First Meeting

This exercise that I did together with Ms Menhardt was supposed to help me find out about my values and what's important to me in life. She told me to just say whatever came to my mind, without filter or being scared that it would be wrong.

1^st: Ms Menhardt asked me to think about a very happy memory, possibly something from my childhood when I felt completely relaxed and content. The first memory that came to mind was a very recent one, namely my holiday in Goa during Duessara break. I said that I didnt feel restless like I usually do, I felt released as I escaped from Bangalore and Stonehill as well as being stuck at my house, and also there was nothing I had to do, and no deadlines. This could be summed up as the absence of all negative things, and that is what I feel is happiness.

2^nd: She asked me to think of a scene: Im stuck in traffic, there's a lot of people around me, and on the side of the road there is a billboard – my billboard. What would be my message to all these people around me? I said that it'd have something to do with art, colors and enjoying things, or probably a vintage picture. It should be very pretty and tell people not to worry.

3^rd: These are two experiences where I felt particularly uncomfortable or awkward. The first one is going to the FRRO, because it means that you're stuck there for the whole day. The second one that came to my mind is when I had a whole bunch of people over to my house, and I felt that it was quite awkward as there were just too many people. I felt like they were expecting something from me and I felt very uncomfortable the whole night.

4^th: She asked me to think of my highschool class reunion, 10 years after graduation. And for some reason, I couldn't come and I missed it. What do I think people would remember about me and what would I want them to remember? I thought that they'd definitely remember my good grades and my art works, and what i'd want them to remember is that I was good with everyone, very inclusive and open towards everyone, not rejecting.

What we got out of all of these memories and scenarios were my values, and the most important ones were:

*Freedom

*Ambition

*Bliss, zero gravity, zero pull (as a state of mind)

*A few close friends

*Art

Now I definitely know what my values in life are, and it feels good because I feel like I found out what's really important to me, although I knew about most of them before it is good to keep them in mind and actively think about them. I had to work collaboratively with Ms Menhardt to find out, and I hope that I can keep the collaboration up for the duration of the time management program and that I won't slack off and stop meeting up with her. Of course, because it is my free choice not to do it, it is very tempting to stop doing it, because it just means extra work for me. But I think if I just commit to doing it until the end, and set that goal for myself I will be happy that I have shown the perseverance to finish it and I hopefully will be rewarded for it as well with better time management skills. Now, I just have to work on organizing my time, according to these values, because those values motivate me, and I am obviously going to work most effectively and best when I am motivated. I know that I am not very good at time management, that is one of my big weaknesses and I know that I have to work on it, that is why I am doing this time management program. The solution we came up with how I could manage to get better at planning my time is using my blackberry calendar to take little notes during the day of what I have to do in the afternoon, because I always carry my phone with me and I am more likely to work if someone (or something) reminds me of what I have to do. Also, this will take some of the stress off me, because otherwise I constantly remind myself of what I have to do still in my head, so that I don't forget it, and I get very stressed out over doing that. in order to achieve my goal, and become successful with organizing my time I have to commit to this time management program and using my blackberry calendar and stick with it for at least 3 weeks (how long it takes to break a habit), which will take a lot of perseverance. I am glad that I have started, and its better to start late than never. I will have to meet up with Ms Menhardt on a regular basis and plan my meetings with her. Also, I will have to plan my homework for every day from today on and then also actually do it. I am not sure if I can break my habit of not doing homework for the past 10 years or my school career all that easily, but I will try to develop that new skill of time management so that I will not get too stressed out about not having enough time.  

Questions for analyzing your time log data

 Where am I spending too much time – time wasters?

--The internet, the bus ride home from school (1 hour 20 minutes one way). I think those two are the 2 big things, although there's also my boyfriend that i spend a lot of time on but i don't think its too much.

 Where am I spending too little time – time opportunities?

--I don't think I spend too little time on something, if I need to spend time on something I usually just do it, I don't feel like I have free time because there's always something I could be doing.

 What time of day am I most productive? Least productive?

--Most productive really depends on my mood. When I'm in an energetic and good mood I can be productive all day long, but when I'm tired or just not in the mood to work for school I am usually only productive at 8 to 9:30 at night, and during school time because I usually don't waste the time that I have to spend at school anyway. During weekends, its usually at night, or quite early in the morning, for example 7 to 9 o'clock. I'm least productive when I haven't eaten properly or when I spent too much time on my laptop.

 Who controls my time?

--I control it myself for the most part, although my parents sometimes ask if I have any homework or tests coming up. Oftentimes it is also controlled by things that I can't influence, like traffic for example.

 What or who causes interruptions?

--My boyfriend I think. When I'm with him I just forget about school and what I still have to do and relax for a little while. Also, on weekends when I don't have anything to do and I get stuck on the internet I usually end up not doing anything that day, despite of all my good intentions etc and I feel really shitty afterward.

 What patterns or habits do I see in my day, good and bad?

--I can work best at night or early morning, and I usually stress every day because there's always work that I haven't done yet. One pattern that reoccurs every day is my eating habits: Every day when I get back from school, my Mum makes food for me because I don't eat the school lunch. Once I get into wasting my time, I usually don't stop until it's too late because the day Is over.

 What activities can I eliminate? Identify important/ urgent tasks.

--I could probably eliminate unnecessary trips to the city because traffic is very time consuming. The Art pages are something that's due every week on Wednesday and they're definitely important. So is horse riding, since my diary I have started going horse riding before school regularly and getting up early as well as the physical exercise makes me feel really good. It also helps me with getting enough sleep.

 What activities could be delegated or shared?

--I don't think that CAS is that important because we don't even get credit for it, but id like to finish it in the first year actually.

   Choices  --> Impact of choices

 How do I plan my time? How realistic is my time planning?

--I don't really plan my time, for some days I have a rough plan in my head and I always have a to-do list in my head so that I don't forget any tasks, I keep reminding myself which really stresses me out. I have tried using a planner but that just doesn't work for me. Lately, I have tried using my Blackberry and create little tasks and reminders, because I always carry my phone on me and it's been working quite well actually, I just have to be consistent and stick with it.

 What is the time benefit ratio of my activities?

--I'd say that if I had to assign values to my time and the benefit I get out of it, the ratio would be so low that there is just not enough hours in a day to balance them out.

 How do I set priorities? 

--In terms of school work, I set my priorities depending on when something is due, and how much time I will have to invest in it, as well as if I like it or not or if I have more important things to do right now.

 Do I know how to say No?

--Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on my mood really.

 What is outside my control? Can it be controlled?

--Traffic. No way that will get better so I just have to accept it the way it is.

 Who else is effected by my actions?

--My family I guess, because when I get stressed out I am no fun to have around. My boyfriend because I would really like to spend a decent amount of time with him outside school, without postponing my school work and pushing my grades down etc.

 How well prepared am I for sudden schedule changes?

--I would say that I am pretty flexible in my time management. For example the other day, my dog got very sick and when I got back home from school we first noticed (her face was swollen from an allergic reaction and that happened within minutes) so I had to go to the vet with her and it took about 1,5 hours, but I still got a big chunk of my workload for that day done.

ONE WEEK JOURNAL

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