4.11 Key Takeaways

This chapter began by pointing out that stress can be reduced and grades improved as a result investing some time, in improving your time management.

• The cost of not investing in developing good time management strategies include: money, an increase in stress, loss of goals, time, and self-esteem which may be difficult to recover from right away.
• Creating a plan to be successful includes: starting early to understanding what your tasks include, accurately estimating the time they will require to complete, creating a plan based on this time estimation, blocking off the time required in smaller chunks, being flexible and having a back up plan if things don’t go the way you expected.
• Procrastination, or putting something off, was identified as the biggest obstacles to getting things done. Reasons why we procrastinate include lack of focus, lack of energy and fear of failure, each of which feeds into the other, creating a procrastination cycle.
• The key components to prioritization are making certain you understand each task and making decisions based on importance, impact, and urgency.
• The chapter contained several sections on how to effectively manage time (including predicting time on task), how to prioritize tasks and some specific strategies to try like the Pomodoro Technique, Top Three and Eat the Frog.