Ever wondered where “I will do that later” phrase takes you? Well, it takes you to the neverland where you don’t grow in success or value. Bill Gates in his famous interview with Warren Buffet addressed that time is the only commodity the billionaire cannot purchase. So, certainly Gates isn’t the man to say that he will do things later.
Benefits of time management can be gauged by the emphasis made on managing time by the people who made it big. People who changed the course of our lives. So, what type are you? Would you say that you will do things later or do you know how to manage time?
This article will drive home some important points about the benefits of time management. We will also unravel some of the myths about the benefits of time management – your day does not have to be packed and back-to-back crunched. Let’s read ahead to find out!
#1 The importance of time management
The first lesson about time management is that time does fly. So, make sure you are taking time seriously. As a student with a whole horizon of opportunities and possibilities lying in front of you, you have to consider time as a real commodity that you won’t be able to purchase, extend, or change.
Students need to understand just that – time is precious. The importance of time management is based on the importance of time itself.
#2 Manage and invest your time in practice
Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers talks about many success stories. The one we want to discuss here is Bill Joy’s story, a student at Michigan and UC Berkeley. Joy was intrigued by the early computers of 1971 at his university and later became a computer genius.
Gladwell discusses the existence of our “innate talent”, which means the aptitude, intelligence, and capability we all are born with. Gladwell concedes that innate talent exists, and that definitely Joy had a lot of natural talent but talent alone is not enough to become an expert at something. Practice has its own place in achieving expertise.
But how much practice? Gladwell says that research has even settled on the “magic number” of hours it takes. And the number is 10,000 hours. Take Mozart, Beatles Bill Gates, Joshua Whitezkin – number of hours is vital to their composition and recital practice, coding, and playing chess.
For you, if you are studying a subject you are good or found something interesting, invest your time.
#3 Managing time will allow for reflection and thinking
Another benefit of managing your time is that you will have enough time to think! Warren Buffet’s schedule is quite surprising for many hardworking people. Buffet does not keep a crowded routine and may have even as little as three tasks assigned to a week! The rest of it goes to reading, reflecting, and just plain thinking.
So, while it is important to structure your time, it is very important to not crowd your day with too much work. Even if you are trying to clock in 10,000 hours, studying all the wakeful hours is not the recipe for success. For instance, Beatles had already been playing for 7 years, 8 hours a day, before they came to be recognized by the world,
#4 Managing time will let you have more fun
Ever came across a nerd who simply doesn’t have time for family, friends, and fun? “I got to study, see you later” is the punchline. However, you may always find that friend online, connecting, posting, commenting, and reacting.
The reality is, that time spent on online activities is slipping through the day and that leaves our friend with no time to spend on anything else. Doing dishes is a simple chore and you can include many simple things to make your day look normal while achieving a better result.
#5 Lucky opportunities and more time to practice
If you have been struggling in studies, grades, and admissions, know that life happens to us and not for us. There is an element of luck or opportunities that just happen to us. Gladwell, in Outliers, drives the same point home by saying that high achievers like Joy, Bill Gates, and Beatles were all presented with a series of opportunities to practice more!
These opportunities can be an offer to become an intern at a small organization. Will you take it or will you reject it, thinking it’s too small a thing for you? If you are given an offer to work as a volunteer at a hospital, will you go for it or will you think that you should better look for paid work?
The idea is that taking up these small opportunities is your ticket to practice more. You can keep clocking in hours and more hours and more! These opportunities are not just huge lucky breaks. Instead, these are just some lucky opportunities to help you practice more.
#6 If you are gifted, do you need to manage your time?
If you are gifted or more talented than the crowd, you probably don’t want to practice for hours like others. But you need to manage your time as much as everybody else. How is that so?
Gifted students are the ones who probably start speaking at an average of 6 months, start playing chess at the age of 4, and enter an international competition of genius spelling bee at the age of 9.
We tend to believe in a close association between success and intelligence. But is there such a thing? Gladwell talks about the famous experiment by Lewis Terman, a Stanford professor, who had a hypothesis that people who have an IQ above 150 are geniuses. They go on to invent new things, earn nobel prizes, and do remarkable things to become successful.
The Turman experiment turned out to show unexpected results: People with a high IQ did not always become successful. Gladwell quotes Chris Langan’s IQ as an example to demonstrate that even an IQ of 195 (highest ever in the world and higher than Einstein!) did not make him a successful person in life as per the standards of the Turman experiment.
So, even if you are gifted, managing your time to devote to practice is still important for your success in studies in life.
#7 Manage time to have a study-life balance
One of the tips for time management is to keep a healthy schedule and achieve a balance between studies and life. The study-life balance means that you are going to excel at studies and still have time to clean your room or go for a walk. When you are managing your time well, you will actually become healthier and more productive.
That is because when you are studying, just study and when doing other things, do other things. Don’t shake up your day such that everything spilling into the other thing.
#8 Make use of little pockets of time
Why time management is important? You can learn a little bit in a small gap between activities and add more to your knowledge. It is true that busy and successful people still do a little when the time is short.
For instance, Gates is known to read a page or two of a book in between meetings. You also don’t need to wait for an empty day to do something that you have been wanting to do!
Students might consider using little pockets of time, such as reading in the car, paying attention to a problem while waiting for your food to arrive, or jotting something down while waiting for a friend to arrive.
#9 Long terms goals need your time now
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10.” — Bill Gates
Let’s say, you had planned a full study schedule for the week but the moment you open up the biology book, you just can’t move beyond one page. Then you start looking for distractions: “There is plenty of time, I will do it later”, “I will do it when I feel focused”, or simply “I will do it after I have watched a movie”.
All of these distractions make it harder for you to pay attention to the need of studying. Result: Procrastination. You will keep on delaying the work to be done. But we have just underestimated the importance of the entrance exam to a medical college.
When you plan to study, just don’t stop. You will get to the goal in a few years. In fact, you will have a full career in front of you after 10 years. Benefits of time management will be with you for a lifetime!
#10 You choose how you spend your time
Time trickles out fast because of distractions. It can be anything that is vying for your attention, such as, checking emails, subscribing to websites, playing games, watching news, hanging out with friends, messaging, and everything social. The idea is to know that you have the power to control which distractions you will pay attention to.
Responding to an email or a friend is your conscious thought and you alone decide how you spend your time. Remember you cannot create or buy more time, but managing the time you already have is the road to success in studies and life.
What are your favorite takeaways from why time management is important? Let’s share some tips for time management in the comments below!
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