What About Time Management?

Time Management.

The thorn in every soccer mom/business man/college student/heck...everyone's side.

Personally, I find it incredibly difficult to focus on one thing at a time. I like to say I am a multi-tasker, but really, I am a multi-time waster. Studying for World Civ, checking Facebook, and texting my friends back all at the same time spreads out my thought process to 3 different activities, than the over all studying I am trying to accomplish.

I really want to start using my time more effectively studying. And this is not just for my school work, but for my daily walk with God as well.

We are called to be good stewards of what God has given each of us. He has not just provided money in your life, but 365 (or 366) days a year with 24 hours in each day with 60 minutes within each hour to use yourself for His glory. And how can we do that with out checking our phones every 5 minutes and looking on Facebook for no other reason than to not focus on what task we really have before us?

The strategy I would like to try is Batching.

Batching is simply a form of time management that allows a person to maximize concentration and decrease distraction. As a result, it increases your productivity, creativity, and mental sharpness, while decreasing fatigue, procrastination, and stress. Batch processing is the grouping of similar tasks that require similar resources in order to streamline their completion.

Studies have shown that "every time we become distracted, it takes an average of 15 minutes to regain complete focus." Some of us get distracted again while trying to regain focus, thus never really regaining that complete focus.

The Pomodoro Technique. - This technique was featured in one of Michael Hyatt's blogs about maximizing time management.

1. Plan and prioritize the tasks that need to be completed, by writing them down.

2. Set a timer for for 25 minutes and devote that time to a task, or to a group of similar tasks. Larger tasks can be broken into multiple blocks or “pomodoro’s,” and smaller tasks (responding to email, returning phone calls, etc) can be grouped into a single block. After completing each Pomodoro, you put an “X” next to it and mark the number of times that you were distracted.

3. Take a 5 minute break.

4. Begin another block of time or “pomodoro.”  

5. After completing 4 pomodoro’s, take an extended 20 minute break.

I plan on giving this a try in all my studies this week in hopes to begin using my time more effectively.