Time Mangement

Off Topic
1

yo,

well im frosh at St.fx University studying music(jazz), in Nova Scotia. And im almost done for the semester about to go back home to PEI for X-mas.

even though i worked real hard this semester, my workload seems like its going to double after the break, i also just got an email from my guitar teacher telling me how he is going to torture all of us with work after the break(yes he actually said torture). Although everyone here likes to bitch about how hard their program is, i think music is the most intense out of all of them, it also doesnt help that im one of the crappier players in the program…

anyways, asside from the bitching, im super worried that during this next semester to get all my work done, practice aprox 4hrs a day and etc, that i will turn into a skinny little bitch (hey im already WAY too small as it is) when i feel like i should be hitting 200 lbs.

so i was wondering if you guys have any helpful tips for time management. maybe you’ve been through a similar situation in your life…how did you deal with it?

some of the changes i’ve been thinking of so far would be:
No fucking off (im usually pretty good at doing this, as im a hardworker anyways, but sometimes the internet takes hold of me)
Cooking all the extra food i will need for the week on sundays. The majority of my Food intake comes from meal hall, but they only offer 3 meals on weekdays…only 2 meals/day on weekends(hate this)

-Keep liftingto only one hour/session-this is a big challenge
for me as i always want to warm really slowly and carefully to avoid hurting myself.

anyways hit me up with your suggestions, i know some of the big boys on the site (Prof X ,Baurer(sp)) went through a ton of schoolin and work very busy lives, yet they are fucking huge, so it obviously can be done.

2

Well, I’m not as built as the Prof or Bauer, but I did study Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence in school, which crosses four disciplines, as well as flight school. My dad got tired of hearing me whine so he gave me a good time management “trick”.

On an empty sheet of paper (well, a wordprocessor), make a table of 7 columns and about 16 rows.

The columns are your days and the rows are the hours you’re awake (try to get 8 hours of sleep if you can, increase number of rows if sleep becomes increasingly optional).

On this sheet, mark off stuff that you’re guaranteed to be doing, such as attending lectures, labs, etc.

What’s left is time you can block off for other “optional” things, like (and I hate to call it this, but education comes first) lifting.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but I suspect you’ll find time for things that you really want to do. Good luck!

3

The key to not wasting away is meal planning. Knowing exactly how much to need to be able to eat consistently is what it’s all about.

It sounds like you aren’t going to be making any huge gains during this time, so I wouldn’t try. You can’t really beat the shit out of yourself with school(and I’m a musician, so I know where you are coming from there, that is hella frustration)and then expect to get jacked at the same time. Eat as well as you can, lift when you can, and try not to sweat it too much. If your diet is decent, you can probably get away with going to the gym once or twice a week without losing any mass.

4

key to time management is psyche manipulation. …ill come up with a fancier word for it later, im tired.

anyway, ever notice how people say they “work better under pressure” well they dont. the ONLY work under pressure. when you THINK you have a 5 page paper due in two days, youre probaly gonna do it today.

but what if you only THOUGHT it was due in 2 days but you really had a week? regardless of the reality so long as you feel pressured youre going to do it a.s.a.p. if you can somehow manage to be completely oblivious of actual due dates and convince yourself they are due earlier then they really are, youll get everything done faster.

its a lot easier said than done though.

i agree with enrac too. you have to make choices and when youre increasingly losing time you need to give certain things presedence, school work, real work, that sorta thing then see whats left over.

let me put it to you like this, lifting weights is a hobby, bodybuilding is a lifestyle.

you need to really evaluate how far you want to take this thing, if you dont want to be a bodybuilder and you want to play jazz then do so. you can go to the gym a few times and stay “fit”.

missing one meal isnt going to hurt you as much as missing a test, which could make you fail a class which could bring on a whole buncha other bad shit. focus on whats most important for you and your future.

5

for real,

however i think if i work super hard and manage my time really well that i will be able to bulk up to 200 by the time the year is over, it will probably be rediculously hard and will require my top notch organization.

781, maybe i could be hypnotized into thinking my shit was due earlier.

6

Schedule everything for a few weeks until it’s habit. work from there.

Get up earlier. Want to get your practicing in? Wake up at 6am to do it. I did my undergrad in music, I’m in grad school now studying music (classical guitar). I woke up at 6am this entire last semester to get at least an hour of practice in before class. I practiced for thirty minutes if that’s all I could fit in during the day.

Plan ahead.

I’ve gained about 15lbs this semester (since August) and acheived all my strength goals this semester while taking 12 graduate hours, working 10-15 hours/week for my grad assistantship, practicing 3+hours/day and teaching around 6 hours/week.

How bad do you want it?

7

Enrac’s suggestion of a timetable is an excellent idea. Also what Boyscout said about getting up early is v.true and i believe a must to succeed at university.

Music is the hardest program? everyone say’s their degree is the hardest, but most likely its either Medicine, Dentistry or Maths(I take a Maths degree with a focus on Economics).

Anyway if you want something bad enough you will make it happen. You have to live, breathe, eat it(pardon the cliche).

And the last thing you should do is worry yourself, rather start doing things that bring you closer to accomplishing your goals.
For example be very, very disciplined - similar to a soldier in the military, maintain a strict routine everyday.

Good Luck.

PS there is a good music department in our univeristy and all the musicians are bums lol.

8

I had a chuckle at the irony of this statement :). (I know music is hard/time consuming and I’m not having a dig at it)

+1. I’m sure you already know this but a slow cooker, plastic tubs and a freezer are your friends. 1/2 an hour of prep can give you 5 days of lunch and dinner.

Again, get up early. I go to uni with some mature-age students who get up about 4/5am to study before their kids get up. This way they can get a solid few hours in each day. Plus, because it is the start of the day nothing that occurs during it can interfere with your study/practice time!

9

When you find yourself unable to consistently get up before 6am, don’t feel bad. I did the same thing. Find something else that works.

10

You have to realize that there is no real ‘trick,’ just what works for some and not others.

The real ‘key,’ therefore, is the ABILITY to stick to something for about 4 weeks to see how well your non-destructive habits (read: lifestyle, essentially) mesh with this new form of time management.

For me:

I’ll take what I need to do for school and for each class, divide up the work between today and the day I want it done, and budget what I feel is an appropriate amount of time to allot for each block of work. Also, I make sure to throw in a cushion, so if I think something might take 2 hours in my best frame of mind, I’ll give it 3 hours on my schedule.

Then, I worry about breaks from working hard - because, really, none of us can work 8 hours straight for days on end - and plan some fun/free time to do whatever I want. I will not necessarily fill up this time with errands, as I want to recharge with a good mood, so I find things that would put me in such a mood.

Plan two nights a week where you can cook for about an hour each time. Get tupperware.

If whatever time management tool has not worked for you after giving it an HONEST run for a few weeks, sit down and trouble shoot what you think is going on. When you do this, think of trouble shooting someone else’s habits and schedule, so you can be objective. It always hardest to be honest with yourself, so imagine you are looking at someone else’s schedule and imagine it is your JOB to help them succeed.

Finally, treat everything as part of a job that is specific to you. This is a job, to go to school, and not get paid for it. Do not explain yourself to others, do not adjust your schedule for others because they want in on your time.

11

Ah, I forgot to mention tricks for meal prep and planning.

Yes, slow cooker and rice cookers are amazing. Throw in a few pounds of steak, about half a cup of liquid, some vegetables, and let sit on low heat over night. In the morning, divide this up into several meals, and store them later use.

That is half of your day’s meals right there, at least.

Put quinoa in the rice cooker. Not overnight. Use same prep that you would for rice. Divide this up into multiple servings

I also cook up several pounds of ground beef at a time and store it in tupperware so I can eat it with almonds, parmesan and vegetables later.

Or, I marinade mead in ziplock bags and will put them in the freezer after a few hours in marinade, if I do not anticipate cooking the meat immediately. This should stop the marinading process from going too far.

You will find a rhythm but you will have to play around and stick to something a few times. It will not just fall into place from day one, you have to adopt meal prep/planning into your current schedule and stick with it for a bit to see how well you do.

12

If you think you are busy now, wait till you get out of school and get a job.

13

[quote]lighting_guy wrote:
If you think you are busy now, wait till you get out of school and get a job.[/quote]

Depends on the job.

And I always hated this statement; no, full-time school with part-time or even full-time work, plus aspirations in the gym will ALWAYS be tougher to manage than plain work.

14

I agree with doing any/all cooking on one day of the week. Whatever day works best for you.

You can cut down your gym time; but make sure keep the quality of your workouts up there. If you are there; go balls to the walls. Stay intense.

Keep a white board and you can write your HW, tasks and other things on it.

If you can get quality sleep; you can get up earlier and/or go to bed later. zma, Z-12 and/or melatonin can help with that.

Don’t let the weekends mean it’s party time, that’s valuable time for all your shit to get done (gym, hw, cooking, sexing)

Make sure your friends are able to see that you have a very busy semester and don’t try to detract you all too much from your plan.

the last semester of my Sr. year was “supposed” to be the slacking, partying one that all my friends were having; but i ended up working harder then ever. but it was well worth it and i’ve been able to make it up to my friends and myself since then. I was also able to plan an lift in a push/pull meet and get a 15lb bench PR and a 25lb deadlift PR.

good luck!!