Time Management: The Trick and the Trap || Acharya Prashant, with Delhi University (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 17.03.23, Shyamlal College, Delhi University, Greater Noida  Context: ~ How to balance between academics and extracurricular activities? ~ How extracurricular activities affect academics? ~ How can I improve my academic activities? ~ How do you manage competing deadlines?  ~ How do you limit distractions?  ~ Why do you think time management is important?  ~ How do you achieve a good work-life balance?  ~ What did a typical day at your last job look like?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Hello Sir. Sir, you have always said that having a rich overall personality is very

00:11important and therefore you lay stress on the importance of extracurricular activities

00:17in schools and colleges. But as a student, my problem is that I don't find time for

00:24extracurricular activities. And in fact, I see that as a general problem for a lot of

00:30people in campus. We don't have enough time to engage ourselves in extracurricular activities

00:37and therefore student participation is not that great. Students are not participating

00:45be it in sports or in dramatics or any other forms of extracurricular activities. What

00:54I experience is that there is a huge time pressure on us and I just don't find time

01:01for everything. So, Sir, please say something. This surprises me. I used to think that schools

01:10and colleges now are focusing much more on their extracurriculars than used to happen

01:17in my time. I am surprised by this question because the funds now are bigger, the campuses

01:32have more amenities. How is it that extracurriculars are not being promoted? Because, you see,

01:47if I look at when I was in college, the late 90s, it would have been very difficult to

01:57find a squash court outside the IT campus. One would need to travel 5, 10, 15, I don't

02:04know how much, maybe 20 kilometers. A swimming pool again, not something you could very commonly

02:12find even in the capital of India. And even if there were pools, they were not necessarily

02:19accessible to students. Even if they were accessible, they were not necessarily affordable.

02:26So, things have changed. You have better libraries, more amenities, there are clubs, there is

02:36so much. And if you are not making use of that, I suppose that would be because of priorities

02:49that you are setting, not because of the availability of resources. Priorities then depend so much

03:01on you. My bat strength was 350. Out of these 350, I suppose 325 would have never stepped

03:19on the tennis court even once in those 4 years of B.Tech. That's a choice that you

03:30make. The court is there, it's available. You don't want to step on the court, that's

03:34a choice that you make. The pool is there, the swimming pool is there. 300 out of 350

03:40students never went to the pool. The Dramatics Club was there, elocution or debating, extemporary

03:50or poetry, composition, recitation, photography club, dance, music, creative writing. But

04:04most students simply didn't participate. Now whether you participate or not depends

04:11on your zeal towards life. Because obviously it takes a lot. You have your regular load

04:17of academics and then after that you have to invest yourself in something else, be it

04:25sports or dance, dramatics or some tech hobby. It requires a more careful and disciplined

04:38organization of your time. And if you are allowing let's say 2 or 3 hours of the day

04:48to be taken away by social media. You go to bed at 11 in the night and then you finally

05:00fall asleep only at 1.30 am. We usually don't account for that time. We say, I had gone

05:09to bed. The fact is you were awake. You were awake and conscious and those 2.5 hours have

05:18been deeply wasted. It's a huge waste. And then we say we don't have time for extracurriculars.

05:32You look at the number of views and likes etc. that a usual Instagram reel or YouTube

05:40short has. Huge millions, not small millions. Sometimes the number of likes itself is in

05:51millions. And it's the young people who are watching those things. That time obviously

05:58should have been rightfully spent in doing something better. So if you say you have shortage

06:07of time, is that real? Really you are short of time? If you are short of time, who is

06:17watching all those reels and pushing the like button? Who is doing all that? You do that,

06:27right? Look at all the trash influencers and 50 million followers, 80 million followers.

06:40Who's following them? And following somebody has costs and repercussions, right? Could

06:51you have not better spent that time on the tennis court or the swimming pool or in the

06:56library or on the dance floor? I'm asking you. And think of the cumulative time you

07:06accord to all the wasteful portfolios. First of all, you don't have too much time. 10 hours

07:17you spend in the necessary biological activities of the day, sleeping, hygiene, food, at least 10

07:28hours goes towards that. And you cannot cut down on that, right? Food you have to take, bath you

07:33have to take, sleep you have to take. Correct? So 10 hours goes towards that. In fact, more than 10

07:39hours sometimes, that much goes towards that. One or two hours go towards commuting, in many

07:49cases, sometimes to workplace, sometimes to college, all the different kinds of commutes.

07:56What are you left with? 12 hours? Of that 12 hours, you spend, let's say, 6 to 8 hours in

08:11your classroom. Is that so? And if we include the time between the classes, that often happens,

08:22not all classes just abut each other. Sometimes you will have something from 9 to 10 am and then

08:31the next one is at 12 noon. So 2 hours you have to simply sit in the cafeteria and while away.

08:37Does that happen? So effectively you are left with just 2 hours or 3 hours for self-development,

08:45for your reading, for your internal growth, for your exploration or for just your solitary

08:57silence. When you can just be with, let's say, a tree and be with yourself. All that you are

09:11left with is just 2 or 3 hours. Now out of these 2 or 3 hours, if you devote 2 hours to Instagram,

09:18what are you left with? You are left with nothing. Those 2 or 3 hours was all that you had and

09:27approximately everything from there has been just wasted or looted away. But we don't look

09:43at it like that. We say, oh, I gave it only 2 hours out of my 24 hours. You didn't give it 2

09:50hours out of 24 hours. You gave it 2 hours out of the only 2 hours that you had. So you gave it 2

09:57out of 2 hours. Now what are you left with? Not only have you wasted time, you also have

10:05accumulated some filth here. And then it feels as if we genuinely are victims of time pressure.

10:17It does feel. You talk to anybody and he would sincerely say, you know, I'm short of time. I

10:24want to do a lot of good things in life. But I feel short of time. Here is my reading list. These

10:29are the books I want to really finish off this year, 2023. And it's already March and I have

10:39not even finished one of these, let's say, 10 books. Where is the time? These are the places

10:46that I want to visit as a young person. I never find the time to go there. I want to hit the gym.

10:58I mean, yes, joined there and deposited the fee and the membership was for 6 months. And all I

11:08did was 6 days. And even the membership has gone waste. That happens, right? There is no time. The

11:19fact is that there is time. So remember this very clearly. Time management is actually value

11:28management. If you know the value of something, you will give time to it. If you find you're not

11:38giving time to something, that simply means that you are according a higher value to something

11:44else. When you accord a higher value to something else, then obviously your time will flow towards

11:53that thing. Your time is where your value is. You understand value? The importance you give to

12:00something. And it's a very definite thing. The more important you really consider something,

12:07the more time will flow towards it, whether you plan it or not, whether you want it or not,

12:12it will just happen. So if you're not able to give time to something, let's say to the library

12:20or to the swimming pool, that simply means that you do not consider them important. Maybe you are

12:27paying some lift service. Formally, orally, you are declaring, oh I find the library very important.

12:36Oh I wanted to learn the flute this year. That's just a superficial declaration. Internally,

12:45you love some vulgar reel much more than the flute. And that's why you would spend time on

12:57that little video or the long video, whatever it is, I don't know, rather than the flute.

13:02Would you remember this? Time follows your values. So if you're not giving time to something,

13:17it directly means you're not giving value to that thing. And if you are giving time to something,

13:25that means, now you may keep cursing that thing. You may keep saying, oh, it's such a wasteful

13:31thing. I didn't want to, but somehow, accidentally, mistakenly, I ended up giving time to it. I never

13:37wanted to. You're lying. The thing is, you really do give a lot of importance to that thing and

13:45that's the only reason why you gave so much time to it. Your time profile is a clear representation

13:56of your mental profile, your value profile. If you want to know who you are, that's an experiment

14:05I used to do with my students many years back. I would say just write down where your typical day

14:12goes. Show me the time distribution. And that time distribution will tell you who you are. You are

14:19where you are spending your time. That's your identity. That's your name. That's your personality.

14:26If you want to know who a person is, just see where he or she spends his time. If you want to

14:35know who you are, just see where you are spending your time and that will very clearly tell you who

14:40you are. Beyond your words, beyond your declarations, beyond your intentions, beyond your presumptions,

14:49and pretensions, that will show you the mirror. Just see where your time goes.

15:08Do that objectively. Because if you will just think, you will say, no, no, no, I don't waste

15:12my time. Write it down. 8.30 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. This is what I really did. You will be surprised

15:19at the kind of time that is available to you, but is wasted, frittered away. You will be surprised.

15:26You will say, but the productive time in the entire 24-day cycle is just two hours. Though

15:36I feel occupied the entire day. No, feeling is such a deception. You will continue to feel busy

15:45and occupied, whereas the fact is that you have just wasted your time. And when somebody will

15:50come to talk sense to you or to scold you a little, you will feel victimized. You will see,

16:03all the day I have been doing constructive work. All the day I have been so busy. Look how tired I

16:08am. Even this little thumb is paining. Why is the thumb really paining? Every single muscle in the

16:21body is paining, especially this thumb. And this fellow is accusing me of wasting my time. That

16:29feeling will definitely arise. Never live by your feelings. That's one mark of a wise human being.

16:37He or she learns to dissociate himself, herself from the feelings. That does not mean that you

16:48have to trample or destroy your feelings. No. That simply means that you have to know the truth of

16:56your feelings. Feelings deceive. Feelings can come from anywhere. Be objective. Want to know

17:06yourself? Make a proper table. Make a proper table for, let's say, 10-15 consecutive days. And then

17:16you will be ashamed at the kind of wastage you are inflicting on yourself. You will say, my God,

17:23this is what I am doing to my life. Only 2 hours of productive thing any day. And the rest of it,

17:30can't even say where that flies away. I am just wasting it all. Try that. Would you? Make a proper

17:45table of where your time is really going. And don't lie. Don't lie at least not to yourself.

17:54Sometimes it's okay to lie to others. But it's never never okay to lie to yourself.

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