According to Gayle MacDonald, assistant vice president of research, the main problem with society is how fast it is.
“The world is sped up in increasing, alarming levels of speed. And yet, our physical abilities are the same. We can’t run any faster, walk any faster, but nonetheless, we’re marathoners,” she said.
“Our ability has not increased with the expectation that we can do everything faster.”
MacDonald hosted a “Lunch and Learn” on time management last week. Around 10 people came, all with different distractions and different reasons why they have difficulties with managing time.
“[You need to] know how to spend your time,” said MacDonald.
“Think of your time as a budget, you don’t spend it all at once.”
She recommends creating a schedule, including everything that you do during a day. That means school, work, volunteer time, exercise, food and, yes, downtime.
“What you need to do is schedule in cell phone, Twitter and Facebook time. Half an hour, whatever you need to do on Twitter, Facebook and then say, ‘I’m going offline now, don’t bother me until…’ your next scheduled time.”
She calls distractions like this “cookies.” Ones that are in another room that you really want to eat.
“So, eat the cookie. Just don’t eat the whole jar and don’t spend the whole afternoon eating the cookie.”
Furthermore, she says there is only so much time in the day. So, there is only so much that you can do.
“If you say yes to something, take something off of your calendar. This is something that’s very, very hard.”
As part of Wellness Week there will be a workshop on dealing with exams and stress. It will be on Feb. 22 from 2:30 to 3:30 in ECH room 120.
