Liane Carmi

I got an email today from one of my list members asking a question about how to improve his time management.  He’s a Doctoral student and finds himself procrastinating a whole lot, which causes him to have less-than-stellar results in his research and studies.

Normally, I would just respond and leave it at that, but I thought other people could benefit from this answer.

Remember to leave a comment below and let me know if this is useful to you!

ALI’S QUESTION:

Right now I am a researcher in university and I will start my PhD here on Sept.
I’m addicted to internet and checking my emails and doing some unnecessary issues in internet.

Therefore I couldn’t spend enough time to read the books. I just collect the needed information without referring them to read.so, at the last seconds I do all tasks in mediocre and finally, I have mediocre results.

My results are not bad but I know that It could be better and better.
I don’t know how can I change my bad manners.

Regards
Ali

MY RESPONSE:

Hey Ali,

An easy way to remedy this is to set goals, and milestones.

Pick a goal for your studies.  Then, cut it into milestones, or separate tasks that would get you to your goal.  Finally, determine how long it takes to do each task, and plan accordingly.

As an example:

Goal: write 20-page research paper on topic X
Milestones:
1. Collect pertinent research on topic X. Review research and write up 5 possible theses.
2. Begin to organize chapters.
3. Write chapter 1…
4. Write chapter 2…
(all chapters)
5. Select final thesis, write intro.
6. Re-read and revise.
7. Edit & publish.

Time to complete each task:
1. 5 hours
2. 2 hours
3. 2 hours
4. 3 hours
5. 2 hours
6. 1 hour
7. 2 hours

TOTAL: 17 hours.

Today’s date: June 21, 2010
Due date: July 30, 2010
Weeks left: 6
# hours needed on a weekly basis: 17/6 = approximately 2.8, or 3 hours.
Doesn’t seem like much, does it?

That’s it!  Then you only need to set aside 3 hours per week to focus on this work.  You can do that every Monday from 3-6, every Wednesday, or whenever you just want to sit down and focus.  Get it done before anything else, and then continue to do fun things, like surfing the net or checking your emails.

You can use this for anything. For instance, I use this method for my online business.  I set goals for different projects, and I make sure I can reach them by separating big things into little tasks that can actually be completed in a few hours.  Sure makes things easier to deal with, and gets rid of the overwhelm you often get with large projects that causes you to procrastinate.

Hope that helps!!

Liane

Oh – found this hilarious-yet-true procrastination flow chart…is this you? (Click to see it larger…)

Procrastination Flow Chart

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