Time is precious, yet many face “The Time Famine,” a persistent sense of never having enough of it. Poor time management leads to stress and inefficiency. But good time management isn’t a result of success—it’s the pathway to achieving success.

The Severity of the Problem

Did you know people waste around 2 hours daily?

Signs include:

• A cluttered or disorganized workspace
• Constantly losing things
• Missing appointments or being unprepared for meetings
• Taking on tasks others should handle
• Feeling tired or struggling to concentrate

Key Advice

“Being successful doesn’t make you manage time well.

Managing time well makes you successful.”

How to Improve

1. Set Goals and Priorities
   1. What’s the purpose?
   1. What’s the outcome if I succeed—or fail?
2. The 80/20 Rule
   1. Focus on the 20% of actions that yield 80% of results.
   1. Make bold decisions and learn from missteps.

Plan for Success

• “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
• Plan daily, weekly, and long-term.
• Adjust your plan as needed—but always have one!

Tackle Tasks with TO-DO Lists

• Break large tasks into smaller steps.
• Start with the hardest or least appealing task (“eat the frog”).
• Use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix:
  • Important + Due Soon
  • Important + Not Due Soon
  • Not Important + Due Soon
  • Not Important + Not Due Soon

0  Important + Due Soon	1 Important + Not Due Soon
1 Not Important + Due Soon	0 Not Important + Due Soon

Keep It Organized

• Clear your workspace—focus on one task at a time.
• Create an effective filing system for paper and digital tasks.
• Handle each item or email once; don’t let your inbox be your to-do list.

Inspiration: Walt Disney dreamed big—and made Disneyland a reality in just 366 days!

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney

Simplified Key Points:

Telephone Tips

• Keep calls short: Stand while calling; state your goals upfront.
• End efficiently: Say you’re busy, or hang up while speaking if necessary.
• Batch calls: Make them just before lunch or at 5 PM.

Managing Reading

• Only read it if not doing so will get you fired.

Office Setup

• Prioritize comfort for yourself, not others. Avoid overly comfy seating (use folding chairs).

Scheduling

• Make time: Don’t find it; create it.
• Learn to say “No”: Ask if it aligns with your goals (e.g., getting a degree or promotion).

Interruptions

• Interruptions waste time. A 6-minute distraction takes 5 minutes to recover from.
• Minimize: Convert calls to emails, disable notification sounds.

Cutting Things Short

• Say, “I’m busy…” or “I only have 5 minutes.”
• End by standing, walking to the door, and expressing gratitude.

Time Journals

• Track your activities in 15-minute chunks for 3-14 days.
• Ask:
  • What’s unnecessary?
  • What can someone else do?
  • What can I do more efficiently?

Procrastination

• Set deadlines; they prevent last-minute chaos.
• Deadlines = Discipline.

Delegation

• Share tasks with clear goals, deadlines, and authority.
• Challenge others; delegate until they complain.

Meetings

• Limit to 1 hour with a set agenda.
• Write quick “1-minute minutes” to track decisions and responsibilities.

Email Efficiency

• Save all emails.
• Assign clear tasks with deadlines to one person (no vague group tasks).
• Follow up within 48 hours if there’s no reply.

Vacations

• Disconnect fully; no emails or work during breaks.

General Advice

• Invest in tools (e.g., laptop, PDA) to save time.
• Balance priorities (e.g., exercise, eat, sleep).
• Turn off distractions (e.g., TV).
• Promise wisely: Always keep promises, or renegotiate early if needed.

Action Plan

• Use a to-do list (Eisenhower Matrix: prioritize by importance & urgency).
• Create a time journal.
• Review these tips in 30 days and assess your behavior changes.

Seven Habits

From “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic” by Stephen R. Covey, Simon and Schuster, 1989

1. BE PROACTIVE: Between stimulus and response in human beings lies the power to choose. Productivity, then, means that we are solely responsible for what happens in our lives. No fair blaming anyone or anything else.

• BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND: Imagine your funeral and listen to what you would like the eulogist to say about you. This should reveal exactly what matters most to you in your life. Use this frame of reference to make all your day-to-day decisions so that you are working toward your most meaningful life goals.

• PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST: To manage our lives effectively, we must keep our mission in mind, understand what’s important as well as urgent, and maintain a balance between what we produce each day and our ability to produce in the future.

• THINK WIN/WIN: Agreements or solutions among people can be mutually beneficial if all parties cooperate and begin with a belief in the “third alternative”: a better way that hasn’t been thought of yet.

• SEEK FIRST OT BE UNDERSTANDING, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD: Most people don’t listen. Not really. You’ll be more effective in you relationships with people if you sincerely try to understand them fully before you try to make them understand your point of view.

• SYNERGIZE: Just what it sound like: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In practice, this means you must use “creative cooperation” in social interactions. Value differences because it is often the clash between them that leads to creative solutions.

• SHARPEN THE SAW: This is the habit of self-renewal, which has four elements.The first is mental, which includes reading, visualizing, planning and writing.The second is spiritual, which means\study and meditation. Third is social/emotional, which stress management includes service, empathy Finally, the physical includes exercise, nutrition and stress management.

Tips for Working in Groups

By Randy Pausch, for the Building Virtual Worlds course at Carnegie Mellon, Spring 1998

1. Meet people properly. It all starts with the introduction. Then, exchange contact information, and make sure you know how to pronounce everyone’s names. Exchange phone #s, and find out what hours are acceptable to call during.

• Find things you have in common. You can almost always find something in common with another person, and starting from that baseline, it’s much easier to then address issues where you have difference.

• Make meeting conditions good. Have a large surface to write on, make sure the room is quiet and warm enough, and that there aren’t lots of distractions. Make sure no one is hungry, cold, or tired. Meet over a meal if you can; food softens a meeting.

• Let everyone talk. Even if you think what they’re said is stupid. Cutting someone off is rude, and not worth whatever small time gain you might make. Don’t finish someone’s sentences for him or her; they can do that for themselves. And remember: talking louder or faster doesn’t make your idea any better.

• Check your egos at the door. When you discuss ideas, immediately label them and write them down. The labels should be descriptive of the idea, not the originator:

• Praise each other. Find something nice to say, even if it’s a stretch. Even the worst of ideas has a silver lining inside it, if you just look hard enough. Focus on the good, praise it, and then raise any objections or concerns you have about the rest of it.

• Put it in writing. Always write down who is responsible for what, by when. Be concrete. Arrange meetings by email, and establish accountability.

• Be open and honest. Talk with your group members if there’s a problem, and talk with me if you think you need help.

• Avoid conflict at all costs. When stress occurs and tempers flare, take a short break. Clear your heads, apologize, and take another stab at it. Apologize for upsetting your peers, even if you think someone else was primarily at fault; the goal is to work together, not start a legal battle over whose transgressions were worse. It takes two to have an argument, so be the peacemaker.