Time Management

Time…
Must be explicitly managed:

• Just like Money
• Before it is too late to Manage
• Make it the No.1 item on your Priority List
• More than just keeping a calendar
• Identifying your obligations
• Carefully considering their importance
• Making choices about how to use your time
• Finish on time whatever you begin

Time is equal to all, some progress, others…

• 24 hours a day * 60 minutes per hour * 60 seconds per minute = 84,600 seconds get deposited to your account by God
• Make Time productive
• Fail to use the deposit, the loss is yours

Everything you are today and you become in the future will be determined by the way you think and use your time. Your Attitude towards time is critical to everything you accomplish.

Some Common Time Wasters

How do you lose your time without realizing?

• Talking to friends
• Talking on telephone
• Day-dreaming
• Watching television
• Sleeping
• Listening to music
• Drop in visitors
• Playing sports, games or hobbies
• Doing household chores
• Partying and goofing around
• Snacking and eating, hanging out
• Procrastinating or worrying

Have Clarity and Set Priorities

The clearer you are in your goals and objectives

• You will achieve them more efficiently and effectively
• Clarity accounts for nearly 80% of your success and happiness
• You will be able to accomplish your tasks in much shorter period than people without them
• Concentrate on the small number of activities that contribute the greatest value to your life and studies

Be a Compass, not Clock

• Focus on your life’s direction
• Have 100% clarity on what specifically your priorities are
  • What really matters to you?
  • Where can you make the biggest impact?What will help you leave a legacy?

How does it matter how much we do if what we are doing isn’t what matters most – Steven Covey

Use the Pareto Rule

• Of the total task in a day,  only 20 percent really matter
• Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of the results
• Focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of your work that is really important
• Don’t just “work smart”, work smart on the “right things”.

Focus on the right 20%

A Few Time Management Tips

The first step to Managing Time is to Become Aware

• How do you spend your time?
• Are you allocating time to valued activities?
• What low-valued activities consume too much of your time?
• Are you devoting your prime time to your most important activities?
• Is there a good balance between academic, social, entertainment and wellness activities?

Treat Time like a Commodity

• Most Precious and Valuable resource we have
• Totally Perishable
• Cannot be Stored up for use later

Essential Good Time Management Habits include:

• Know where the hours, minutes and seconds are going
• Keep focused on achieving the end result
• Work on defined priorities
• Schedule time for important issues
• Confront your own indecision and delay
• Take the stress out of your activities

Stop Procrastination – A few ways to overcome Procrastination include:

• Delete it
• Do it now
• Ask for advice
• Remove Distractions
• Chop it up
• Obey the 15 minute rule
• Have clear deadlines
• Give yourself a reward

Use your waiting time

Use CD’s / Books to learn something during commutating or other waiting time. Life, after all, is all about improvements!

Make a list of things to do. Reflect on things you might have been putting off. Jot them down. You now have a list you can work off and put your time later to good use.

The big Rocks of Life, a beautiful story

One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to make a point, he used this illustration. As he stood in front of the group he pulled out a large wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen rocks and placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?"

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the space between the rocks. Then he asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class began to understand. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied.

He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?” One student raised his hand and said, “No matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!" "No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

What are the 'big rocks' in your life? Your children; Your loved ones; Your education; Your dreams; A worthy cause; Teaching or mentoring others; Doing things that you love; Time for yourself; Your health; Your mate (or significant other). Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you'll never get them in at all. If you sweat about the little stuff (the gravel, sand, and water) then you'll fill your life with little things you worry about that don't really matter, and you'll never have the time you need to spend on the big, important stuff (the big rocks).

So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the 'big rocks' in my life? Then, put those in your jar first

Finally, remember
You do not manage time, you manage

• Yourself
• Others
• Work

Managing your time effectively can enable you to:

• Reach your goals
• Accomplish what is most important
• Live out your values, maintain balance
• Meet deadlines
• Reduce and manage stress
• Work smarter instead of harder
• Control your time
• Perform academically
• Have the time of your life without guilt!