On time management

Over the years, time management has been the most requested topic by readers. Friends and family have wanted to know how I manage to finish everything while leaving a lot of time for exercising, partying and traveling. More importantly, readers have wanted to know how they, too, can achieve this.\nWhile thinking about time management, I began to realize that the issue is not so simple. It seems as if people want to know how to do their tasks faster. Techniques in getting things done quicker are helpful and are outlined in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” However, they still do not address the key underlying issue. As actress Lily Tomlin said, “The problem with the rat race is that even if you win you are still a rat.”\nStephen R. Covey discusses this subject in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” He notes that most people want to know how to stop doing harmful things like watching junk on TV, surfing online and playing video games. In other words, they want to get rid of some of the NOs in their lives. The answer, Covey suggests, is rather to get bigger YES’s in your life. Would you really watch “The Real World” if you had a hot date waiting for you on your bed? Chances are you wouldn’t be thinking about whether or not the episode will be good.\nTo people who are ambitious, the hot date on your bed represents the goals we strive for on a daily basis. It is important to understand that your ambitions can be similar or different from anyone else’s and can change daily. Oftentimes, my ambition is to make money, but sometimes it is to travel to a remote island. It is important to make the final decision yourself and not be manipulated by what others think you “should” want. Look within yourself to discover your true passion.\nWhen we have this ambition it becomes easier to manage our time. Still, it is easy to be carried away. The first thing to consider is managing your cues. As I learned through my textbook for the course Managing and Behavior in Organizations, managing your cues or environment is crucial. If you want something done, don’t do it in your house or a place where people will distract you. If I need to complete something very quickly, I will lock myself in a room in the library. This task takes a lot of discipline, but it works every time. \nFurthermore, here’s what to do if you really want to get things done: Block all the distracting Web sites on your computer. You will be surprised how many times you loop through distracting Web sites without consciously being aware of it. Do you rotate from e-mail to Facebook to ESPN every five minutes? Stop it. When you feel yourself doing this, write down a list of everything that you have to do. Put it on paper!\nThe most effective way to manage your time is by leveraging your resources. It would take me hundreds of hours a week to do everything that my company did if I didn’t have employees. The business school (and IU), ironically, doesn’t allow you to partake in the most important business and life practice of utilizing other people’s help. However, you should ask yourself whether you can leverage some of your out-of-school activities and hire or partner with other people. I recommend Timothy Ferris’s “The 4-Hour Work Week” on this subject.\nFinally, and most importantly, in order to become a happy, stress-free working machine you MUST exercise, sleep and eat right. One technique that I have changed is eating four to five meals a day. In the past, overeating at lunch caused my productivity to drop dramatically for three hours. By eating a big breakfast and small meals throughout the day, I have significantly improved my energy and productivity. I challenge you to eat half portions at lunch for seven straight days and see if it increases your energy. \nImproving time management is not an overnight activity but can be dramatically changed within a couple months. Pick one of the tips outlined above and start implementing it today.