Some Thoughts on Time Management Strategies

    In this post, I'll be talking about some time management strategies and how they can be applied to this class and academic life in general. The articles I chose to read from the list Laura provided us are:

1. 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time - Áine Cain
2. The Myth of "Too Busy" - Tim Grahl

    As someone who is very Type A, most of the concepts discussed in these articles weren't necessarily new, but were things I had already been doing. That being said, it was interesting to learn the reasoning behind the techniques I had already been practicing, and to even pick up a few new ones, as well. I'm a big fan of planners, and every couple of days I sit down and plan out the next few days, what assignments I should do when, my work hours, etc. I actually get a weird kind of peace from doing that (which might be some undiagnosed personality disorder or something, but it's been working well for me so far...). Having everything lined out and knowing when I should be doing a certain task has a calming effect for me. 

    One of the ways "unsuccessful" people mismanage their time, according to Cain's article, is that they don't write down a plan for their weekends. That's something I do sporadically, but seeing as I'm supposed to be writing a thesis this semester, that might be a useful technique for me to practice more consistently. I think we all tend to assume that we'll get to whatever we need to do on the weekends whenever it occurs to us, since we don't have to worry about going to class or (possibly) going to work, but Cain points out allows us to "critically examine our time" and build relaxation and fun activities into our schedule most effectively. That leads me to a concept that was unfamiliar to me, also in Cain's article. It is the idea that we should schedule our fun activities; if you're a "busy" (we'll get to Grahl's thoughts on that word in a second) person or a workaholic, if you don't build leisure into your schedule, you might skip it, which can lead to burnout.  That's something I normally don't do, which does lead to me sometimes forgetting to take that time out for myself, so this is another concept I could try and adopt this semester.

Some productivity tips, courtesy of Pinterest.

    Tim Grahl writes about the myth of being "too busy." He is an author and a book marketing expert, and this article seems to me primarily directed at writers. I definitely agree with Grahl's comment that being "too busy" has almost become a point of pride nowadays. I catch my friends and I doing that sometimes, someone will talk about a new show they just started watching, or a hobby, and someone else (sometimes me) will say "Oh, I've been meaning to try that, but I've just been so busy." And we say it as if to say "I've been prioritizing my time better than you." Of course, we all have things to do, and most of us (and I mean everyone now) don't have as much free time as we would like. Grahl argues that instead of saying we are "too busy" to do something now, we should change the phrasing to "prioritizing my time." So, for example, if Grahl tells one of his writers they should answer fan emails more often, instead of saying they're too busy to do that, they should say something along the lines of, "I'm prioritizing my time for something else right now." I think when we're talking about the tasks we have to do and structuring our schedules, that's really effective (and accurate) phrasing to use. Grahl goes on to say that we need to cut unnecessary activities from our schedules as brutally as possible, in order to best prioritize our time, but I think that bit of advice is more directed towards writers, who in theory would be doing a lot of their work at home, or just outside of a typical work environment in general, and might be more dependent on themselves for managing their time, and therefore more susceptible to distractions. 

    Overall, these readings on time management gave me some things to think about going forward for this semester. Balancing three classes and a thesis is tricky work, and some of these techniques might help me to better manage all that, while still making time for myself.