Time Management
When most people (at least many college students) think of time management, they think of procrastination, of wasted time, and of all the tasks that could have and should have finished. It’s not uncommon for people to put things off for tomorrow (i.e. put them off until the deadline) because there is some more pressing thing that needs to be taken care of (read: watching TV). For me, time management is a little different.
When I think about managing my time, I think not about putting things off, but about taking on too much. I think about how there’s absolutely no way I can finish all the things I wanted to do, regardless of how efficient I am. I think about how I push myself too hard for several days, and then all of a sudden I’ll need a couple of days of doing nothing just to recover. My problem isn’t that I waste too much time, it’s that I expect too much out of myself.
Early in the summer, my brother advised me to set my goals high, and then strive to meet them. This is pretty sound advice, except when you set your goals so high that you never meet them. It becomes really hard to keep doing this, because you never get the sense of accomplishment that comes with meeting your goals. I’m almost sure that I’ve set my goals too high, and that combined with having too many goals has really started to wear me out. I can meet each of the goals individually, but when I’m trying to work on all of them at once, it’s seemingly impossible.
My problem has always been that my interests are too diversified. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember, but now that I’m trying to excel in all of my interests, I’m having serious time management issues. In high school, I was juggling athletics, music, academics, and my social life. I’m still trying to juggle all of those things, just each one has become a lot more intense. Rather than just play soccer a couple times a week, I now want to be exercising a couple of times a day. Musically, I’ve added an instrument that I want to master in the guitar, but I still want to increase my proficiency on the clarinet. And academically, not only am I a full time student, but I also have all these side projects to work on. With all of these things taking high priority, it’s pretty obvious why I don’t have a lot of free time.
My mom commented yesterday that I’m always on the go, always doing something. I guess that means that I don’t waste a lot of time, and in that sense, I manage my time pretty well. I have a general plan for each day, and I try my best to go with that plan and do all the things I set out to do. Unfortunately, it’s really discouraging when you physically cannot do all the things you set out to do, and you never get the sense of accomplishment that comes with it. After awhile, things start to seem futile and it becomes harder to motivate myself each morning. Sooner or later, something, either my insatiable desire to push myself or my will power, is going to give.
Ultimately the solution is to cut back on my interests, focus on a couple of things and do those really well. The second option is to decrease the intensity of my goals, and strive for mediocrity over a wide range of interests. Certainly the first option seems better, but I’m not ready to give up on the things that I love. When I’ve been playing music for so many years, I’m very hesitant to throw away all of the time, money, and effort I’ve spent on it to focus on school or athletics. At the same time, I won’t be able to keep up this high intensity across all of my interests for very long. Hopefully when school starts, I’ll find a balance that I can maintain for the next year or so.
Tags: efficiency, productivity, thoughts, time management