Time Out

March 25 2013 , Written by Peanut Butter Blogger Published on #Old School

What are you finding challenging this semester?

This question is from the blogging checklist of my blog assignment. I could answer writing and working with a good English but actually, my biggest challenge is: time management.

I have just read Tom Johnson's post, "Avoiding Quadrant Four": http://idratherbewriting.com/2013/03/24/avoiding-quadrant-four.

Tom was talking of the quadrant I learnt the first week of this semester, in the module Content Development and Information Management.

Stephen Covey's Quadrant.

I actually didn't understand well this quadrant until I read Tom's post. According to Tom, "if [you] want to be productive, you want to spend much more time in Quadrant 2, doing important things but not urgent", while "Quadrant 1 is the crisis mode quadrant". I used to think Quadrant 1 should be what you have to do first, as it's important AND urgent. But thanks to Tom, I've just realized if you fall into Quadrant 1, it's because you didn't manage your Quadrant 2 well.

So, I usually spend most of my time in Quadrant 1 (Urgent/Important) which is the consequence of spending a lot of time in Quadrant 4 (Not urgent/Not important). That is to say, I spend a lot of time for leisure while I continually postpone my assignments until the very submission day. Students call that "procrastination" (good news, I'm not alone!).

Doing important things at the last minute is dreadful:

it's stressful. I'm always looking at the clock and the tick-tock sounds like steps to the scaffold if I can't stop the clock in time.
it shows how pathetic you are in organization/management. I am actually the project manager for two different school projects. Of course, I've been elected to this job by I don't-know-what secret vote by my team fellows... I think this is a hilarious and awkward situation!
you have to cancel some other activities much funnier to achieve this important and urgent thing.
you can get used to this bad habit for life and one day, you won't succeed in finishing that thing on time.

How I feel when I am overwhelmed by important and urgent work.

However how can I manage to do everything I want to in a perfect schedule? Indeed, I made a list of all of what I want and have to do in a normal week:

go to class and study regularly.
hang out with friends.
spend time with my boy (yes, friendship and love times even have to be separated or that doesn't count).
practise badminton and be grand for the tournaments.
do chores.
sleep and eat properly.

So, in his post, Tom suggests a few tips to stay in Quadrant 2. I've found my own way to become a better time manager. First, I was thinking of ranking each of these points in the quadrant, that is to say classifying them. But that also means I have to sacrifice some of these points. I didn't appreciate this idea. I will never sacrifice anything because I will stay busy all the time. If I postpone my meetings with my friends, I'll start to lose contact with them. If I postpone my assignments, I'll be under pressure again.

So, I made a detailed schedule for the week, which includes time for my assignments, time for reading, and spare time. For example, I work from 9 to 12 am, then have lunch from noon to 1 pm, then work again from 1 to 4 pm, etc, etc. A schedule allows me to see how much time I spend on each activity and I have the impression not to waste any time of a day. It's like a Gantt Chart but in a smaller version!

Unfortunately today, I've just wasted my assignment time as the UL computer labs are closed so I had to go back home then downloaded the software I need for work (it's so slow, that's why I'm writing this post at the same time). But this is another warning to me: sometimes, things are not going as you want them to be, there are always negative hazards, that's why the earlier you start to work on your projects, the better it is!

Note: Time Out is the French title of the movie In Time (2011) by Andrew Niccol: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/. In this world, money, power, life are time. People have a digital clock on their forearm and can see their time deducted every second. If you waste your time and do not manage it properly, then you can run out of time and die. The main character is quite poor in time. He lives with less than 24 hours and has to work to keep his clock working:

"A day. You can do a lot in a day".