Make Time Stop!

A long time back, on the banks of Saryu, was rishi Prabudhha’s gurukul. The gurukul was open to all who wanted to learn about medicine, mathematics, astronomy, economics, and other disciplines. The gurukul did not impart education in the use of arms, as Prabuddha believed in the power of mind. He believed that even time could be called to a stop, if one had a mind strong enough to do it.

Of the many students who studied at the gurukul, Sambuddi was one. His loyalty towards his guru was surpassed only by the devotion he had for his guru’s teachings. When Prabuddha spoke of a mind that was strong enough to stop time, Sambuddhi believed him. The brightest student, however, was Teevrabuddhi, who did extremely well in all the subjects and was expected to graduate at top of his class.

Life was extremely difficult at the gurukul for the students didn’t just study but also managed the gurukul. This led most students to neglect either their studies or the management. Unlike the education machinery that exists today, the gurukul education system also focused on preparing students to face the challenges of life. Eventually, it was time for the students to leave the gurukul and enter the real world.

At the graduation ceremony something happened that took everyone by surprise. It was Sambuddhi who had topped the class and not Teevrabuddhi! This was despite the fact that Teevrabuddhi had done better in almost all the subjects. Prabuddha didn’t keep the students guessing for long; instead he drew the class’s attention to the main objectives of their education. Teevrabuddhi had neglected his chores, the sports, his hobby, and many other areas that needed his attention, while Sambuddhi had managed his affairs in an orderly manner and had performed extremely well in all his subjects as well.

When Sambuddhi was asked to share his secret, he said, “I believed that through the power of my mind, I can make time stop; and I did.”

What Sambuddhi did was no miracle; he just implemented Time Management. Although the analysis that he must’ve carried out and the steps that he must’ve taken for managing his time must’ve been very different from what a modern Instructional Designer would take; the underlying concept for both remains the same.

I see Time Management as one of the tools that we use to make more efficient use of our time. I can liken it to a computer that allows us to save a lot of time, which we can spend in a more fulfilling manner doing things we like better.

The question is, whether there is a process that can help us analyze our tasks and figure out a way to efficiently manage our time. Just like Sambuddhi, I believe that we do. I also believe that each of us not only have our individual likes & dislikes, and strengths & weaknesses; but also our own intuitions and methods of logical analysis.

Here’s a generic process that you may want to use as a template to manage your time. This template uses an Instructional Designer’s/Content Writer’s viewpoint, and I request others to make allowance for this fact.

Here we go...

1. Analyze your current schedule with the following points in your mind.
   What is your most important task (major responsibility)? Chances are your answer will be – delivering a design or a script on or before the committed deadline.
   
   
2. What are the other important things that you don’t enjoy but you have to do? Some of these could be – completing the timesheet, fixing errors pointed out by the QA. Ensure that you list all work-related pain points.
   
   
3. What are the important things that you would like to do but do not have time to do? Some of these could be – reading a book on instructional design, going through the style guide, conducting trainings for your team, and so on.
   
   
4. What are the things that you spend at least 10% of your work-time on? Here are some possible answers – Creating design documents, writing scripts, completing QA and Edit fixes, meeting the graphic designer/programmer, etc.

Now that you have a list ready, review it. You now need to create a plan that will help you release time from the punishing and unrewarding activities, and push it into the activities that you love. It isn’t easy in the beginning, but if you can muster enough courage to plan your most important task, and stick to your plan, everything will begin to fall in place.

Let’s see now see the important steps that we should take to implement time management.

• The plan rotates around your most important task, which could be course design or script writing. Since this task has to be done well in order to free time from other unpalatable activities (such as fixes), do it when you most feel like working. Fix your most productive slot in your mind, and give it to this activity. Check out your previous “personal” productivity data for design and development and use that data to plan your hours.
  
  
• Remember, it will not work, if you do not manage the sub-tasks. I prefer breaking the course into small chunks of 10-frames, and I create my own mental chart of the time I want to spend with each of these chunks. I also provide a clean hour or two of research against a development time of 10 hours.
  
  
• Don’t give in to the tendency to “continuously work and finish it off.” It will toss your whole schedule into the wastebasket. The unpleasant tasks will build up into an unmanageable pile, and you will hate it.
  
  
• Once you’ve planned the most important task, attend to the tasks you dislike. Complete them in the time when you’d rather not work. To avoid mistakes, create small formats that you can pull out and work from. For example, you can just add your effort (in hours) in a text file on your desktop. You can use this text file to later complete your time sheet.
  
  
• The time required for fixing errors will automatically come down, when you plan your development task, with enough room for research. Also plan time for self-reviews. All these will bring down the time that you would otherwise spend on fixes.
  
  
• It may seem to be a drag when you are trying to bring order by eliminating the reign of chaos, but an hour a day spent in educating yourself about visualization and peripheral learning could bring your meetings with graphics designers and programmers down to zero. So ensure that you plan an hour of learning into your schedule.
  
  
• Find at least a half-hour a week to do things that you enjoy (other than learning.) Share your knowledge with others. It will make you happier and more efficient. It will also help others to commit fewer mistakes in their work. This will, in turn, help you - especially if you are a reviewer.
  

As I said before, all of us have our own styles of working. Create a plan that suits your attitude and personality.

Here is some friendly advice –

When you first begin to implement time management, it will be quite difficult. Other members of your team may feel that you are quirky or turning recluse. It’s a good idea to discuss time-management in your group, then create your own plans, and let others know about your “best” and “worst” times during the day.

Another point that I would like to make before I wind up is that time management won’t bring you instant relief...you will have to stretch a bit in the beginning. You will need to approach the new course/topic in a planned manner, doing all the things that you consider right, at the best time of the day, while there will be tremendous pressure on you to complete the fixes/fill the data etc. But then, if you are able to manage it...the rewards are sweet! Your efficiency will increase dramatically once you cross the threshold, which in my opinion, should come within a month.

Here is an analogy. Huge boulders of granite are split open by little wood pieces that are driven into the holes drilled in them. These pieces swell when rains arrive, and they split the boulders open. What works is the fact that these pieces are placed in rows, one after the other. When they swell, the boulder resists but only to a certain point or the threshold. This is exactly what we need to do when we manage time. Place our plans in a logical sequence and follow them, until we reach the threshold.

If you have the willpower time will listen to you; it will go fast or slow, fresh or tired, content or restless...it will do what you command it to do. So take control...and make the time stop!

Author: Shafali R. Anand