It has occurred to me that time management is my main problem when it comes to doing work. Up until now I have had little understanding of how to organise myself properly.
I can get a load of work done the day before an assessment or review. I suppose this is because, time comes into perspective. I can visualise the amount of Time I have, and that forces me to set goals. I adhere to those goals and get the work done! But that technique doesn’t always work!!! There is not enough time, in one day to finish off all of my work to a high standard. I need to start work as soon as it is set and not leave it until the last minute. I am always disorganised, and can never seem to find time to fit things in. I waste so much time without even realising.
I have researched allot on time management on the internet and found some interesting things. The topic is practically a science, with individuals devoting their whole lives to the subject. What I’ve found has helped me greatly.
Basically, we all want more time to get things done, but the fact is, that we have all the time we’ve got. Time is non-renewable, you cannot get it back. So what do you do? Simple; you make the best out of the time you have. The first thing to do is set priorities. Almost everyone sets priorities every day, the problem I have, is picking the right ones. I consider everything as top priority. What I need to start doing is to set apart my priorities into areas of importance. So, what would be my top priorities? Well sleep, bathroom breaks, food and drink (non-alcoholic) are obviously top on the list. What I need to insure, is that my top priority after that is uni work; my projects. If I can do that then everything should be fine. But it never works out like this. Little things keep popping up, that distract me, I procrastinate, or I get frustrated. I need to work out a method/schedule that I know I can be faithful to.
The ideal way of getting projects done would be to spend less time and less effort on them, but for them to be good quality. I need to stay focused and to the point, when I’m working. Allot of the time in the labs I get distracted or bored. There are times in max, when I rotate my model around for twenty minutes just looking at it, before realising I haven’t moved it forward at all. There are times when I think about how to do something for half an hour, and then it only takes me five minutes to put my thoughts into affect. How many times have I worked all day only at the end of it to think; wow, I barely moved anything forward. I do Max work better in the labs than I do at home, so I need to find out a method that works for me while I am in the labs! I found out a handy method online that I believe can help me with this. KRA means Key Result Area. For me my Key Result Area at the moment is the completion of all my projects. Very simple. I need to ask myself when I am about to do something, “is what I am about to do, going to contribute to my KRA?” If it doesn’t make a contribution, then maybe it’s a tangent. I need to keep my KRA in my mind at all times. A good way of reminding myself would be to keep a post-it note in front of me at all times, to remind me what I’m working towards. That way I will click on quickly when I’m about to do something non-toward my KRA.
Another method would be to look forward into the future and imagine the best for myself. Imagine myself as successful, working for a games company, owning a car and a house and whatever else I want in life. Then back track. What is it that I need to do to get myself to that point? What do I need to do to achieve this? Well First I need to get into a good job; get my foot in the door of the games industry. Well how would I go about that? Well I need to develop an outstanding portfolio of work and do well in my degree. How do I go about doing that? By working my balls off at uni and getting to the standard that the industry expects. Life is not an escalator that you can just ride to the finish; it’s a set of stairs that you have to walk up by yourself! You have to put effort in to achieve those goals. Right now I’m on those first few steps. I need to sort myself out and get my priorities right! Climb, man, Climb!!!!
One way allot of people deal with a large amount of work is to create a list of things to do. I’ve made lists before. They organise me but I always end up with not enough time to finish the last thing on the list. This is because I leave the hardest thing till last. This never works. A bloke called Mark Twain once said, ‘’having to do an unpleasant job is like having to kiss a frog’’. If you do have to kiss a frog don’t put it off! That frogs still going to be there at the end of the day and you’re still going to have to kiss it! The problem with putting the frog off till last is that your other work suffers as a result. Just kiss the frog straight away, get it of your chest, and then is out of your mind, you feel elated that it’s done and the rest of your work gets done to a higher standard!
Your working environment has to be organised and tidy. If you’re working in a shit heap, then it’s going to affect your attitude towards your work. I hate having to rummage around in piles of clothes or rubbish to find what I need. Since I do some of my work in my room, I’m going to keep it neat, tidy and organised from now on. I have invested in a new piece of furniture for my room. It is a white chest of draws. The draws are shallow but wide and so it’s perfect for storing work and art supplies. This has helped me organise my work and letters and stuff so I can locate what I’m looking for easily!
Fun time. Let’s face it. I’m going to need some breaks from work to stop my mind from frying over. But I need to fit this in cleverly around my work time, and that’s where time management comes into things. I’ve wasted allot of time so far on gaming consoles, but I’ve decided that I’m not going to play games any more. And my Xbox decided to break just before Christmas so that helps tooJ. Yes I’m not going to lie, I love playing first person shooters, but I’ve had my fill, and there is nothing else to play up until the release of Halo: Reach, which is months away. So the amount of time I used to spend on games consoles will now be spent on work.
Right so let’s round up. What am I going to do this term? Well I’m going to organise my time more efficiently. If I want to I can easily fit in 10 hours of work a day. Out of class time a rough calculation of the amount of time that I can work in one week would be 50 hours. That still gives me roughly 14 hours left in every day. If I sleep for 8 hours a day, that gives me 6 left over! That’s enough time to eat, take bathroom breaks and relax. It’s all easily possible if I want it, I just need to get my priorities right! I have fixed my sleeping pattern now and I’m going to keep it like that. I’m going to stop my late nights so that I can get up at 8 in the morning every day, shower and have breakfast, so that I can start working by the time its 9!from 9 I work all day till the labs close. I’ve quit smoking, so I don’t have that to distract me from my work either. A few short breaks throughout the day will keep me sane and fed. For my 2d work, I will start early on a Friday and Saturday, leaving Sunday open for either work or relaxing, or fun. Mon, Tue, wed, Thu = 3d. Fri, Sat, = 2d. Sun= whatever. I know that’s a full week of work, but I’m not going to dawdle any more, I know what I want now, and this is how I’m going to achieve it
These time management skills will help me, but I know where I’ve gone wrong this year so far. It is because I always put work off. This term I’m going to have a much more positive attitude to my work flow. I’m going to work on getting a project done from the day it is set, and put allot more time into the course. I haven’t had the right attitude towards the course up until now and that has to change, if I am to achieve what I want out of life.
‘’Improving your time management skills, is improving your life!’’
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