Judging from the amount of email I received, TIS readers were greatly impacted by the last post I wrote about Professor Randy Pausch, the virtual reality/comp-sci prof from Carnegie Mellon whose “last lecture” was uploaded to the interwebs and became an overnight mega-monster hit. I got more email about that post than any other item before or since, except for Jayci Yaeger. (You guys really respond to people in crisis, don’t you? Hey, it’s part of why I love you all.)
But it might interest you to know that Randy’s now-famous last lecture isn’t actually his personal favorite. That honor goes to this lecture on “time management” (which I have to put in quotes because the lecture really would be better described by the somewhat more unwieldy phrase “deciding what’s worth the investment of your precious and finite time”).
Download Professor Randy Pausch’s Time Management 2007 slides (PDF); not all of the slides are adequately visible through the video itself but they do add considerable value to Randy’s entertaining comments. (Warning: big file.)
What are the lessons for solos? Here are the major ones I gleaned — share your favorites in the comments below:
- No meetings without agendas — I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I wasted as a government lawyer in endless stupid meetings, with no purpose for my presence other than “we always have a lawyer here…” This rule would have saved me at least half those hours.
- Design your desk space carefully — and always go for the extra monitor. This one I already practice but it bears repeating.
- Remember WHY time management is important. Here’s a hint: it’s not so you can be even busier or get even more clients.
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