As an IT professional, time management is crucial for success in both my personal life and work life. I felt like I managed my time okay but could have used a little bit of work to make sure I included everything I needed to include and make sure I had a good balance between personal and work/college.

I took a look at the Ted Talk video of Laura Vanderkam, “How to gain control of your free time” and the main points that stuck with me is the fact that no matter how well you might schedule your time you will still have mishaps to happen and you still might come up short sometimes. Time is about making a choice whether to make things a priority or not.

I made a couple of lists regarding my time management as it stands right now and what my ideal schedule of time would look like. The first list outlines what I spend most of my time doing and the second list outlines what I would rather spend my time doing.

Current List:
Homework
Rest
Housework/Chores/Cook
Watch TV
Spend time with family
Entertainment
Dr. Appts (Me or Family)

Ideal List:
Time with family
Rest/Me time
Travel/trips
Education
Business
Volunteer work

I have also included 2 spreadsheets of what my schedule looks like now versus what I want it to look like. The first spreadsheet clearly shows that I spend most of my time doing homework; the second in command is resting/sleeping. It takes a lot of brain power having so much homework and projects to do which causes the need for me to rest for extended periods of time. Consequently, spending time with family was number 5 on this list, which is saddening to me, but we offer each other grace because of their pressing issues that are priority like work demands or homework demands.

See my current Time Management Spreadsheet HERE!

My second list is what my ideal time schedule would look like. It included time with family as priority with rest/me time ranking as second priority. I also included time for travel/trips, business, and volunteer work. On my rearranged ideal time schedule, I included a lot of time for doing whatever it is I want to do for times when things pop up that need to be handled.

See my ideal Time Management Spreadsheet HERE!

In conclusion, my schedules have similar things listed on there, so it is safe to say that I do have a routine going on. I am not a last-minute person, so I try and work on projects in chunks until completion to deter myself from falling into the procrastination pitfall, which I believe would be a great asset to any team I am on.