I am a firm believer that you make time for what's most important in your life. This is touched on in The Myth of "Too Busy," in which the author, Tim Grahl, points out that you must prioritize what is the most important thing to you. This may change from time to time, as Grahl mentions, if there is something big going on in your family, your other responsibilities may slide, or if a big project is due in one class, you may neglect the others. Sometimes you need to say no to certain things to be able to succeed in others, and there's nothing wrong with that. It is not fair to yourself or your obligations if you take on too many things, because then you will be overworked and produce less than your best results in every situation. It's more important to do well in a few things than below average in many.
By all means, I'm not saying to throw out all your obligations and just focus on doing one thing. That's unrealistic. I've had to prioritize what is most important in my life right now and make those my main focus. Within that, I do a lot of scheduling. During busy weeks, I literally plan every hour to make sure that I am driven and focused on a goal. Within this schedule, I also plan some relaxing time for myself to be alone (any other introverts reading this?) as well as time to maintain my relationships. You can read more about the importance of scheduling in this article, which discusses habits of unsuccessful people. There is no one way to be successful, but there sure are specific ways to be unsuccessful, which the article discusses in further detail.
(My favorite method of keeping track of my to-do list and goals is handwriting them in a planner; Web Source)
This semester, I plan to continue on saying "no" to things I can't put my entire focus into and making sure that I am reaching my highest potential in the tasks I do take on. I won't go into the details here, but I plan on using every day fully to be effective in school, my sorority, and my relationships.
Hello again, Baylie! This time management blog post is very helpful. I love the way you plan out every hour to stay on top of things with utmost focus. I also agree that you can make time for the most important parts of life. I find it interesting how you consider just saying "no" to events you can't commit 100% to. I think my biggest problem is saying "no" because I don't want to disappoint anyone but at the same time, doing so is the best thing to do.
ReplyDelete