Chapter 7: Time Management

It seems that all the time management books and articles begin with the same premise.  Before you can decide how you are going to spend your time, you have to discover how you are already spending it.  You need to sit down and take stock of what your daily routine is.  Some books advo­cate keeping a journal for one week and jotting down what you did in one-half hour intervals.  Others suggest that you sit down at the end of a day and write down everything you did, including how long you spent doing each thing.  There is no right or wrong answer.  However you decide to do it, you need to find out where your time goes.  You may be surprised to learn where your time goes.  The one-hour break between classes in the morning, or the two-hour lunch that you sched­uled – where does all that time go?

After you have discovered where your time goes, you need to spend some time analyzing why it goes where it does.  If you find yourself spending all your breaks in the coffee shop or arcade, you need to ask yourself why.  Do you hang out there to chat with all your friends?  Do you find that time of "relaxing" helps you cope with the stress of school?  Whatever the case may be, you need to decide if you are satisfied with how you spend your time.  Ask yourself the tough questions and be honest with yourself.  If you find you don't have the time to accomplish everything you want, yet you are satisfied with how you spend your time, something is wrong.  Either your goals are too lofty or you aren't being honest with yourself.  A part of this honesty search is to document how much time you “waste” each day.  How many hours each evening are you diverted from studying by surfing the Internet, watching television or some other diversion?  How many of those telephone calls are really important?

Now that you have discovered where all your time goes, you have to decide what you really want to do with your time.  Perhaps you don't need to spend all that time in the coffee shop.  Maybe you find that time would be better spent in the library or outdoors.  When you set goals for what you want to accomplish, you need to keep four rules in mind:

•            Be specific – if you are having trouble with your electro-magnetics course, it is not good enough to say that you will spend more time reading the text and solving practice prob­lems. You need to say, "I will spend an extra 5 hours each week reading the textbook and doing practice problems."  You can even be more specific and decide when you are going to spend those extra 5 hours.

•            Be realistic – don't set goals for yourself that are unattainable.  Clearly, deciding that you are going to spend an extra 5 hours each night on electromagnetic is not a realistic goal.  You should decide what you want to do, when you are going to do it, and how you are going to do it.  You might say, "I will spend my one hour break, starting at 10:30 AM each weekday, on reading the electromagnetic text and solving practice problems."  Suddenly, the time you used to spend in the coffee shop is now being spent on achieving one of your goals.

•            Be positive – instead of looking at your new goals as trying to "kick bad habits" or to "stop wasting time", try to put a positive tone to your goals.  Don't say to yourself, "If I don't spend the extra time on electromagnetic, I will fail the course."  Rephrase it in a more positive way or attach some sort of reward to the goal.  Let's say you have some money saved up and have been thinking about buying a Personal Digital Assistant.  Think of the extra time you spend on electromagnetic as "working" for your PDA.  If you get an 'A', then you will buy an Apple Newton.  If you get a 'B', then you will buy the Casio product, et cetera.  If you turn your goals into positive goals, you will be more likely to succeed.

•            Be flexible – don't make your goals so rigid that you set yourself up to fail.  Build in some allowances for unforeseen events.  Let's say that one-day at 10:25 AM you are on your way to the library to spend your one-hour on electromagnetic.  You run into a friend who would like to know something about the IEEE and asks you to join her for coffee.  Do you turn her down because you have set this time aside for electromagnetic?  Of course not!  OK, perhaps not.  You need to have a contingency plan in case something comes up and you can't spend the time you set aside.  You might want to add to your goal of spending one hour each weekday the contingency that “If by Friday night I haven't spent the 5 extra hours on electromagnetic, then I will get up at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning and finish it.”  What dedication!

You know you are on the right track when it’s uphill all the way.

      — Tanner   

Now that you have selected your goals, you need to organize how you spend your time each day.  The first thing you need to do is buy (or make) a DayTimer or similar organizing book.  You may think that only business people are important enough to use such tools.  That's the biggest misconception I have ever heard.  If it weren’t for a DayTimer (which I got for free from the Student Society at my school), I never would have made it through my undergraduate program.  I used that DayTimer to list all my lectures, tutorials, labs, and seminars, and to prioritize my assignments.  Although it may seem a little pompous to say "I'll have to check my DayTimer" when someone asks you about your sched­ule, I guarantee that they will respect you for that.  An organized person is one who gets things accomplished.  They know that and you know that too.

The second tool you can use is a daily "To Do" list which you can keep in your organizing book or as a separate list.  This list contains the things you need to accomplish during that day, in the order of importance.  Believe me, there is almost nothing sweeter than crossing off the last thing on a long "To Do" list.  Sometimes, you may find that you can't finish everything on your list.  That's fine, just transfer it to the list for the next day.  However, you shouldn't get into the habit of simply moving things from one list to another.  I believe it was Mark Twain who said, "Why put off 'till tomorrow that which can be put off 'till the day after tomorrow?”  Getting into the habit of putting things off will almost guarantee that you don't meet your goals.  Mark Twain might have been a good writer, but he surely had no sense of time management skills.

Establish a priority order for your list and visualize yourself achieving each goal.  To assist in this process, ensure that your goals are specific and measurable.  Certain items have bigger payoffs for you than others.  Make sure you get your most important (not merely the most urgent) items done each day.  Many people work on the most important items first but as long as you get the most important (for you) items done each day, any order is fine.  A good approach is to work on your most important items at the time of day when you are at your peak.  In all cases, select a general time frame for completion and attack goals with enthusiasm.

If you find that you are having trouble getting started on your "To Do" list, then rearrange the order of your list.  Try to do an easy task first.  You will find that accomplishing something small will give you the motivation to tackle a larger task.  For instance, when I have a large software program to write, I try to break it down into many small modules.  Then I tackle the easiest modules first, leaving the complicated parts for the end.  I find this not only helps me to finish the program; it helps me to finish the program on time.  When I try to tackle the tough parts first, I quite often get discouraged and eventually give up.  But, when I start with the easy parts first, I am reluctant to give up because by the time I get to the hard parts, the program is 90% complete.  Then, I am willing to spend the extra effort to ensure the program is finished, otherwise the time I spent on the first 90% of the program will be a total waste.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any plan will work.

You will find throughout the course of the year that if you don't learn to delegate, you won't have enough time for all the projects you undertake.  The first thing you need to realize is that IEEE activities are a team effort.  Not only does doing things in a team take less time – it's also more fun.  In a well-run Student Branch, everyone works together as a team.  Although each person may have a different task, different level of authority, or different level of responsibility, everyone is working towards the same goal.  Everyone wants to see a successful conclusion to each project.

Delegating isn't giving all the menial and boring tasks to others.  If fact, you may find that as the Student Branch Chair, you are left with all the menial tasks.  If that happens, don't get too upset.  Try to think of yourself as a member of the team; the other students will appreciate that.  When you are delegating, try to keep these things in mind:

•            Always ask for help.  If you assume that someone is always there to do your bidding, you will quickly find yourself doing everything.  The other members of your Executive Com­mittee will appreciate the fact that you asked them to help out and didn't demand that they help out.

•            Give the persons all the information, resources and support they need to complete the task.  You should make yourself available to answer questions and find more help if needed.  If you get asked a question you can't answer, don't just dismiss it.  Spend some time with them and try to find the answer together.  At the same time, obtain a commitment from the persons to complete the tasks assigned.

•            Be sure to clearly define the purpose of the delegated work and the results you expect to see.  You should also set a reasonable timeline for completing the task, keeping in mind that people have other things to do.  However, it is always important to set deadlines.

•            When you delegate the work, also delegate the authority and responsibility.  For example, if someone volunteers to design some posters for an S-PAC you are planning, give that person all the creative freedom.  Give him or her the authority and responsibility for selecting (or designing) something that is suitable.  Let your volunteer know what you expect and trust him or her from that point on.

•            If you feel a job is being done poorly or incorrectly, don't criticize.  Schedule review sessions and provide some training, if necessary.  Do your best to help out and encourage.  A discouraged volunteer is one that may get the job done but will never volunteer to help out again.  Try to find out what the problems or barriers are and see if you can't break down these barriers together.

•            Always give praise for a job well done.  You should never forget to credit the people who helped out.  If you listen to someone who has won a medal or award, he or she will usually have a long list of people to thank.  You should develop the same attitude.  Every project is a team effort and all team members deserve to be recognized for their efforts.

You may find project management skills useful for major Branch undertakings.  If you are planning an S-PAC or an S-PAVe, organizing a major fundraising drive, or any other large project, it may run more smoothly if you appoint a project manager.  In industry today, every firm has a project management department.  There are software programs available that can help you keep tasks on track and on schedule.  The concept of a timeline or Gantt chart can also be useful for planning purposes and for charting your progress.  You may find some good books on project management in your library.  As an alternative, you could have someone from industry come to your Student Branch  and give a talk on project management.  Remember that skills you develop at the Student Branch can play a positive role when you are looking for and find a job.

3.            For each of these items, block out some time on the week’s calendar to work on this item or at least list the day that you will work on the item.