The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about Christmas. No, I am most sarcastically speaking of FINALS and all the stress they can bring. Forget the Holiday Blues or the Freshman Fifteen or anything else...finals tops them all. (Pounds, stress, you name it.)

This said, though, there are some helps. If you search around the web there are lots of places to get advice, and I have found one such great website that talks about how to deal with finals. It's kind of wordy, but it's chock full of good stuff. Most of the sites I visited touted early prep and time management (uh, duh) but this one goes even farther. It's from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Undergrad Department, and my favorite part is: B. Be sure you have full and accurate information about the final. Even beyond all the prep stuff I normally do, this is one thing I had not thought about. But it makes a big difference. Such as:

• Be very clear about how the final is to be constructed; preparation for essay tests differs from that for short answer or blank-fillers.
• How is the exam graded; e.g. does one get partial credit? Do only right answers count (in which case a guess cannot hurt), or do wrong answers bring penalties?

These little things can make a HUGE difference in how you plan out your time.

But for all you time management buffs out there looking strictly for time management tips, my advice is CALENDAR, CALENDAR, CALENDAR. Stick stuff on it, and follow it (study time, study topics, study groups, etc, etc.)

Oh, and breathe. (This is important. Trust me.)

GOOD LUCK!

Time Management and Stress

So you've gotten organized (good for you, I'm not anywhere near that), and so you've got your schedule tacked down to the minute (ditto, with some sympathy), and so you're getting everything done that you have on your to-do list (ok, forget the sympathy, I now hate you). Whether or not you truly are this organized, did you know that stress can make the time that you spend on tasks much longer than usual? I'm talking double, triple, even quadruple time, here.

I did. Yup, last week one of my assignments that should have lasted under an hour took me four. Why? Because I was so stressed out I couldn't focus. Kind of ironic, don't you think? You're so worried that you're not going to get done in time that it takes you four times as long to do something? Yeesh.

So this week's blog is devoted to (drumroll, please) Stress Management. That's right, because without stress management, time management gets less and less do-able.

Other than taking a Yoga class or moving to a deserted island (oh, doesn't that sound nice right now? All warm and Calculus-free...), what can you do to manage your stress? Lots of things! I found a great website especially for students at essortment.com that, surprisingly enough, uses a lot of the same advice for stress management as you usually hear for time management: Goals, Avoiding Procrastination, Priorities... (Sometimes affectionately referred to as the giant GAPP in my life...) But there are some other good tips as well, like making sure you have space to be alone (yup, they read my mind on that deserted island) or keeping a diary (ah, I remember keeping a journal, once, long ago...looooooong ago...).

Another good place for some tips is about.com. It's short, but I especially like their advice because they include tips like "Schedule time to relax" and "Schedule rewards in." Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Cause if you don't take time out for you, this could happen. (Has no one else seen this movie but me? ...Admittedly, it was long ago...looooooooooooooong ago.........)

Apparently it's a big thing here...

(Time Management attempters beware: This is not an especially helpful post.) :)

So have you heard that there are so many (it's questionable how many) more words in Inuit for snow than in English? Or that in Ireland, they've got a reputed 45 shades of green?

Well, in the English language...

Idler, bludger (yes it's more than just a quiddle ball from Harry Potter...), wastrel, dawdler, a loaf or loafer, a lag or laggard, a trifler, procrastinator, slowpoke, dallier, goof-off, fiddler, slug or sluggard, ne'er-do-well, faineant, good-for-nothing or good-for-naught, goldbrick, ragabrash, layabout, nonstarter, slouch, slacker, etc etc etc....

My favorites were:

Dringle: Somebody who likes to waste time.

Quiddler: One who wastes his energy about trifles. (That's me!)

Boondoggler: A person who spends time on an unnecessary or wasteful project or activity.

Zombie (really!): Not only is it a revived corpse, but someone 'who looks or behaves like an automaton'. (Oh, it's also a tall mixed drink made of various rums, liqueur, and fruit juice. Unambitious and tasty!)

---

Also (since I was already on this tangent), did you know that the longest non-medical word in the English language is FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION? It means means "the act of estimating as worthless". (Such as, I found this post floccinaucinihilipilificatious. Floccinaucinihilipilificate. Um, ...floccinaucinahilipilificating? Oh, you know what I mean...)

Are We Really Saving Time...?

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

--Benjamin Franklin US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

Are you a fan of Daylight Saving Time? Or do you hate it? Does it really make a difference?

(I wish that it did more than change clocks. Can I have a Daylight Saving Week? Of course, would that mean I just lose a week in the Spring? Danggit, I can't win.)

MSN has an interesting little article about Daylight Saving Time: Time to Fall Back. Basically it gives a little history about DST (it started to conserve fuel in WW1), talks about some places that go without it (did you know that Hawaii does not observe Daylight Saving Time?), and then goes into some potential problems with it, like how it messes with people's sleep schedules, and how it does't save as much energy to be worth all the change. An article on CNN.com also warns that iPhones might not handle DST so well (bad news for those that rely on the iPhone's alarm to wake them up in the morning).

There are some strange benefits to DST, apparently. If you read the article, 'Does Daylight Saving Time Really Conserve Energy?, it states that "Studies show that there are fewer automobile accidents, and that crime rates tend to drop" as an additional perk to 'increased daylight. Whod'a thunk?

And for those of us looking to more efficiently manage our time, even if we 'lose' the hour in spring, we are still 'gaining' that hour now, and isn't now, the present, where we should be focused? As a blog on effectiveedge.com states, "Whether DST is a great practice or not depends on the individual or enterprise...(but) whatever you may think about DST, its boundless complexities, or the potential havoc it may wreak in your world, that extra hour on the first Sunday of November is a gift. It almost makes up for the loss I feel the second Sunday in March when I give it back."

I think I agree. Especially when faced with next week's homework.

~~Don't forget to change your clocks on Sunday, November 7!!!

Sleep. The Time-Management Equalizer? Or Personal Nemesis....?

OK, really, how much sleep do we need at night? I've heard of people who are totally great after 4 hours a night. (Y'know, those presidents of Fortune-500 companies, millionaires with well-rounded lives, and other mythical creatures...) I've heard as well that you can get your body to get by on less sleep, training it to be more efficient.

Me? I think it's all a bunch of hype. I need 10 hours of sleep. How do people survive on less? Not that I want to get all rant-y on you here, but really, I've been doing 7 hours (average) this semester, and dying because of it. Last night? (Since you asked...) A whopping 2 hours. (And don't think it's because I've got a life. Hah.)

And beyond the physical possibilities, there's the time-management conundrum: If you've got something incredibly important to do (of course on a nearly impossible deadline...), is it better to sleep and be rested to more efficiently finish the remainder of it, possibly running out of time in the process, or to sacrifice your sleep to ensure the job is completed on time? --The latter reminds me of all those war movies where the soldiers urge each other on by saying, "You can sleep when you're dead!" Not entirely comforting. And really, personally, I'd like to sleep while I'm still living.

And of course, if you're like me, and you've got 60 zillion things to do, you're inundated by those things while you sleep. Always fun. Did you ever dream the one where the Calculus professor keeps repeating, "F of x plus h minus f of x, all divided by h. F of x plus h minus f of x, all divided by h. F of x..."

Well, at least for that dream I'm not naked in class. Gotta look at the bright side, here...

Momentum (and its Evil Twin: Break)

Ah, momentum. Easily one of my greatest allies. Or foes, if I let it be.

Case in point: Last week was Fall Break. Was it just me, or was the 'go! go! go!' suddenly turning into 'aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....breeeeaaaak...' a difficult transition while still trying to stay productive? I mean, did anyone else basically do absolutely nothing until about Wednesday?

I started out with the best intentions: I had about a 6 page list of things I had been trying to get to - but too busy for - from the last month or so (consisting of items like laundry (yikes), dishes (double yikes) and finally getting a haircut (hippie yikes)), but could I even get out of bed the Saturday starting Fall Break? Ok, well, I did get out to raid the fridge and pop in another DVD. (I think I went through half my DVDs and half my fridge that first day.) I had ZERO motivation to move.

Same with Sunday. No matter how much I stared at that giant list of things I really did want to accomplish, pretty much nothing in the world could get me off of the couch. (Well, at least I moved out of bed.)

By about Tuesday I was thinking, 'This is ridiculous! I want to have clean clothes and a non-toxic kitchen. Why can't I get moving?!'

---

My answer? Momentum. (Tricky little bugger.) I've noticed over the last few years that one of my biggest challenges is starting something. Anything. Whether it's a homework assignment, getting to classes on time, or even just getting up to shower (especially on days when I technically don't have any pressing events I have to get ready for).

But get me going on things? I go and go and go and do and do and do until I stop. And stay stopped. It seems to be all or nothing for me. (Probably not the healthiest of approaches to productivity.) Either I'm riding on momentum, or stuck in the 'break of momentum.'

And Fall Break? I reeeeally stopped. Boom. Finished. Caput. Game over, man. Getting going again, even if it was just to get up and say, "Okay. Really. I have no clean dishes left. It is time to wash one at least," was tantamount to moving mountains.

Of course, maybe exhaustion and decompression had parts in keeping me immobile last week, too. My previous momentum felt very similar to plunging-off-a-cliff-can't-stop-now, and yes, stopping kinda felt like smacking the ravine floor at 300 miles per hour.

Anyone else feel like Wile E. Coyote in those RoadRunner cartoons?

Here's a guy who's figured it out...

K if you've got some free time and want to know how the masters do time management...check this out.

It's a NOVA special on Karl Iagnemma, a full-time MIT roboticist who is also an acclaimed fiction writer. Click here to watch or read the transcript:

Profile: Karl Iagnemma - PBS Airdate: October 3, 2006

This guy has time-management down to an art form.

My favorite part of the interview is at the end when his friend is describing how he'd describe himself if he were Karl:

STEVE ALMOND: If it were me, if I was doing this stuff, I would be like, "Dude, I've got a robot going to Mars. What did you do yesterday? And that was before lunch. Then I wrote a great short story in the afternoon. Then I hung out with my beautiful Swedish wife. What'd you do?"

What did I do before lunch today? Hm. Well... I threw out that container in the back of the fridge that was growing fuzz. Does that count? Then I showered. I think that was it. Yeah.

Well, it is fall break - it took an effort, people.

Okay, okay, back to work...

Multi-tasking - Friend of Foe?

So a lot of the sites I've visited list out tips for better time management. And while there is a fair amount of variation depending on your goals, they do all run in basically a parallel path. With perhaps the exception of multi-tasking.

Some sites claim that multi-tasking 'dilutes' your focus on both task, making the time you spend on the two of them that much more drawn out and ineffective. Other sites claim that the best way to get the most out of the day is to not limit yourself to just one task when two are possible.

Now, I don't want to open up a total can of worms here, but there's also the viewpoint that it might be a gender thing. I'm not sure that I agree, but I have heard from many many MANY sources that 'Oh, I can't multi-task, I'm a guy...I'm focused,' or 'How can you just sit there and not be doing something else? That goes against the laws of motherhood!' or etc. etc... But maybe this is a part of the discussion best left for some other blog...

There definitely is something to be said for both multi-tasking and not. If you don't multi-task, you are concentrating your effort on one thing and one thing only. No distractions, no apologies, no excuses, you're on top of that one thing. On the other hand, if you're mind is wandering while you're doing a task, could you fill that wandering with another task? Like watching TV and folding laundry, or walking to the bus-stop and reading a book (um, this may not be advised if you're particularly engrossed. There's cars out there, people...), or playing Halo while you're listening to the last tape of your biology lecture? (Actually, a friend of mine swears by this. I don't quite get it, but to each his own.)

I say I'll try anything once.

(Halo, anyone?)

The 80/20 Rule

Okay, so is the 80/20 rule new to just me? Seems like everyone around me has already heard a version of it.

My sister and I were talking about efficiency, and she said she'd heard (and tried to follow) a rule that says for any project (or study-time for that life-and-death Calculus exam), you should try to be 'focused and efficient 80% of the time, with 20% of your time being set aside as your 'breaks'. That way you are concentrating your focus in shorter periods of time, and consciously letting yourself 'breathe' during the process. In theory, this helps your mindset, because you know the work-time is finite, and my sister swears that this trick helps you keep up the pace of things through, oh...say, an entire semester. Even one that involves a math class.

Hmmm. Very interesting...

There's other versions of this rule out there, too, but apparently a popular one (it's even named for an Italian economist from back in 1906!) is described here:

Management.about.com

It says a lot of stuff in this article (time-management attempters may wish to skip it), but the jist of Pareto's Principle is that typically 80% of unfocused effort generates only 20% of results. And on top of that, 80% of your day is filled with trivial things that should not be wasted with your best efforts. "Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things."

Oooh...also interesting. Although I may be confused on the math part. So am I supposed to spend the (most) crucial 20% of of my day with 80% effort? Or am I supposed to be giving 100% 20% of the time? Or does that mean that somehow I should have about 80% of my day free even though I feel like my schedule is 100% against me?

I think I may have to look at this more once I'm out of my math class, which I swear is frying my brain. Or maybe my time management skills aren't ready to handle Calculus and Italian economists at the same time...

Some Really Helpful Places

Okay. So I mentioned how I've been browsing the web looking for advice, right? Well here are some great places to look for help if you're 'Time-Management-Challenged' like me:

• studygs.net (a good site for students)
• ezinearticles.com
• timemanagement.com (better for office management...)
• blog.penelopetrunk.com

(I also started a running list of helpful links at the bottom of this site.)

---

And if you've read this far into my blog and aren't sure you're as desperately pathetic as me (when it comes to managing your time), here's a way to find out: Take a Time Management Quiz!

• One simple/quick quiz is here: www.ucc.vt.edu (Out of a possible score of 10, I got 3. Yup, that's about right.)
• Perhaps a better one is here: www.mindtools.com
• Another really a good one is here: www.effective-time-management-strategies.com (And with this quiz I scored an 'Ouch.' Not pretty.)

Actually, you can get some good hints and tips about what you 'shouldn't' be doing by doing these quizzes. ~~Or you can realize that during the time it took to hunt down these quizzes and take them, you could have been accomplishing something of a higher priority on your To-Do list.

Um, I think a light just went on in that dusty brain of mine. Oh, well, while I'm wasting time, at least I've been finding really interesting quizzes online - of all kinds - including this fun little one: The Time-Waster's Quiz. Just enter your first name and then ask yourself...

Your tomato plant begins to grow teeth and claw-like appendages.One day, you notice it chasing the dog around the house. What do you do?

The Big Picture

Last week was horrible. All-nighters to finish homework, last minute cramming for Math tests, hitting the 'Submit Assignment' button on practically the last minute, and feeling as though I could use another 12-or-so hours of sleep... So I thought it was time to start figuring out a better way to do things. First step? Put down my 6 page 'To-Do' list (that I've been staring ineffectively at for the last hour). Second step? Browse the web for advice...

If I was overwhelmed by my gigantonormous 'To-Do' list, I don't think Googling 'Time Management' helped. 430 million results. Sheesh. Well, at least I'm not the only one with issues.

In reading through site after article after blog after everything else, I've come to a few conclusions:

1. Time Management means different things for different people; it's all about where your priorities are and what you're trying to accomplish.
2. Because your own personal priorities may be different from other peoples', a lot of the advice on the web contradicts other peoples' advice. (Some people are pro-multi-tasking, others say it's counter-productive, that sort of thing...)
3. Self-control is a good thing. (Yes I can walk away from Warcraft...)
4. Organization is a good thing. (I can also sort the mail instead of throwing it on the floor. Now if I could just find the file-box that I put my sorted mail in...)
5. To-Do lists are a good thing. But only if you use them right: One must prioritize.

All in all, priorities were the major theme. Are you trying to finish all assignments on time? Trying to have more time with loved ones? Trying to get that promotion? It's important to define what that overshadowing goal is. Then decide what is it that you're willing to temporarily shove to the side in order to make that happen. (Again with the self-control. Sacrifice is a good thing. Dammit.)

Later I think I'll start a list of some of the good sites I've visited. But for right now, I think the thing I need to do is ask myself that one really big question - the one that makes everything else moot without it: "What is my priority?"

(I'll put that at the top of my 'To-Do' list.)

Holiday, anyone?

So today is Labor Day, and I was wondering what everyone else was doing with their 'day off.' As one who is fairly new to this concept of time management, I am trying to be more conscious of how I spend mine, so I thought I'd compare activities.

Around Salt Lake City today there were lots of possibilities, like "Miner's Day in Park City," Snowbird's "Oktoberfest," an "Antelope Island Stampede," and the Timpanogos "Storytelling Festival" (all listed on About.com). Defying the local offerings, my sister headed out of town for some end-of-summer family bonding, but for others the stay-at-home-barbecue theme seems extremely popular.

Elsewhere around the nation, parades, fun-runs, fireworks, and festivals are taking place, drawing lazy people out of their houses and plying them with food and entertainment. It seemed like today was the perfect day to not think about 'Time Management.'

(Which is pretty much what I did, sleeping in late and then hitting the 'Labor Day Sales' at the mall.)

So from a 'TM' standpoint (and keeping in mind that I have not actually found or implemented any time management strategies thus far in this blog), were we all just a bunch of time wasters today? What should we have been doing?

(And is it apparent yet that this blog is a direct result of my overactive guilt?)

I looked around the web to find the reason we have the day off in the first place, and it seems Labor Day started in 1882 as a movement to recognize the efforts of the average working man." Working conditions way back when were pretty bad, what with the 12 hour workdays, no minimum wage, child labor and no workers' comp.

In fact one of the main purposes to this holiday was to get people (employers, specifically) to realize what the working norm should be, and that limits to pushing ourselves must be set. Along with this, rest and relaxation are "very important to our wellness and health. If you are working too hard ...and don't get enough rest, you compromise your immune system and open the door to illness and disease. As important as work is to our lives, slowing down is imperative, too. It makes perfect sense that our bodies and minds require rest after periods of hard work."

Wow. So our purpose today is to not work. I like it! Seems I've got the right idea, along with the rest of the nation. Slackers rejoice!

(Oh, and that's the rest of the nation except President Obama, apparently. It seems the WFIE.com is reporting that the President spent Labor Day with union workers in Milwaukee, talking about unemployment. Hm. Overachiever.)

Lazy Saturdays...

Before school started, my typical Saturday was to wake up at noon, maybe shower (or not…) at 9 pm after a full day of video-gaming in my PJ’s (only pausing to refill my bowl of Lucky Charms), rush to the grocery store to get potatoes (because I forgot that my ‘potluck’ assignment was mashed potatoes the next day), rush back to the store (because, oh yeah, I had no more milk to mix in the mashed potatoes - I used it all on my Lucky Charms), then sit back down to play more video games until midnight, when I have to rush back out to the grocery store (because I forgot to put the milk in the fridge and it’s the temperature of my dead houseplant that I accidentally set down next to my heating vent). Yeah.

So my goals for this semester:

1. Find some way of being on time.
2. Never forget an assignment until 10 minutes before it's due.
3. Use grocery lists.
4. Stop killing my plants.
5. Achieve a zen-like state of mind because I'm so super organized and acing all my classes.
6. Find out how I can do all this and still spend eight hours a day playing StarCraft 2.  I mean, it just came out.  And I've been really good so far this semester.  So it's only been a week.  Don't I deserve a little down time?

Right.  This may take some work.