A new perspective on procrastination!

Time management is the subject everyone has started hearing about at a very early stage, probably right after preschool. Its importance cannot be emphasized enough, and yet we only notice that maybe a little bit too late. Even though the saying goes by it’s never too late, it’s safe to say that realizing the importance of a subject while people around you are still willing to give some advice and assistance is very much more helpful than realizing its importance when you have to learn about it all by yourself.

It may not come as a surprise that the day is divided into 24 hours. This only becomes a problem when the things you need to get done require much more than 24 hours; hence sleep becomes a problem and procrastination a crisis. Now of course, every problem comes with a solution, and we’re going to be talking about the latter first. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, procrastination is: putting off intentionally the doing of something that should be done. The two main keywords in the definition are ‘intentionally’ and ‘should be done’. Being time efficient begins by identifying what has to be done and wasting no time doing it. The first step into time efficiency is in knowing what should be done. Not working according to a schedule and according to a set number of tasks, even if it’s not written down, is not working at all. How can you possibly reach a destination without pinning it down first? The process of knowing what should be done is not merely as important as doing it. There’s a famous Arabic saying that goes by: don’t postpone today’s work on tomorrow, for tomorrow brings with it its own work. The same goes for the hour; don’t postpone this hours work on the next… you get the point.

The most important aspect of time management in my opinion is sleep management. It cannot be emphasized enough how big of an impact a sleep schedule might have on your effectiveness at work. Regardless of which schedule goes well with your body and brain synchronization, it is advised to stay away from the “your body needs eight hours of sleep every night” vision. Though sleep is essential for brain development and the learning process, great accomplishments never happened in a bedroom.

 

 

Be a Sponge!

Start by looking backwards. Now look forward. Do you spot anything? Do you see a pattern? Perhaps you don’t. Don’t worry,  most people between 18 and 25 have the same result, nothing.

So who are you? Are you a student that just graduated from high school? Are you ready to experience the famed university life style? Oh no, your a junior and your circle of friends just shrunk. You could also be that recent graduate with a bachelor degree. In every second of every moment that just passed you are wondering the same thing. What now?

Students are expected to graduate the same way babies are expected to cry at birth. When you first graduate with your bachelor degree, they’ll throw you a party with endless congratulations as if you won the lottery. Fail in courses, skip semesters, or earn below average results, they’ll start looking at you as a failure. It’s funny how there is no middle ground here! In the eyes of family and friends, their behaviour is merely them setting you in the right path trying to encourage you & set a motivational path along the rest of your journey. By then, you would be thinking that you’re going to become the next bill gates, or startup the next Google. Unfortunately, you are falling victim to the survivorship bias, you tend to overestimate yourself. That is definitely okay. We tend to overestimate what we can do in a year & underestimate what we can do in 10 years.

Nobody is interested in failures since people like to shed light on the superstars, the people who made it. But what about the other millions who try their best but fail for a certain reason, where are they now?

Nobody cares about failures, nobody cares about our fellows at the cemeteries, such as no one will care about you if you don’t find a way to continuously “add value” and develop “irreplaceable skills”. You graduated, and you think you’re going to conquer the world; chances are you’ll likely hit countless roadblocks.

Now, this is not made to de-motivate anybody, but simply to reflect on what the rational unbiased outsider look is without succumbing to this illusion. Unfortunately, people between the age of 18 to 25 expect that everything is going to fall into place smoothly, they tend to inflate the ease of their forecasted near future. Whether it is finding the right job that keeps them sharp and motivated, or knowing what major they should go for. It is good to simplify this idea in our mind, it makes us feel better.

Given the competitive world we live in now, it is vital to find a reason why you are better than your classmate sitting next to you. Be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as possible, to jump ahead of your age and beat the competition, this is how you can measure your success. What kind of value are you adding?

Refer to the statement at the beginning of this article. Looking backwards, you should see a downhill, representing how your journey is leading upwards as you add more value and build skills. Looking ahead, you should see a steep upward hill representing the rest of your journey.

Go back to the statement in the beginning. You should see that you are starting downhill gazing upward to the top of a mountain built by experiences & skills that you will gain along the way giving you more value in this fast-paced world.

Why We Did It?

 

 

Dear reader,

 

 If you are reading this, then you are most probably a lost high school student hoping to go into a meaningful business school, a current student or a recent graduate from university who has just graduated & doesn’t know whether to find a job or to continue to masters. Well you have come to the right place.