Time Management and Perceptions

Over at the YoungEntrepreneur.com forums there is a discussion about time management. Another member posted a link to an article by Steve Pavlina titled Do It Now. It’s a lengthy article so set aside a good 20 minutes to digest it, or if you are like Steve, maybe you only need about 10 minutes. Steve’s article recounts stories from his own life as examples of his techniques for time management. Steve appears to be quite the workhorse and he has accomplished some amazing feats in a very short period of time.

For example, from Steve:

Time is your scarcest resource. You can always make more money, but once time has been spent, you can never get it back. When going to college many years ago, I decided to challenge myself by setting a goal to see if I could graduate in only three semesters, taking all the same classes that people would normally take over a four-year period. I knew I would start my own business once I graduated, so that goal inspired me to get out of school fast. There was no way I wanted to be stuck in school while the technology revolution was passing me by.

In order to accomplish this goal, I determined I’d have to take 30-40 units per semester, when the average student took 12-15 units. So it became immediately obvious that I’d have to manage my time extremely well if I wanted to pull this off. I began reading everything I could find on time management and putting what I learned into practice immediately. I accomplished my goal by graduating with two degrees (Computer Science and Mathematics) in just three semesters without attending summer school. I slept seven to eight hours a night, took care of my routine chores (shopping, cooking, etc), had a social life, and exercised for 30 minutes every morning. In my final semester, I even held a full time job (40 hours a week) as a game programmer and served as the Vice Chair of the local Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter while taking 37 units of hardcore computer science and math courses. My classmates would add up all the hours they expected each task to take and concluded that my weeks must consistent of about 250 hours. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and ended up receiving a special award given only to the top Computer Science student each year.

Phew! A full degree in only 3 semesters. Quite the opposite from me. I managed to make a three year degree last four years. Of course I did that by choice because I wanted to fill my days with a variety of different activities and goals. Perhaps living like Steve (reading articles while shaving!) allows you to accomplish a lot very efficiently but I don’t think I’d ever go to some of the extremes explained in his article. However most of what he writes is very good and if you put into action just a few of his suggestions you will benefit.

Steve is the CEO of Dexterity Software which offers free game downloads (now that’s a fun industry!). Steve also has a blog where I learnt what it’s like to be Red-Green colour blind which is an interesting problem if you are a game developer. Steve can’t see red or green and never has been able to his whole life. I can’t imagine what a field of green grass must look like to him.

This reminded me how important perception is and consequently how important it is to test everything you do in your business. Just because you think something is better than before doesn’t mean your market will too. The only way to get concrete results it to track and test. As much as I hate statistics, they do play an important role in business. You should never assume that your perception is the same as everyone else’s.