Who is Randy Pausch?
Randy Pausch is a Carnegie Mellon University Professor who had pancreatic cancer. He is also (according to the caption), "a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's and creator of the Alice software project."
What is he known for?
Creating the Alice software, and battling pancreatic cancer while still giving lectures.
After scouring more on Google, he is also famous for "The Last Lecture", a lecture he delivered at CMU after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, which focused on overcoming obstacles.
The fact that, to him, time is a commodity as much as money is. "Time and money are equatable." We need to preserve, use, and care about time as much as we do about money. While I agree with his point, I believe time is worth much much more than money is. No amount of money could ever buy you time.
He emphasises it over and over, whether in place of work (office jobs), or, as he himself is an example of, as faculty in a university. Being successful does not mean you manage time well, but managing time will make you successful in the long run; whether the definition of success is career-focused or 'maximising fun'.
The fluidity of life does not correlate with the inability to plan anything. We should plan when we can. Having a plan sets us in the right direction, even if we need to change it along the way. Having one and changing it is better than having absolutely no plan at all. I connect with that, since, in my life, I usually have to have something planned. Spontaneousness isn't for me.
Although it is not particularly his idea, I will implement it into my life. Nowadays, I cannot tell which tasks in my 'to do list' should have the most priority. The way the four quadrants are arranged would help me with planning much more than a simple to do list. For instance, it will help me distinguish important from unimportant, and when stuff is due (whether soon or not).
Pointing out that we sometimes rationalize procrastination, even when we should not. In his words, "procrastinating is expensive." We stress ourselves out even more when we do tasks closer to their deadlines. We should face the psychological reasoning behind the procrastination. Sometimes, "you just have to ask".