“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” -Albert Einstein

I think time is the most valuable asset we have. It is scarce, and you can’t control it’s dosage - it just ticks by, waiting for you to make use of it.

I had planned to write this post on Sunday morning. It’s quarter past six in the evening now. So where did all that time go? Well, the most obvious timesink seem to be those emergent tasks.

• Our toilet gave an error (yes, it’s a super-modern electronic thing with a thousand settings) and needed refilling of some cleaning fluid. I went hunting half an hour for a spare bottle.

• My brother asked me to help him with his German homework, and since I’m here only on the weekend, I had to do it then and there.

• Our wireless LAN router went bonkers.

So, in a nutshell, I had to deal with all the urgent stuff while the important things fell behind.

The keys to achieving important tasks which aren’t mission critical are either (1) planning well in advance or (2) making them mission critical. Let’s take a look at both.

Planning well

I had planned ahead to write my blog post, yet I failed terribly. So hadn’t I planned well? Well yes, I hadn’t. The Problem was that I had set the time to finish that task in a spot on my calendar that was far to prone to failure.

That means:

• Plan important tasks at a time you can tell for sure you won’t be interrupted.

• Plan a buffer of at least 30%-50% for completing a task.

The other problem here is that I didn’t know how my Sunday would look. I didn’t expect all the interruptions. That’s where Time Tracking can come in handy.

Time Tracking

The basic idea is to start logging where your time goes. I’ve been using an iCal and Outlook Calendar for a while now, and the hardest part always seems to be the estimation of a task’s length.

That’s why I’ve begun tracking my time. This not only helps me see how I spend my days, but also lets me identify tasks that need to be done, but take far too much time. One such task is the fact that I scan all my paperwork using a flatbed scanner. I realised I could shave off hours from this task if I invested in a scanner that has an automatic feed.

The best option to track time, in my opinion, is the calendar-based variant:

1. Plan your tasks into your electronic calendar.
2. Do them, while keeping an eye on the clock.
3. Re-adjust your initially planned blocks of time to reflect your actual day.

This way, your calendar shows your tasks ahead, but also serves as a log for the past. I like this option as it lets me do my time-management in one single place.

The other option is to use a paper and a good tracking sheet. I don’t recommend dedicated time-tracking software, as my experience with some of those weren’t really good in terms of speed and usablity.

David Seah has an excellent template that I re-functioned as a time tracker, which is also available in an online Flash version.

Making It Mission-Critical

The true challenge you face when being unable to deal with the important things is to redefine what’s important to you.

Sure, my family is important to me. And so is this blog. So, if I haven’t dedicated enough time to my blog, what unimportant things am dealing with then?

You see, my approach here is pretty pragmatic: Track your time, honestly and accurately. Then eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. If you don’t have time for the important things in life, you need rethink what’s important. What fits into your own big picture of life?

Working in my new job as an IT Administrator taught me a lot about this. When team members ask you to install Firefox add-ons for them, you don’t realize that you’re going to dedicate 15 minutes of your time to that single task. You need to go there, authorize him, install the extension, deauthorize. 15 minutes.

I solved the issue by batching tasks. I have two one-hour rounds every week where I help out my team members with their issues. That way I’m more dedicated to them, and I know what I’m up against.

And that way, I’ll get that one hour a week to edit my blog.

Just a quick tip today.

A course at college usually cuts itself down into reading the textbook, a writing assignment or applying theory to problems.

Here’s something I’m going to try this semester. I’ll write my exam dates/assignment deadlines in my calendar (use approximate ones if you don’t know them yet) and work out the number of weeks left to work for it.

Reverse-Plan

Given the course structure and chapters covered in each session, I plan out units to study right from the start. This gives me a long-term plan. For example, my course covers 7 chapters of my book and I have 10 weeks left until the exam. This tells me that I should be done with reading by week 7, so I have 3 weeks left for memorizing and refining my understanding of what I learnt.

This method is a good way to make sure you’ll never run short of time. Since you worked your way backwards through time, You know when to begin at the latest. Lets say another course has less credits, covers just 3 chapters and I have 10 weeks left. This time, I know that I can prioritize other subjects without feeling bad about the one I’m not studying right now.

Routine

One simple trick I’ll apply is to study the same subject at the same time each week. As haphazard as a student lifestyle can be, I think getting into a regular routine is a powerful tool for getting work done and enjoying spare time guilt-freely.

Write it down

To make this simplest of tricks functional, set yourself deadlines for getting done. I like to set these to Sundays, when I have my weekly reviews. I then check whether I’m behind on any reading or writing a chapter in my paper, and then look in the week ahead to find time to get it done.

The second step is to set the exact chunks of time you’ll get units done. You probably won’t be able to strictly follow this, but setting aside the time will give you an overview of whether you’re overloaded with work.