Master Your Time For A Better Life
by Dr Eugene Sern-Ting Tan
Common Problems in Time Management
Regardless of age, occupation or wealth, all of us have one definite thing in common – we only have 24 hours a day. Time is a truly precious and finite resource. From my experience in interacting with students, the following are some common problems that they face with managing their time:
“What should I do if I don’t have enough time to sleep?”
“I do not have enough time to relax due to a lot of homework…how do I cope with my work?”
“How can I improve my level of work efficiency?”
“I am involved in a physical sport and it requires intensive training. How do I catch up with my homework when I miss school due to competitions?”
Time management is a perennial challenge faced by all students and even working adults. As students, you have to grapple with a heavy workload from a never-ending stream of homework (for some, that may include extra homework from private tuition), preparation for tests and exams, project work, co-curricular activities and more.
The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
Here, I would like to share one of my favourite time management principles that has really helped to turbo-charge my productivity — the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule.
Let’s begin with a quick look at how the Pareto Principle originated. More than a hundred years ago, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Dr Joseph Juran (a management philosopher) called this concept the Pareto Principle, and the rest is history.
The 80/20 rule holds true in many areas of our life. In business, it is well known that 80% of sales come from 20% of clients. In any company, 20% of its staff may be responsible for 80% of the company’s profits (hence these top achievers and leaders in key positions are paid much higher than everyone else). Interestingly, a lot of people I know tend to wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. If you think about it, you may be spending 80% of your social life with 20% of your friends (your closer friends). Even in exams, you may have realized that 80% of the questions will come from 20% of what you study – in other words, it pays to focus on the most important topics if you don’t have enough time to study everything in the syllabus.
I first learnt about this magical 80/20 Rule when I was in junior college, and here’s how I applied it back then:
How I Applied The 80/20 Rule
Step (1)
First, I analyzed how I have been spending my time on various activities each day. These activities include co-curricular activities, going out with friends, phone chatting, watching television, doing homework, reading leisure books/magazines, reading school textbooks, making revision notes and so on. In today’s context, we should include the time we spend on social media, internet surfing, phone messaging and mobile games.
Step (2)
From the Pareto Principle, I understood that 80% of my success in school will come from 20% of all the activities I do. I identified the most important activities (the top 20%) as making revision notes and practising exam questions to test my understanding of the subject.
Step (3)
After doing the above analysis, I then made sure that I spent more time on these most important tasks and cut down on other unimportant activities.
Conclusion
All in all, the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule is a powerful concept that can potentially make you a grandmaster of time management. So, start applying this to your life today and let me know if it helps. :)
“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?”