“Managing Your Time” Edwin Bliss in The College Success Reader Houghton Mifflin 1998 PREVIEW One of the joys - and greatest perils of college life is the relative freedom students enjoy in the management of their lives. For those accustomed to being told what to do and when to do it, the management of discretionary time can be a major challenge. In this essay, Edwin Bliss, an internationally known time management consultant, offers some practical advice on how to use time effectively. I first became interested in the effective use of time when I was an assistant to a U.S. Senator. Members of Congress are faced with urgent and conflicting demands on their time - for committee work, floor votes, speeches, interviews, briefings, correspondence, investigations, constituents problems, and the need to be informed on a wide range of subjects. The more successful Congressmen develop techniques for getting maximum benefit from minimum investments of time. If they don’t, they don’t return. Realizing that I was not one of those who used time effectively, I began to apply in my own life some of the techniques I had observed. Here are ten I have found most helpful. 1. Plan. You need a game plan for your day. Otherwise, you’ll allocate your time according to whatever happens to land on your desk. And you will find yourself making the final mistake of dealing primarily with problems rather than opportunities. Start each day by making a general schedule, with particular emphasis on the two or three major things you would like to accomplish - including things that will achieve long-term goals. Remember, studies prove what common sense tells us: the more time we spend planning a project, the less total time is required for it. Don’t let today’s busywork crowd planning-time out of your schedule. 2. Concentrate. Of all the principles of time management, none is more basic than concentration. People who have serious time-management problems invariably are trying to do too many things at once. The amount of time spent on a project is not what counts: it’s the amount of uninterrupted time. Few problems can resist an all-out attack; few can be solved piecemeal. 3. Take Breaks. To work for long periods without taking a break is not an effective use of time. Energy decreases, boredom sets in, and physical stress and tension accumulate. Switching for a few minutes from a mental task to something physical - isometric exercises, walking around the office, even changing from a sitting position to a standing position for a while - can provide relief. Merely resting, however, is often the best course, and you should not think of a "rest" break as poor use of time. Not only will being refreshed increase your efficiency, but relieving tension will benefit your health. Anything that contributes to health is good time management. 4. Avoid Clutter. Some people have a constant swirl of papers on their desks and assume that somehow the most important matters will float to the top. In most cases, however, clutter hinders concentration and can create tension and frustration - a feeling of being "snowed under." Whenever you find your desk becoming chaotic, take time out to reorganize. Go through all your papers (making generous use of the wastebasket) and divide them into categories: (1) Immediate action, (2) Low priority, (3) Pending, (4) Reading material. Put the highest priority item from your first pile in the center of your desk, then put everything else out of sight. Remember, you can think of only one thing at a time, and you can work on only one task at a time, so focus all your attention on the most important one. A final point: clearing the desk completely, or at least organizing it, each evening should be standard practice. It gets the next day off to a good start. 5. Don t Be a Perfectionist. There is a difference between striving for excellence and striving for perfection. The first is attainable, gratifying, and healthy. The second is often unattainable, frustrating, and neurotic. It’s
