How Did You Get Interested In Time Managment?

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Bruce Keener

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I read Cheaper by the Dozen (Perennial Classics), a book about an efficiency expert father and his family of 12. That was probably the start of my developing an intense interest in efficiency, productivity, and time management.

I became obsessed with figuring out how to do more than one thing at a time, no matter what the situation was. It did not take long for this to become internalized within me: it became a part of who I am.

When it came time for me to decide whether to go to college and what sort of major to have, I thought about becoming an industrial engineer. I was torn between this and going to business school. Testing showed that I would probably do best with chemistry, but I finally decided to go with electrical engineering. I cannot recall all of my reasoning but I suspect EE’s were the best paid of the choices back then. Anyway, industrial engineering, with its focus on efficiency, was high on my list of want-to’s, but EE suited my love of money more.

A while back, I pointed you to a brief video by Randy Pausch, a Computer Science Professor who has captured the interest of millions as he faces death from pancreatic cancer. I recently came across a time management lecture he gave in 1998. The video conveyed his deep interest in time management and efficiency, and made me wonder if “we engineering types” are just naturally prone to that sort of thinking. But, then remembered that I know some engineers who are so cluttered and disorganized that they could not find their own butts with both hands and a map.

Pausch’s video did cause me to me wonder, though, “what is it that makes people get interested in efficiency and time management (whether they are engineers or not)?”

So, I am curious. How did you come to have an interest in this subject? Has it been a life-long interest, or one born of necessity as a matter of trying to survive in a busy world?

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  • capo

    I’m a creative type, not terribly well suited to engineering pursuits. Maybe that’s why my interest in time management is a recent development, somewhat tepid and born of necessity. In my case, it was a matter of regaining consciousness one day and realizing time is slipping away and all it seems I do is work and go home to eat and sleep so I can get up and work again the next day. I figured I’d better find a way to better use my time, talents and treasure to accomplish something a little more meaningful.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce

    I’m probably the odd man out, having had an interest in time management almost all of my life.

    Your writing is excellent, capo. I like the phrase “regaining consciousness one day and realizing time is slipping away.”

  • twm

    My interest in Time Management originated from my organizational skills. When I was in 5th grade, I started camping. As I got older I also got into backpacking. Most of the trips were 4 – 5 days in the middle of the most remote wilderness in Northern MN. It didn’t take long to realize the importance of organization. #1 – I didn’t want to run out of food #2- I didn’t want to go without something critical for 5 days #3 – I had to carry everything so weight was important. Over time I had three master lists. One list was for remote canoe trips, another one was backpacking, and the third was winter camping. All of these lists were carefully optimized and scrutinized.

    Later, (high school / college) I started organizing my time.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce

    @twm : Neat!

    I’ve frozen my tailfeathers off a few times in MN, so I can understand how spending days in the wilderness there would condition you to making sure you had good lists.