Time Management
First, about this blog in general, I'm going to try to write about whatever I feel like as long as it's within a few niches. I couldn't imagine restraining my creativity to one niche, as it seems like such a waste. I'm doing this for fun, and I want to share my ideas and knowledge with others. Who knows how many people will see this?
Second, specifically about time management, it seems like such a valuable skill that not enough people know how to apply to their life. Of course I can only speak for myself, but there has to be a reason self-help and productivity are such popular niches online. I will preface this by saying that even I struggle with managing my own time, but I can still try to give my own thoughts on the matter.
Scarcity and Escapism
We have so much time in our lives, yet it seems like such a scarce resource. We could theoretically do so much more if we managed our time well. On some days, I often waste hours, only to regret it at the end of the day. Sometimes, I'll even actively tell myself, even scream at myself internally, that I'm actively wasting my time, yet I continue doomscrolling or whatever it is I'm doing as if nothing's wrong.
I never have enough time to do everything, let alone a small fraction of all the things I could do. It seems like, after subtracting the time used for essential tasks such as sleeping, eating, and school on weekdays, I barely have time to do what I should do. All my time just escapes from my grasp without me realizing it, and even though I should have several hours of free time, it rarely seems like over an hour because of the amount of time I waste.
I think that escapism is a huge component of many modern time wasters. Video games, doomscrolling, and binge-watching all serve as mere distractions, methods to waste our time doing something meaningless. I've noticed myself temporarily forgetting everything surrounding my life while engaging in such activities, and the thoughts and worries always come back afterwards. "Oh, I could be working on a passion project, I could be reviewing my Japanese flashcards, I could be updating my résumé," and the thoughts are endless. It reminds me from a quote from Dumbledore:
"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it." -- Albus Dumbledore.
As much as we like to waste time by escaping reality, our reality doesn't change by doing so, and our problems will come back to bite us. Since a lot of problems come from not having enough time to do things, wasting time only amplifies those problems. The prime example in students is procrastination, and I'm one of its many victims. While I haven't found a solution yet, I think dealing with it effectively is important and I've been doing so, at least somewhat.
I've found that another source of ineffective time management is just not knowing what needs to be done. I've only adopted a to-do list recently, and I've found it extremely helpful. Sometimes I found myself forgetting that I have another assignment to do, and tricking myself into believing that i have more free time than I actually do. Point being, it's difficult to manage your time if you don't even know what you need to do. It seems basic, but taking time out of your day to update your to-do list, even if it takes a few minutes, is surprisingly helpful.
Elucidation
Since time management is such a common problem, I will try my best to compile my thoughts and provide some remedies. I am not claiming to be an expert in such matters, but I can still try to give some insight.
I think eliminating distractions is extremely important, especially now that everything is fighting for our attention, which, at the end of the day, is a limited resource. Simple things such as keeping your phone out of reach while working or while in bed, or turning off notifications for non-essential apps really help with focus, and helps you waste less time. Another thing that helps is time blocking, or setting aside specific chunks of time to work on specific tasks. A calendar app is a great way to keep track of this, and in my experience, it helps guide me or give me a sense of what I should be doing, and it decreases the spontaneity of life.
And of course, it's much easier said than done, but fighting procrastination would help a lot. Whether it's truly beating procrastination or just learning to live with it and adapting, doing so would remove a huge obstacle in the way of effective time management. I don't have much success so I don't have any advice from personal experience, other than "just do it right now, it's not as bad as it seems." But whatever works is different for everyone, so it's hard to give concrete advice to a general audience.
If you didn't read the above, then my advice, based on what I've tried, is to adopt a to-do list to not only track tasks but also progress on each task, and to block your time so you know what to do and you'll feel less lost. Even though advice online is abundant, I hope that at least some of my advice helps.
Life Update!
It's only fitting to end the post with a small update. This week is spring break. I decided that I would start learning 한글 (I thought it was "hangeul," but every website has it romanized as "hangul" so I don't know what to believe.) because why not? I've been thinking about learning Korean for a while now, and spring break has presented itself as the perfect opportunity to actually get started. I don't know if I'm trying to do too much, but I can already read 한글, albeit slowly. I'm working on pronunciation which, for me, is surprisingly hard. We'll just see how it goes.
James
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