Randolph Pausch is a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was famous for giving a lecture called “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. The lectures brought many shapes of emotion, both laughs and tears. Later, his lecture was published into a book with the same title, which became an international best-seller with many translated versions in various languages. Even though he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he still remained optimistic in his capacity and spread positivity to the community.
Five things I like about his lecture on Time Management
1. I love his flow of energy, optimism, and sense of humor throughout the lecture. His story is so inspiring and gives me a lot of positive energy. Also, the lecture is much more relatable to me because professor Randy gives many examples about his family and relationship.
2. He mentions the importance of speaking straight-forward and learning to say “no”. For example, he mentioned one way of politely setting the frame before a conversation: “I only have five minutes”. By saying this way, you can have more control over the conversation and avoid spending more time than necessary.
3. His advice for managing email is very fascinating: be specific on the recipient, their tasks, and deadlines. Missing one of these elements can make involved members confuse and decrease the productivity of teamwork. Also, two (or more) monitors is better to cope with emails, calendars, and to-do lists.
4. He gives specific advice of great timing to get work done: “right before lunch, or right before the end of the day”.
5. I like the questions he raised to set priority over the tasks. “What will happen if I don’t do it?”, “Doing things right or doing the right thing?”, “What to do next?”. And then he introduced Covey’s Four Quadrants for time management as one very useful technique to visualize and categorize tasks. Professor Pausch also adds that showing your gratitude and writing thank-you note should always be prioritized.