RANDY PAUSCH
THE TIME MANAGEMENT EXPERT
WITH A DIFFERENCE (POST.1)
RANDY PAUSCH was born on October 23, 1960 in the United States and died on July 25, 2008.
He was a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University till his demise.
"The Last Lecture" speech of Randy Pausch delivered on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University is very popular as an inspirational lecture.
Prior to this ‘LAST LECTURE’, Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August 2006. In this and a few other of his talks, Randy Pausch first talks of the fast progression of his disease and the time limits given to him by the Doctors.
Pausch, however, decided that he was going to have fun till his last and this determination reflects well in all his lectures. His steely determination to make the most, and the best, of his remaining life probably extended his life by a number of months beyond what the Doctors gave him.
He pursued a very aggressive cancer treatment. But, On July 24, 2008, on behalf of Pausch, his friend posted a message on Pausch's webpage indicating cancer progression beyond what was expected from recent PET scans and Pausch becoming more sick than ever. On July 25, 2008, Diane Sawyer announced on Good Morning America that Pausch had died earlier that morning.
We can see and listen to his ‘LAST LECTURE’ at :
His earlier lecture on TIME MANAGEMENT is also available at :
There are no earth-shaking ideas in Randy’s Last Lecture or his Time Management Lecture. But, coming from Randy, they have a telling effect on the audience. In fact, time management lectures are all like that. There are never any earth shaking ideas. But, each expert puts it into a shape that appeals. Stephen Covey does it well. Many others do it well. Randy also does it well.
Time Management is really, too very simple, if you avoid procrastination. These are the obvious steps in time management:
(i) Identify the “important” things / tasks in your life. Concentrate more time on them every day. These are your goals; your aspirations; the tasks that enhance your life and make your life worth living, in your own eyes and probably in the eyes of others who matter to you. If you don’t have any such ‘important’ things right now, it is time you find them. This is the most important step in your life right now. I can’t really exaggerate beyond that. Time management comes only after that. Remember, these important things may not look very urgent. But, ask Randy, You don’t have TOO MUCH TIME to do them. No one has. Therefore, you must do them daily. There is no day in life when you don’t have important things to do.
(ii) As a second step, identify the important things which have also become urgent for one reason or other. Finish them up quickly. These are undoubtedly the first things to be done by you. But then, we stated earlier that the important, seemingly non-urgent things are very important and are the first priority in life. The reason is, you must never allow important things to become urgent. Do them much before that. You must concentrate on these two first steps.
(iii) Then, there are the phantoms in life. These are the seemingly urgent, non-important things. Do not allow them to interfere much with the important things, urgent or non-urgent, mentioned in steps i and ii above. You can’t totally ignore them any way; they press into your life from all corners; your friends, business associates; family members; they want to have a piece of your life. So, you can’t ignore these totally, without spoiling relationships, health etc. So, put them in their perspective and give them the minimum time required. Will you send your New Year Greeting messages or not? Will you greet the people or not? You must. But, after Jan,1st, they become inconsequential. Remember that. But, if you don’t do them, they have consequences. Remember that too. Allot them the minimum time required.
(iv) The last in the list are : non-urgent, non-important things. Give them the least possible time. There is of course the danger of certain important things getting classified under this category. A certain amount of relaxation and recreation is a MUST, each day. It is IMPORTANT. But, if there are urgent things pressing on you, you may not relax. It happens to you, me and others at times. But, there is also the danger of unimportant things looking like important things. Excessive TV viewing also gets classified as relaxation some times. It is not. It is not relaxation at all.
These are the Basics; these are the essentials. Rest is nitty gritty. Rest is – mostly individualistic.
What is ‘important’ in your life – is your classification. What is ‘urgent’ is your classification. With three months to go – Randy was talking of his last lecture and time management and enjoying it. With others, it may be different.
Listen to these two lectures. They are GOOD. Listen to Stephen Covey also. Then go ahead and plan your life. Don’t merely stop with the listening.
Now, let’s see a bit of what Randy says – he deserves that; we deserve that too.
Take for instance, what he says on time available to you and how you are spending it : “The key question to keep asking is, are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. … and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”
Time is all that you have… time is all that you have…time is all that you have… Randy is right in that. But, you don’t have to be paranoid about it. All that you need to understand is, time is a very precious asset. It is THE Precious asset. All other things are time-bound. You included.
It’s a realization. Much like that of the Buddha. Nothing else really matters as much as time. Time really is all that you have. Either you use it. Or, you lose it. Your life is nothing but time spent. You may have 6 months, or 6 years, or just, 6 minutes. You never know. It doesn’t matter also if you don’t know. What matters is – how you are spending this moment. This moment is – all that matters.
Now, it is a fact that many of us fix up some short term goals, medium term goals, long term goals and so on. They are necessary. You have this moment. But, you may well have 6 or 60 years too. So, you fix up goals for the eternity. And, go on with life as if you are there for eternity. In India, the age-old wisdom is that be joyous as if this moment is the only moment you have. Learn and do – as if you have an eternity to live.
Doing things in the right way and doing the right things are really not alternatives to each other. Our Goals are the right things. We must achieve them the right way. We can’t be ignoring either the right things or the right way. That’s what Randy says. That’s what Covey says. That’s what every expert says.
In the next post, we will see a few more of Randy’s quotable quotes; Quite a beautiful lot they are. Don’t miss out on them.
Post.2 URL :
http://wiselivingideas.blogspot.com/2010/12/randy-pausch-time-management-expert_29.html
Post.2 URL :
http://wiselivingideas.blogspot.com/2010/12/randy-pausch-time-management-expert_29.html
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