On Randy Pausch and His Lecture on Time Management
August 4, 2022
Who is Randy Pausch?
“Randolph Frederick Pausch was an American educator, a professor of computer science,
human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania” (Wikipedia, n.d). More than that, he was a husband, father of three and
greatly respected by his peers and students. On September 2006, Randy Pausch was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer and on August 2007, he was told he had “three to six months of good
health left”. He went on to live for 11 more months and during that time gave his popular
“Last Lecture”. On July 25, 2008, Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer at his
family’s home at the age of 47.
What was he known for?
On September 18, 2007, Pausch presented his “Last Lecture”, titled “Really Achieving Your
Childhood Dreams” at Carnegie Mellon University. The lecture was recorded and posted on
YouTube where it quickly gained popularity, being viewed by millions of people. On October
30, 2009, to honor Pausch’s legacy, a pedestrian bridge that connects the Gates Computer
Science building and the Purnell Center for the Art at CMU was named after him.
Things I liked
A positive attitude even in the face of death. He seemed to accept that his disease was
out of his control and that instead of wallowing in misery or spending his last days in
comfort he decided that he was going to make the best of what time he has left.
He mentions not being as smart as the University of Virginia and CMU staff, but he was
able to be just as successful because he has other skills that helped him get on the same
level. Hence, this talk is for everyone, you don’t need to be a genius to manage your
time.
80% of outcomes come form 20% of causes, the 80-20 rule. Often, I find myself wasting
time trying to perfect something, like spending unnecessary hours on a single homework
or on making this website just to maybe get an extra 1 or 2 points when I have a dozen
other homework to do. In his own words, “Recognize that most things are pass-fail”, if
it’s good enough, it’s good enough.
He mentioned office workers waste two hours a day because they’re unorganized. Cluttered
desks so they can’t find what they’re looking for, no to do lists or calendar so they
have to waste time thinking about what they need to do. I think one of the biggest
factors of why people are hesitant to get organized is that it takes time to be organized.
Setting up to do-lists, organizing documents alphabetically, cleaning up your desk space,
etc. It’s not that they don’t have the time to get organized, they’d just rather spend
that time doing their tasks. He said time is money and you should spend time like you
spend money. Getting organized is an investment, spend some now so that later you receive
a greater return.
I never liked that the email inbox listed already read emails and I never realized that
I should just archive them. A small thing but a big effect seeing that inbox empty.
It’s almost the same feeling you get when seeing that your to-do list empty.
Some quotes/paraphrases from the talk:
“You do not find time for important things, you make it, and you make time by electing
not to do something else”
We don’t usually procrastinate because we’re lazy. People rationalize their
procrastination.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask, and it’s that easy.