~~ or 'Living in Denial'

There are people in this world who are organized. They always leave for work on time, never forget to buy cat food, and always say "Happy Birthday!" because they remembered that it is in fact your birthday. These are people with perpetually clean underwear, small electronic gizmos that store their appointment times, and extra bundt cake pans to loan out to neighbors. They have clean cars, clean houses, clean shoes, and clean refrigerators. And they always look well-rested.

I am not one of these people.

With this blog I am hoping to explore some ways of improving time management for normal, disorganized individuals (like me!), and especially for harried college students. With all the technology, research, psychology and social support around us, this shouldn't be impossible.

...Right?

But then again...there is another side to time management; the delectible art of wasting time. And I would be completely remiss if I didn't explore that just a little bit, wouldn't I?






Monday, November 29, 2010

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.........)
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