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

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  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 the extracurriculars than used to happen in

01:18my 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 IIT campus. One would need to travel 5, 10, 15, I don't know how

02:05much, maybe 20 kilometers. A swimming pool again, not something you could very commonly find even

02:14in the capital of India. And even if there were pools, they are not necessarily accessible to

02:20students. Even if they were accessible, they were not necessarily affordable. Things have

02:27changed. You have better libraries, more amenities, there are clubs, there is just so much. And if

02:38you are not making use of that, I suppose that would be because of priorities that you are

02:50setting, not because of the availability of resources. Priorities then depend so much on you.

03:02My bat strength was 350. Out of these 350, I suppose 325 would have never stepped on the

03:19tennis court even once in those four years of B.Tech. That's a choice that you make. The court

03:31is there, it's available. You don't want to step on the court, that's a choice that you make. The

03:37pool is there, the swimming pool is there. 300 out of 350 students never went to the pool. The

03:44Dramatics Club was there, elocution or debating, extemporary or poetry, composition, recitation,

03:53photography club, dance, music, creative writing. But most students simply didn't participate. Now

04:09whether you participate or not depends on your zeal towards life. Because obviously it takes a

04:15lot. You have your regular load of academics and then after that you have to invest yourself in

04:22something else, be it sports or dance, dramatics or some tech hobby. It requires a more careful

04:37and disciplined organization of your time. And if you are allowing let's say two or three hours

04:44of the day to be taken away by the social media, you go to bed at 11 in the night and then you

04:59finally fall 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 two and a half

05:17hours have been deeply wasted. It's a huge waste. And then we say we don't have time for

05:29extracurriculars. You look at the number of views and likes etc. that a usual Instagram reel or

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 at time obviously should

05:59have been rightfully spent in doing something better. So if you say you have a shortage of

06:07time, is that real? Really a short of time? If you're short of time, who is watching all those

06:18reels and pushing the like button? Who's doing all that? You do that, right? Look at all the

06:31trash influencers and 50 million followers, 80 million followers. Who's following them?

06:41And following somebody has costs and repercussions, right? Could you have not better spent that time

06:53on the tennis court or the swimming pool or in the library or on the dance floor? I'm asking you.

07:00And think of the cumulative time you accord to all the wasteful portfolios. First of all,

07:12you don't have too much time. 10 hours you spend in the necessary biological activities of the day,

07:22sleeping, hygiene, food. At least 10 hours goes towards that and you cannot cut down on that,

07:31right? Food you have to take, bath you have to take, sleep you have to take. Correct? So 10

07:38hours goes towards that. In fact, more than 10 hours sometimes. That much goes towards that.

07:42One or two hours go towards commuting in many cases, sometimes to workplace, sometimes to

07:52college, all the different kinds of commutes. What are you left with? What are you left with?

08:0412 hours? Of that 12 hours, you spend, let's say, 6 to 8 hours in your classroom. Is that so? And

08:15if we include the time between the classes, that often happens, right? Not all classes just abut

08:26each other. Sometimes you will have something from 9 to 10 a.m. and then the next one is at

08:3312 noon. So 2 hours you have to simply sit in the cafeteria and while away. Does that happen?

08:38So effectively you are left with just 2 hours or 3 hours for self-development, for your reading,

08:47for your internal growth, for your exploration or for just your solitary silence when you can

09:00just be with, let's say, a tree and be with yourself. All that you are left with is just

09:122 or 3 hours. Now out of these 2 or 3 hours, if you devote 2 hours to Instagram, what are you

09:19left with? You are left with nothing. Those 2 or 3 hours was all that you had and approximately

09:30everything from there has been just wasted or looted away. But we don't look at it like that.

09:44We say, oh, I gave it only 2 hours out of my 24 hours. You didn't give it 2 hours out of 24 hours.

09:51You gave it 2 hours out of the only 2 hours that you had. So you gave it 2 out of 2 hours. Now

09:59what are you left with? Not only have you wasted time, you also have accumulated some filth here.

10:07And then it feels as if we genuinely are victims of time pressure. It does feel. You talk to anybody

10:21and you would sincerely say, you know, I'm short of time. I want to do a lot of good things in life,

10:26but I feel short of time. Here is my reading list. These are the books I want to really finish off

10:33this year, 2023. And it's already March and I have not even finished one of these, let's say,

10:4110 books. Where is the time? These are the places that I want to visit as a young person. I never

10:52find the time to go there. I want to hit the gym. I mean, yes, joined there and deposited the fee

11:03and the membership was for 6 months. And all I did was 6 days. And even the membership has gone

11:13waste. That happens, right? There is no time. The fact is that there is time. So remember this

11:24very clearly. Time management is actually value management. If you know the value of something,

11:33you will give time to it. If you find you're not giving time to something, that simply means that

11:41you are according a higher value to something else. When you accord a higher value to something

11:49else, then obviously your time will flow towards that thing. Your time is where your value is.

11:57You understand value? The importance you give to something. And it's a very definite thing.

12:04The more important you really consider something, the more time will flow towards it,

12:09whether you plan it or not, whether you want it or not, it will just happen.

12:16So if you're not able to give time to something, let's say to the library or to the swimming pool,

12:21that simply means that you do not consider them important. Maybe you are paying some lift service.

12:31Formally, 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.

12:44Internally, you love some vulgar reel much more than the flute.

12:55And that's why you would spend time on that little video or the long video, whatever it is,

13:02rather than the flute.

13:06Would you remember this? Time follows your values. So if you're not giving

13:16time to something, it directly means you're not giving value to that thing.

13:23And if you are giving time to something, that means now you may keep cursing that thing. You

13:29may keep saying, oh, it's such a wasteful thing. I didn't want to but somehow accidentally,

13:34mistakenly, I ended up giving time to it. I never wanted to. You are lying.

13:40The thing is, you really do give a lot of importance to that thing. And that's

13:46the only reason why you gave so much time to it.

13:52Your time profile is a clear representation of your mental profile, your value profile.

14:00If you want to know who you are, that's an experiment I used to do with my students

14:05many years back. I would say just write down where your typical day goes. Show me the time

14:11distribution. And that time distribution will tell you who you are. You are where you are

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

14:23That's your identity. That's your name. That's your personality.

14:27If you want to know who a person is, just see where he or she spends his time.

14:35If you want to know who you are, just see where you are spending your time.

14:38And that will very clearly tell you who you are. Beyond your words, beyond your declarations,

14:44beyond your intentions, beyond your presumptions and pretensions,

14:54that 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 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.

15:29You will say, but the productive time in the entire 24-day cycle is just two hours.

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

15:44to feel busy and occupied, whereas the fact is that you have just wasted your time.

15:49And when somebody will come to talk sense to you or to scold you a little, you will feel

15:58victimized. You will say, all the day I have been doing constructive work. All the day I have been

16:07so busy. Look how tired I am. Even this little thumb is paining. Why is the thumb really paining?

16:19Every single muscle in the body is paining, especially this thumb.

16:23And this fellow is accusing me of wasting my time. That feeling will definitely arise.

16:30Never live by your feelings. That's one mark of a wise human being. He or she learns to dissociate

16:42himself or herself from the feelings. That does not mean that you have to trample or destroy

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

16:58Feelings deceive. Feelings can come from anywhere. Be objective. Want to know yourself?

17:07Make a proper table. Make a proper table for, let's say, 10-15 consecutive days.

17:15And then you will be ashamed at the kind of wastage you are inflicting on yourself.

17:21You will say, my God, this is what I'm doing to my life.

17:25Only two hours of productive thing any day. And the rest of it,

17:32can't even see where that flies away. I'm just wasting it all.

17:37Try that. Would you? Make a proper table of where your time is really going. And don't lie.

17:46Don't lie, at least not to yourself. Sometimes it's okay to lie to others,

17:52but it's never, never okay to lie to yourself.

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