Time management is a funny thing. We pay people to teach it to us, we buy books written by men with mullets that are supposed to help us help ourselves, we stuff our desks with calendars, day timers, planners, and palm pilots to try and help us figure out what we're doing with our lives and how we'll fit it in between lunch and that one o'clock.
It's absolutely one of the most fundamental aspects of college and life itself, but I'm curious as to whether it can truly be learned and utilized or if it's some sort of boring, socially-awkward sixth sense. I have friends who cannot for the life of them sit down and get anything done; no matter the time of day or night, how loud or quiet it is on the hall, or whether there are even people around to distract them. I was helping my friend the other night with an essay and watched him literally open the door and walk out of his dorm room at least five times while I was in the middle of discussing his writing with him. Possibly it's just a question of motivation, but I honestly believe there are those of us in life who will never fully learn to make good use of their time, no matter what they're trying to get done.
I've always been good about time management. I live out of my planner; it's simultaneously disgusting and satisfying beyond belief to see everything I write down get scribbled off in a sigh of completion. Yet, even though I never had problems managing my minutes before, I'm suddenly finding it a little difficult to get everything done efficiently in college. It should come as no surprise that, when living with a few hundred other freshman, finding time when kids aren't streaking down the halls and indulging in that "
newly liberated from home so I'm gonna cut loose, go crazy, and lose my pants" attitude that seems to grip all of us once in a while (the attitude, that is, not the streaking...).
Even once inside my nice, quiet dorm room, I'm starting to regret my roommate's decision to buy a TV for several reasons. Luckily, thanks to Heroes and reality TV, I've never been a big tube fan, never had that weird love-affair-esque attitude towards watching a certain show, never cried because so-and-so moved out and so-and-so is pregnant; unfortunately, when there is a television in the room, it seems that everyone else on my floor who does feel that passionately about watching TV is attracted to the room and therefore, distracting to me.
Ironically and hypocritically enough, as I'm writing this, I'm procrastinating on doing my homework. I guess we all have to learn sometimes...