Making Time

[winuxchrosh]

As my father always tell me, "if you don't have time for something then make time for it!"

My problem is the skill in making time. I have so many things to do and it seems like there is not enough time to do them all. What is the trick in making time so that we can do more than just the usual?

[Perfect7]

Priorities, that's the key.

You may have heard the story about the professor who brought a glass jar into class one day. He took some large rocks out of a bag and put them in the jar, asking the class, "Is the jar full?"

Since no more of those rocks could fit in the jar, the class nodded yes. The professor shook his head no, and brought out another bag. In this bag were pebbles, which he dropped into the jar, filling the spaces between the big rocks. Again he asked, "Is the jar full?"

Again, the class said yes. Again, the professor shook his head no. He brought out another bag, and sifted sand into the jar. When he had finished, he asked the class again. This time, they looked at each other, not quite sure, but still about half of them nodded yes.

The professor smiled, picked up a glass of water, and filled the jar. "NOW," he said, "it is full."

The application given for this story is that we must put the most important things (large rocks) in the schedule FIRST, or they will be crowded out by the pebbles or sand. An additional application was that, like the water, there are some things that can always be fitted in even when life seems full.

[Val-the-nomad]

What a great story Perfect7. I am going to borrow it for my students next time they tell me they were too busy to finish an assignment!

I was brought up with the adage that if you want something doing, ask a busy person. That has proven to be true for the most part. I agree that prioritising is key, along with time management. Without this it is easy to take too much time to do a simple task and then have to rush or delay other things.

One area which used to be a time waster for me was email. I love to see a full inbox as I know I am guaranteed lots of distractions such as online shopping updates or notifications of blog entries from friends. Hidden amongst such goodies of course are messages connected to my job or studies. Instead of spending half the morning reading everything I have imposed a structured routine. After deleting any junk and shifting non urgent messages to a pending folder I deal with the rest on a 1-2-3 basis.

1. Read  2. Respond  3. File or delete

Just this one simple change has freed up at least two hours a day. Try it and see.