OWN YOUR TIME - PRESENTATION SUMMARY

Delivered September 3, 2012 by Daniel Zoller

Own your time. I want you to own your time. That means you should care about it, nurture it and guard it. Why own your time? You wouldn't give me 10.000 pesos for nothing, because people don't give away money. People aren't loose with money. However, people are very loose with time. They regularly give it away without thinking (like watching a 2-hour show about nothing--Protagonistas). Which doesn't make sense, because time is far more valuable than money: 1. 2. 3. 4. You cant make more or earn more time (not true of money) You need to spend time to do anything (everything costs time) Its hard for anyone to take it without your consent (your time is uniquely yours) You cant save it, but you can invest your time

Finally, given that your time is a very valuable resource, you should think about who will control it. There are three possibilities: 1. You can control your time (ideal) 2. No one will control your time (bad) 3. Someone else will control your time (worst) Excuses for not managing your time. Im too busy. This is like being too fat to diet or too poor to work. You are never too busy to improve how you manage your time. Proper management will make you less busy. Theres not enough time in the day. There is plenty of time (24 hours) in each day for you to achieve your goals. The pyramids were built, Picasso painted, and ight was invented during the same 24-hour days that we have. My schedule is already full. Everyone has a schedule with obligations that cannot be ignored. These constraints dont make time management impossible. Working within constraints often makes managing something easier. I dont know what I want to do. This is not actually an excuse, but a real problem for many of us. The heart of time management is prioritization. You must decide what is most important to you (including your highest goals) in order to manage your time eectively. Denition of Time Management. Prioritizing and spending your time in a way that reects your highest goals/ values and makes you happy. Even a Buddhist monk would be a time management expert under this denition. He meditates all day, and he has prioritized and actually spends his time in a way that reects his highest goals (enlightenment) and makes him happy. Anyone can eectively manage their time.

What time management is NOT. - Cramming more doing into each day - Being busier - Working harder - Making life move faster - Being ecient so that you can add more responsibility/work - Doing productive work in every moment 4-Step Approach to Time Management. 1. Know what is 2. Stop wasting time 3. Prioritize 4. Optimize Knowing what is. To improve how you use your time, you must rst know how you currently use it. Many of us dont really think about our days, we just go through them on auto-pilot. Some of us even tell ourselves lies about how we use our time, making things appear better than they are. These two exercises can give you a clearer picture of whats really happening with your time: 1. Ask someone you trust. Ask a close friend, Based on how I spend my time, what would you say my 3 highest priorities are? 2. Track your time for 1 week. Track your time in 15 or 30-minute increments for 1 week. Doing this will give you a clear picture of your days, will alert you to black holes where you spend time without thinking each day, and will also have a quick impact on how you use your time. Simple awareness of what is will help you to make better choices immediately. Stop wasting time. Its impossible to stop wasting time completely, but wasted time represents low-hanging fruit and therefore is an easy way to improve your time management with little eort. The idea is that you dont have to do anything extra or new; just stop doing certain wasteful activities so much and youll be greatly improved. Time Vampires. Time vampires drain your time without giving you anything valuable/meaningful in return. We all know these activities: e-mail, Facebook, Youtube, Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp, Twitter, surng the Internet, and watching television. Pull the Plug. Notice that all of the time vampires listed above are digital. They all require us to use or watch some electronic device. Whenever you are using one of those devices, stop and think-- can I unplug from this and get some real life back? Remember that most of these distractions (except television) didnt even exist 30 years ago. What were people spending their time on then? Probably more real, human interactions. Unplug yourself and see. Ignore the News. For some reason, educated people are addicted to the news. Remember that most of what we call news are old events which will not aect our lives and which can we have no control/inuence over. Finally, remember that the news is mostly lled with negative information and is produced solely to create prot for advertisers who sponsor the news. If advertisers stopped paying, most news wouldnt even be produced. Its

not for you, its for them. Worrying is totally useless. "If you are worried about some pain or suering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry." -- Dalai Lama. Either take action if you can do something, or stop worrying if theres nothing you can do. Worry is a true waste of time, and is dierent from genuine, physical fear (which is natural). Sleep is not a waste of time. Many young people think that they can gain eciency or productivity by giving up sleep. That is a terrible idea, as adequate rest is vital to high performance at anything. Prioritize. Prioritization is the heart of time management. It is time management. Only when you have a clear idea of your highest priorities/values/goals can you use your time eectively and wisely. Much of prioritization is deciding what to let go. We have to give up many attractive opportunities to focus on those that are most important to us. We should ask ourselves two questions: 1. What is most worth doing? 2. What can be ignored? We should ask ourselves these questions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and also each year. Remember that the second question is not related to wasting time. It asks us to decide which things we are willing to give up to pursue our highest goals/priorities. After all, we cannot do everything wed like to do--time is limited. In answering these questions you should create two lists: 1. Highest goals / values 2. Not-to-do List Once you have the lists prepared, you should compare your stated priorities (Highest goals/values) against how you actually use your time right now. The disconnect between these two (your stated goals vs. how you use your time) will cause you a lot of anxiety and suering. Time management is eective when your actions/time match your truest, highest priorities. Optimize. Remember that prioritization is the heart of time management. Anyone who has clear priorities and pursues them is eective at time management. However, we can also make ourselves more ecient/eective by following certain strategies which will make our work easier and faster. Practice saying no. When people ask you to do something, your rst reaction should be no, I cant. In this way you will guard your time from unnecessary intrusions. Dont take on a project or responsibility from someone else unless you have a very good reason. Default to no and you will save lots of time. Minimum Acceptable To-Do List. Dont write a long to-do list. You wont complete it and it will just make you feel discouraged and demotivated. Instead, make the shortest possible to-do list. Just write down the 1 or 2 things that must be done today. You are asking yourself, what is the minimum I could do today and still be OK? Once youve nished those tasks, if you have more time and energy, then you can look with condence for something else to work on. Putting out res vs. Making real progress. We put out res when we do chores, errands, answer e-mails, do

housework etc. Putting out res means working on things that dont make real progress, they are just busywork. Often, these res will have to be put out again and again (you will never nish e-mail; its an ongoing responsibility). When you are working, ask yourself whether you are putting out res or making real progress, and try to focus the majority of your time on progress-work, like writing papers or studying for an exam etc. Write it down. Get into the habit of writing everything down. You will easily forget most things that you dont write down, which can lead to all sorts of problems. Write it down! Batch similar tasks. Try to complete related/similar tasks in one session. For example, I check my e-mail, check Facebook and do online banking in one sitting, because those are all short computer tasks that can be batched together. Batching is a matter of eciency. Ask for help early. Most people (but students especially) wait too long before asking for help. Dont waste time with worry or confusion when theres someone who can help you get moving again. Dont wait until the last minute. This is not about the virtues of not procrastinating. The reason is more practical. When you wait until the last minute to do something, you are stuck with the circumstances that exist in those moments. For example, if you leave at the last possible minute to travel to EAFIT, and there is a trac jam, you are stuck with that situation, and you will be late. When you do things earlier, you have a choice of circumstances and you can avoid the disastrous ones more easily. Break large tasks into physical steps. If you have to do research for a long paper, for example, and you dont know where to begin. The rst physical step is turn on your computer. Then open a web browser. Then go to google.com. Now type in the keywords for your project. Youre researching! This is a simplied example but it works for all kinds of complicated tasks, and helps you to break the seal of hesitation. Just keep looking for the next physical action you can take. Depersonalize uncomfortable tasks. When you have an uncomfortable task (usually involving other people), take away the anxiety by turning it into a mechanical task in your mind. Im not writing to Tom to tell him the bad news about his project; instead, Im just drafting and sending an e-mail addressed to Tom. Make it mechanical, make it impersonal, and get started. Set a limit for limitless tasks. Research, for example. You could spend an innite number of hours researching a topic, but that wouldnt be eective. At some point you would get less and less out of each hour of research, and your time would be better invested in other things. If youre worried about this happening, set a time limit (e.g. 8 hours for research for a 4 page paper) and once youve used up the time, move on to something else with condence. Plan backwards on a xed deadline. When you have a large project with a xed deadline, sometimes it helps to plan backwards from the due date. What will happen on that date? Youll submit the project. The day before that? You should print the project and review it. The day before that? You should do nal revisions to prepare for printing. Planning backwards in this way can give you an idea of how much time you need for each step and also create a schedule of mini-deadlines. Be a persistent starter. Space your work. Working on something for 8 hours (2 hours per day, 4 days of work) is almost always more eective than working on something for 9 or 10 hours in one day. Thats because we come

up with better solutions and better work when we leave time between work sessions. This also creates the habit of persistent starting, and makes it easier to sit down and get to work over time, especially on days you might not feel up to it. Turn o distractions to work. Use airplane mode on your phone, turn your wi- o. Turn the tv o. You should be focused on your work when you are working, focused on play when you are relaxing, and on rest when you are resting. With fewer distractions, you will produce better work. Work where you work best. Maybe your friends like to study together in the library, but you nd yourself socializing and not studying. Maybe you work best by yourself, in your room at home. Maybe you work best in the early morning; maybe late at night. Maybe you work best at a cafe, listening to music. Find out when/where/ how you work best, and do your work in that environment. Do 1 thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth--it doesnt exist. What we do is switchtasking, switching back and forth rapidly between two or more tasks. Each time you switch, you break your concentration and have to start over when you return to the rst task. Research shows that people who switch-task frequently have shorter attention spans and a reduced ability to come up with creative solutions. Do one thing at a time and you will produce better work. Take regular breaks (for rest and fun). Human beings are cyclical creatures. We use energy and then we need to recharge it. We are active during the day and so we must rest at night. All life is cyclical (owers blossom and eventually fall, the tide comes in and goes out, birds migrate, the sun rises and sets) and we work most eectively when we respect this fact. Schedule regular rest and fun breaks into your work, even when youre busy. You need to recharge your energy and your mind to be truly eective. Own your time. I want you to own your time. That means you should care about it, nurture it and guard it.