my phone at home for a day and try to be more productive---but instead I felt lost because my phone has EVERYTHING! Perhaps what I will do now, is disable the notifications from facebook being sent to my phone and as well disable my personal email accounts from my cell phone; so that what I have left on my phone is just the bare necessities I need in order to keep my day going.
I have learned a lot of useful information in this post and will try to start applying it in my everyday life. I do believe that I need to improve my planning skills, because I am too used to doing things at the last moment. Sometimes it causes problems for me, especially with my current hectic schedule due. Last minute action will not do when you take 18 units at school and work 30 hours a week!
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