Some Psychology

Last night, I went to a time management seminar. The main speaker was my Intro to Psychology professor, Dr. Melanie Roudkovski. She gave some very helpful information, focusing not only on managing time but also on life-management. One of the many handouts was "Dr. R's Top 10 Rules of Life Management", which are:

1. Do what you like and like what you do; find something you like about everything you have to do, and focus on that.
2. Take responsibility; "I didn't make time" instead of "I didn't have time"
3. Just say NO to things that waste time
4. Write details, details, details into your schedule; just putting "Study" on a 2-hour block can lead to more than half of the time being wasted, while writing "Do Math Assignment #12, Write outline of Essay #3" will help you get on the right track quickly
5. Accuracy is key; try hard not to overestimate or underestimate the time you will need to do something
6. Distraction kills time; be here now
7. Live up to your own expectations, or expect more of yourself
8. Be organized
9. Develop healthy relationships
10. Set aside time in which you can be spontaneous

Another speaker, an alumna of LeTourneau, handed out a sheet that showed how to sort stressors on two dimensions - the possibility of changing them and the priority that they hold.

For things that are changeable and have high priority, you should ask what changes can be made; for things that are changeable but low priority, you should ask whether you are spending too much time on these things; for things that are high priority but hard to change, you should ask yourself how you will cope with these things; and for low priority, unchangeable things, you should ask yourself if you can accept or forget about them.

All of this was helpful, and a clearer picture is forming of how to manage my time. Another thing the LETU alumna said was that she has learned to view calendars on a monthly scale, rather than daily or weekly, as it shows her everything that is coming. This sounds like a great idea, and I hope to start laying out all my to-do things on a monthly calendar, but there is one thing I lack.

I would like to have a computer calendar program that has color-coding, and categories that can be selectively shown - perhaps more than one at a time but not all, though that would not be vital.

As I wrote that, I realized that my Palm Desktop has categories, but I haven't been using them. It is wonderful how much I can find out just by writing my problems down. So I guess I don't need new software, though color-coding still would be nice.