Tips or tricks to help me with time management issues?

October 3, 2008 8:19 AM

Time management issues...please help!

When I was in Grade 7, I used to spend hours on homework. I had great difficulty actually getting the assigned tasks done quickly and while I was not tested for learning disabilities, I don’t think that is the issue because I’ve always gotten decent marks.

It got so bad that my parents decided to pull out an egg timer. Once the egg timer rang, I was to stop working on that particular subject be it math or history and go to the next, even if I had not finished all of the assigned reading!

Fast forward to today. I am a 2nd year law student and still coming to the same problem. I have a full course load, I’m working at a criminal law firm twice a week, doing mooting (where law students pretend to by Ally McBeal), and am part of several student clubs. This workload is quite common so I don’t think that is the issue.

My boyfriend is my age but already a lawyer and I find when we spend time together, nine times out of ten I will be reading and doing homework and he will be playing video games and reading on the internet. While I recognize that I’m in school, and that school involves a lot of work, frankly, I’m afraid I will reproduce these same habits when I get into private practice.

Instead of always doing homework, I will be always working on client files. I won’t lie to you, I was one of those kids (and still am) who loves work. I think it defines who I am in an odd way. I take great pleasure and pride in the type of work I do. But I also think that spending too much time on it gets in the way of the other pleasures of life. I also worry to what extent my sense of being overwhelmed vs. my partner always having extra time will play out in our relationship dynamic, especially if we settle down and have kids.

So Mefites. I am looking for any time management tips and tricks that you have learned over the years specifically with respect to getting your work done. My boyfriend has suggested I do a time diary, ie. record what I do in all parts of my life and how much time I spend on it. I have been keeping it up for the past month or so, but don’t really know what to do with the results. I look forward to hearing from you!

N.B. I did appreciate the post on avoiding burnout (http://ask.metafilter.com/99742/help-me-avoid-burnout) but I think my post also has a relationship dimension which I am hoping people can speak to.

posted by laroodles to human relations (7 comments total)

I forgot to mention that my boyfriend and I are doing long distance during the school year (4 hour drive/train away) and see each other every couple of weeks, sometimes longer depending on when it is in the school year...
posted by laroodles at 8:37 AM on October 3, 2008

You sound like one of those people who thinks of time as a tunnel instead of as a string of sausages.

Now bear with me here.

People who think of time as driving down a narrow tunnel can only see the thing that's in front of them. Once they get past the thing that's in front of them, they move onto the next thing. They've got no idea how long the tunnel is, or how many things there are.

String of sausages people, well, they can see that there are *this* many sausages, and they're *this* long because they're above the problem, and can hold both ends in their hands.

So, to extend this already flimsy metaphor to breaking point, by the time you've managed to drive your car out of the tunnel, I'm already at home having eaten all the sausages.

(I didn't even know there was such a thing as thinking of time as a tunnel - until it was pointed out to me that people seem to be split into these two groups. In my professional life, whenever I've had to help someone with time-management issues, they always seem to fall into the tunnel category. So, you know, if that sounds like you, get out of the tunnel and grab a skillet. )
posted by Jofus at 8:41 AM on October 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Don't know if this is helpful. I've been thinking of time management like dish washing. If you've got a sink full of dishes, you simply have to do them all, one by one, until the sink is empty. And on the other hand, if you're a single guy, you just need one bowl, one fork, and one spoon and leave the rest dirty for some point in the future. Prioritize the dishes to just what you need and then only use those dishes.

Put sleep, meals, exercise, your boyfriend, and you "me time" on the schedule first. Select only the premium sausages and do those the rest of the time.
posted by CrazyJoel at 9:26 AM on October 3, 2008

I have time management issues, too. I just want to make sure I understand...is it that you feel like you take too long on items? It seems like it's more that than not being able to conceptualize time properly. I have this problem as I am prone to perfectionism. I do not have this problem licked by any means but one thing I'll do is schedule deadlines for all the little tasks I have to do and keep to those. I am a project manager, you'd think I could manage time better.
posted by sweetkid at 9:53 AM on October 3, 2008

Yes, sweetkid. This is a problem of mine - I have a REALLY hard time conceptualizing how long things should be taking me and, as a result, I spend too much time doing them. And I may be incorrect in this assumption, but I think a lot of people, my boyfriend included, walk around knowing how long their assigned tasks are supposed to take them to get their desired result.
posted by laroodles at 10:32 AM on October 3, 2008

while I was not tested for learning disabilities, I don’t think that is the issue because I’ve always gotten decent marks.
...
Once the egg timer rang, I was to stop working on that particular subject be it math or history and go to the next, even if I had not finished all of the assigned reading!


It sounds like you read fairly slowly. It´s possible that you have a touch of dyslexia, and you should be tested for this. If this is the case there may be some simple things changes you could make to how you read which will enable you to read more quickly.

If that´s not the case, you should learn to increase your reading speed. I´ve known many people who got good grades with a slow reading speed, but it did take them a lot more time to get their work done.
posted by yohko at 10:53 AM on October 3, 2008

I don't know you, I am nothing like you, but I am wondering if you like to just "relax" and hide in the task at hand that way some of us like to slob around on the couch Sunday afternoon.

Between me and you, there's nothing wrong with that. However, as a professional, it will be very important to budget your time and quite possibly whole teams. Are you guys still billing in 6-minute slices?

Take another step on the time dairy work your boyfriend suggested. Break down the simple things you do - washing dishes, getting ready for work in the morning, making your list and going to the grocery store and getting home and putting all the groceries away, etc. Be a project manager of all the things you do in your life, and see if you can get better at forecasting how much time you will need for any given task. For instance, right now if asked you how long it would take to vacuum/sweep your house, could you tell me?

On the other hand, if you are just having anxiety about how well you've done your work - despite taking great pleasure and pride in the type of work I do - makes it difficult for you to feel confident that the task is complete or makes you want to avoid the stress of getting to the end and wondering how you've done. In that case, my advice would be: you made it to second year of law, you must know what you're doing so relax! So if that's your problem, you might want a little talk therapy.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 6:29 PM on October 3, 2008