Miami Dade College

1
Psychology of Personal EffectivenessAll You Need
To Know About How To Live Happily
EffectivelyTimothy W. Starkey, Ph.D., ABAP
Chapter 7 Manage Yourself in Time

• Miami Dade College
• Psy CLP1006
• Hialeah Campus
• Room 1217
• M/W
• 400-530 PM
• Oct 1 - Dec 19 (2007)
• 305-279-0758 (Home)
• or
• 305-338-1615 (Cell)
• Hours 300 to 400 PM
• M/W (Per Request)

2

• When we think about effective people, what
  typically comes to mind are people who are very
  productive, who not only do most things
  competently, but who do them in a timely manner.
• Effective people are typically well organized,
  and have learned to juggle a lot of
  responsibilities at the same time, while still
  finding time for rest, sleep, relaxation, and
  personal relationships.
• Success in our current world usually requires
  (1) an ability to see the big picture and (2)
  the ability to follow-up with a sustained focus
  on the critical details for getting it done.
• What enables effective individuals to develop
  and maintain competence and maximize their
  chances for success is that they have learned how
  to separate what is important from what is
  unimportant in their lives, and then to use their
  time wisely.

3
Eight Strategies for Success

• Focus first on high priority items (the 80/20
  rule)
• Group related tasks and do them together (e.g. if
  you have 3 errands to run in a day, its better
  to do them all in one trip than to make 3
  separate trips to do them)
• Get organized (make lists, create a realistic
  schedule and follow it, get rid of unnecessary
  papers)
• Break the job down into doable chunks
• Develop and use timetables
• 6. Focus on one thing at a time (dont let
  yourself be thinking or worrying about several
  different things at the same time)
• Finish it fully
• 8. Do it when you think of it (dont let yourself
  procrastinate)

4
Common Sense Time-Wasters

• There are probably more different ways to waste
  time that there are grains of sand in the world.
  As long as people have anything that they have
  to do (and dont want to), there will be an
  endless supply of ways to waste time.
• How many of you have actually started on your
  term paper yet?
• What are some of your favorite ways to waste time
  or procrastinate?
• Our textbook has identified some of the most
  common ways that people (e.g. students) waste
  their time (and put off getting started)
• Slow decision-making they spend so much time
  going back and forth trying to make a decision
  that there isnt enough time left to actually
  carry out the decision they ended up making.
• Worrying worrying in itself is neither a
  productive nor a rewarding use of your time.
  Worrying never gets the job done it just tires
  you out.

5

• 3. Trying To Do Everything Perfectly (The First
  Time) set your sights on just doing a good job,
  not a perfect job. Perfect is the enemy of
  good.
• Working Against Your Body Rhythms learn to
  respect the messages your body is giving you. If
  youre naturally wide awake at night, but sleepy
  in the mornings, get your stuff done at night
  before you go to bed. Dont try to get up at 500
  AM and do the studying that you didnt do the
  night before. And if youre a morning person,
  dont try to study until 400 AM because your
  efficiency is going to be too low at that time
  (if youre used to going to bed a lot earlier).
  Make your study/work habits conform to your
  natural body cycles not the other way around.
• Failing to Recharge Your Batteries Effective
  people work hard, play hard, and know when to
  relax. Rest and relaxation are essential to
  keeping your energy level up so you can be more
  effective.
• Feeling That You Are Responsible For Everything
  Is your personal motto if you want it done
  right, do it yourself? If so, youre bogging
  yourself down with insignificant tasks that you
  could delegate to others.

6

• Getting Stuck Waiting one of the worst wasters
  of your time is having to wait for other people
  to do what theyre supposed to to (e.g. members
  of your team for a group paper dont get their
  part done soon enough for you to do your part,
  waiting for the doctor and hes 2 hours late,
  being stuck in traffic). Pick your team members
  well, dont join a team that has some heavy-duty
  procrastinators on it (who may be counting on you
  to write the whole paper for them), call the
  doctors office ahead of time to see if hes on
  schedule, take a book you have to read with you
  when the wait is unavoidable, do your shopping
  when the stores are empty.
• Starting Your Day Off On The Wrong Foot how you
  begin your morning sets the tone for the rest of
  your day. If your mornings typically are spent in
  chaos, full of last minute rushing, stress, and
  aggravation, it takes a good deal of energy to
  put this behind you. Streamlining and
  de-stressing your mornings can only add to your
  effectiveness and your productivity. Organize for
  your mornings the night before check out the
  clothing youre going to wear, make sure the
  right books iPod are ready to go, make sure the
  car has plenty of gas, eat something for
  breakfast (even if its just a candy bar),
  organize whatever morning chores you have to do
  before leaving, get up early enough so youre not
  rushed if something goes wrong

7
(No Transcript)
8
Six Steps To Overcoming Procrastination

• The Bits and Pieces Approach break the task
  down into smaller pieces and tackle one small
  piece to get you started and give you some
  momentum to do the rest of it. Looked at as a
  whole, the task can seem overwhelming.
• Get Organized make things to do lists, create
  a realistic schedule, do it when you think of it,
  make sure your work environment is comfortable
  and conducive to concentration, block off escape
  routes (turn off the TV and the cell phone,
  unplug the ear plug from your iPod)
• The Five Minute Method pick the part of the
  task you hate the most and work on it for just
  five minutes. After 5 minutes, stop, congratulate
  yourself, and ask yourself whether youre willing
  to give it another 5 minutes. If not, work on
  some other part of the task for a while.
• Dont Wait For Inspiration (or Divine
  Intervention) Genius is 1 inspiration and 99
  perspiration just go ahead and start even if
  youre clueless about what youre doing the idea
  is likely to come to you while youre preoccupied
  with actually doing it.

9

• Reward Yourself give yourself a little treat
  whenever you finish a part of the task,
  particularly if its a particularly unpleasant
  one.
• Viewing Mistakes As Valuable Feedback sometimes
  we procrastinate because were afraid of making
  mistakes. But by procrastinating, youre leaving
  yourself even less time to do the task, and hence
  will be even more likely to make mistakes.
  Actually, in many subjects (e.g. higher
  mathematics) you learn more by making mistakes
  than by not making them. Mistakes should be seen
  as valuable feedback about an error in thinking
  or execution and studying them can be invaluable
  for avoiding them in the future.

10
Test Anxiety

• There is an optimum amount of anxiety to have
  before an exam like Goldilocks soup, it
  shouldnt be too much or too little.
• If you suffer from chronic high test anxiety,
  there are a number of things you can do to reduce
  it anticipatory anxiety and during-the-test
  anxiety
• The goal is not to try to get completely free of
  anxiety (thats impossible, except in the case of
  sudden death) the goal is to get your anxiety
  level down to a mild to moderate level that will
  enhance your performance (e.g. increase
  concentration).
• Before the test, practice active relaxation, use
  cognitive restructuring, and visualize success.
• Get a good nights sleep before the exam.
• DONT mill around with other students before the
  test begins. This will only increase your anxiety
  level.

11
Testwiseness

• Information in earlier or later questions can tip
  you off to the right answer.
• Alternatives that are highly implausible are
  likely to be wrong.
• If two answers are equivalent or basically the
  same, then both are wrong (cant both be right if
  theres only one right answer).
• Correct answers are more likely to be more
  detailed, longer, and specific.
• 5. Beware of the all-inclusive words. Wrong
  answers are much more likely to include words
  like always, never, every time etc.
• Look for the greatest similarity in terminology
  between the question and the answers. The answer
  most similar to the question is more likely to be
  right.
• Be aware of grammatical inconsistencies between
  questions and answers (e.g. changes in verb
  tense, singular or plural nouns). Exclude answers
  that would be grammatically incorrect.

12

• 8. When questions have alternate answers that
  include dates or numbers that are ordered, avoid
  picking the first or the last. The correct answer
  is usually somewhere in the middle between the
  two extremes.
• 9. If you have no idea as to the correct answer,
  and there are no hidden clues anywhere in the
  question, select option C. For some reason, Profs
  seem to favor the third position for the correct
  answer.
• 10. Dont be afraid to change your answer. Its a
  myth that your first guess has the greatest
  chance of being right. Several studies have shown
  that regarding answer changes during tests,
  wrong-to-right changes outnumber right-to-wrong
  changes.

13
End of Chapter 7