Antleader
Guide
#A5

Fighting Time Wasters

"PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME."
-Edward Young

Your Time Budget
Managing your time is a highly personalized skill -- only you know your peak work hours, your attention span, your eating and sleeping needs. This page will present general ideas necessary for successful time management and give specific examples of how these ideas might be applied. The important things are the ideas, not the applications. Whatever method works for you is the right one.

The three steps to efficient time management are: ORGANIZE, PRIORITIZE, and SCHEDULE.

1. Organize
Brainstorm and list all of your tasks for five to seven days. List steps to a large task if they are due in that time period.

2. Prioritize
If you examine all of your activities, priorities can usually be categorized as:

A. Important and urgent
B. Important, but not urgent
C. Urgent, but not important
D. Neither urgent nor important

Both are personal values with "importance" concerning degree of value and "urgency" with timing.

3. Schedule
Use a schedule to fit in your priorities. Schedule the A's first in priority through to the D's. Fixed tasks should be included first. Remember to be flexible!

How Can I Work With Time Wasters?

1. Identify probable causes

• Things I do or do not do
• Things others do or do not do

IT IS EASY TO BLAME OTHERS!
AM I REALLY THE CULPRIT?

2. Obtain good data

• Are patterns present? (type, time of occurrence)
• A time log can help define how you are using your time.

3. Consider possible ways of reducing or eliminating the time wasters.

• You have spent years learning these, so don't try to get rid of all of them at once. Try dealing with one at a time.
• Try substituting positive behaviors for the negative ones.
• Reward yourself for successful changes you make.

4. Select feasible solutions or "beginnings toward solutions" for you!

• Choose solutions or plans of attack which you really think you can carry through on and which fit you.

5. Implement the solutions

• Really try them out.
• Evaluate your progress.
• Continue to modify your approach.

• EXPECT TO BACKSLIDE BUT GO BACK TO THE FIGHT!
• NO ONE BUT YOU CAN MAKE YOU CONTINUE!
• TIME IS FREE -- EVERYONE HAS THE SAME AMOUNT!

My Time Wasters
Read the following list of common time wasters for students and others. Make a note of your 3 to 5 biggest time wasters. If any of your biggest ones are missing, include those in the 3 to 5 chosen.

1. Interruptions, drop­in visitors, unplanned conversation.
2. Meetings, scheduled or unscheduled.
3. Lack of objectives, setting deadlines, setting priorities.
4. Cluttered desk, hunting things needed, personal disorganization.
5. Doing routine things of minor importance.
6. Attempting too much at once.
7. Unrealistic time estimates.
8. Procrastination,indecision, daydreaming.
9. Inability to say "no".
10. Leaving tasks unfinished, jumping from one task to another.
11. Getting involved in unnecessary details ("chasing rabbits").
12. Socializing, idle conversation.
13. Playing cards, games, watching television, etc.
14. Lacking self­discipline, not carrying through on plans.
15. Constantly switching priorities.
16. Failure to listen carefully to assigned tasks.
17. Failure to do first things first.
18. Failure to use short blocks of time constructively.
19. "Breaks" which turn into "vacations."
20. Duplicating efforts (having to start over -- losing material, recording notes in form which does not help (etc.).

Time Component Analysis
How many hours during the past week have you spent in the following areas? There are 168 hours in a week. Determine the number of hours you spent during the week in the activities below:

_____ PERSONAL TIME (time spent on yourself, getting dressed, taking showers, eating, )
_____ WORK TIME (time spent working for money or volunteering, etc.)
_____ CLASS TIME (time spent going to and from class, and time spent in class)
_____ STUDY TIME (time spent studying)
_____ SLEEP TIME (time spent sleeping, cat napping, getting ready for bed
_____ QUIET TIME (time you spend by yourself because you are determined to be alone)
_____ RECREATIONAL TIME (time spent exercising, playing sports, riding your bike, etc.)
_____ SOCIAL TIME (time spent with friends, at parties, etc.)
_____ OTHER

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_____ = 168 total

Now make a pie graph to demonstrate how much time, percentage wise, you spent this last week on the different areas listed above. The conversion chart of hours to % below is useful for conversion.

1/2 = 84 hours

1/4 = 42 hours

1/8 = 21 hours

1/16 = 10.5 hours

1/3 = 54 hours

1/5 = 33.5 hours

1/6 = 28 hours

1/20 = 8.4 hours

1/25 = 6.72 hours

1/32 = 5.25 hours

2/3 = 108 hours

3/4 = 126 hours

Answer The Following:

Name a person who constantly wastes your time.

Why do they always waste your time?

Name an item or chore that you spend more time on then necessary?

Why do you allow this to waste you time?

For more information on time management or other "Be a Leader" handouts, call or come by the Office of the Dean of Students (949) 824-5181.

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