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Back in university, my biology professor was telling the class about the different assignments and exams that she had planned for the semester. The students in the front row (I was in the back), started to complain, saying that they had very little time to do all of these things and would the professor just cut them some slack? I’ll never forget this fantastic time management tip from my biology professor in response.
She told us that we all had a ton of time that we were not using to the best of our abilities. What kind of time the students wondered? She reminded us of the time that we spend waiting for the professor to show up. Or the time that we spend waiting for food at a restaurant. Or time spent waiting for the bus to show up. Even time spent waiting around for friends to come to the cafeteria so that you can eat together. There are small bits, maybe 5–10 minutes of time, each time we wait around which can be used productively. Instead, we spend it on our smartphones browsing social media or playing games or maybe we do not do anything at all.
She then told us that if we did not believe her, we should, for two weeks, note down what we are doing inside a notebook every 10 minutes. This ‘audit’ was likely not done by very many students in the class but she was willing to bet that if any of the students had done the audit, they would realize…
