Randy Pausch Lecture Time Management

Summary

In a heartfelt lecture at the University of Virginia, the speaker, battling pancreatic cancer, emphasizes the preciousness of time and shares practical advice on time management. He discusses setting goals, avoiding time wasters, dealing with bosses, and delegating tasks, all aimed at increasing productivity and reducing stress. With a focus on leading a life filled with enjoyment and purpose, he encourages the audience to equate the value of time with money and to manage it wisely for a happier, more fulfilling life.

Takeaways

• 🏫 The speaker expresses deep appreciation for the University of Virginia and its tradition and history, particularly the honor code.
• ⏳ The speaker is battling pancreatic cancer and has been given a limited time frame of good health, which influences the context of his talk on time management.
• 🗣 The speaker emphasizes the importance of treating time as a valuable commodity, equating it to money and suggesting that people often undervalue their time.
• 💡 He encourages the audience to consider the monetary value of their time, to better understand the cost of wasting it and the benefit of saving it.
• 🎓 The speaker highlights the significance of setting goals, avoiding time wastage, dealing with a boss or adviser effectively, and delegating tasks as key aspects of time management.
• 👨‍👧‍👦 The speaker mentions his family, including his niece and nephew, who are also part of the academic community, showing the personal connection to the university and the audience.
• 📈 He discusses the importance of managing time to reduce stress and procrastination, which are common issues in life that affect productivity and happiness.
• 📝 The speaker provides specific techniques and tools for better time management, rather than just offering general advice or platitudes.
• 🌟 The talk is described as pragmatic and inspirational, aiming to give the audience actionable steps to get more done within their limited time.
• 👀 The speaker points out that Americans are particularly bad at managing time as a commodity, often neglecting its value compared to money.
• 🤔 The speaker challenges the audience to think long-term and change fundamental processes to address the systemic issue of time famine, rather than seeking quick fixes.

Q & A

What is the speaker's current health condition?

The speaker is in relatively good health, despite battling pancreatic cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.

What is the significance of the University of Virginia's honor code mentioned in the script?

The speaker admires the honor code at the University of Virginia and suggests that it should be studied by university administrators as a model for fostering integrity and trust among students.

What is the speaker's view on time management?

The speaker considers time as the only commodity that matters and emphasizes the importance of managing time effectively, especially given the speaker's own limited time due to health issues.

Why does the speaker equate time and money?

The speaker suggests that understanding the monetary value of one's time can lead to more efficient use of it, as it can help people realize the cost of wasting time in terms of potential earnings or productivity.

What is the speaker's advice for students regarding their time at the University of Virginia?

The speaker advises students to focus on the value of their time spent at the university rather than the financial cost, emphasizing that time is irreplaceable.

What is the speaker's opinion on the importance of setting goals?

The speaker believes that setting goals is crucial for effective time management and getting more done within one's finite time.

How does the speaker suggest dealing with a boss or adviser?

The speaker plans to discuss specific skills and tools for dealing with a boss or adviser, although the script does not provide detailed advice on this topic.

What is the speaker's approach to giving this lecture?

The speaker intends to give a pragmatic and inspirational lecture, focusing on concrete techniques for time management and productivity rather than general platitudes.

Why is the speaker giving this lecture despite his health condition?

The speaker is giving the lecture because he had committed to it, is physically able to do so, and because the University of Virginia is not a foreign place to him but rather a place filled with family, both metaphorically and literally.

What does the speaker mean by 'time famine'?

The speaker uses the term 'time famine' to describe the common feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it, likening it to a systemic issue that requires long-term, systemic solutions rather than quick fixes.

What is the speaker's ultimate goal for the audience in terms of time management?

The speaker's ultimate goal is to help the audience lead a happier and more fulfilling life by managing their time effectively, with a focus on maximizing fun and enjoyment in their activities.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Reflections on Time Management and Life

The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the introduction and shares his admiration for the University of Virginia's tradition and history. He highlights the honor code as a model for other institutions. The speaker then reveals his battle with pancreatic cancer, which has given him a unique perspective on time management. Despite his diagnosis, he remains in good health and continues to engage in meaningful activities, such as giving this talk. The speaker emphasizes the importance of setting goals, avoiding wasted time, and dealing with stress and procrastination, promising to share tangible advice on how to get more done within one's limited time.

05:01

💼 The Value of Time and Delegation

In this paragraph, the speaker discusses the American culture's poor handling of time as a commodity compared to money. He suggests that people should equate time and money to better manage their time. The speaker provides a practical example of how to calculate the value of one's time in terms of salary and company cost, urging the audience to consider the financial implications of their time. He also touches on the importance of delegating tasks and managing stress, offering a broader perspective on time management that extends beyond academic settings. The speaker encourages the audience to think about their time in monetary terms to make more informed decisions and to lead a more fulfilling life.

10:04

🚀 Overcoming the Time Famine and Pursuit of Happiness

The speaker introduces the concept of 'time famine' and compares it to the systemic issue of hunger in Africa, emphasizing the need for long-term solutions rather than quick fixes. He argues that time management is not just about organizing one's schedule but also about improving life quality and reducing stress. The speaker advocates for a life filled with enjoyment and fun, using his middle child Logan as an example of someone who embodies this spirit. He concludes by stating that the ultimate goal of time management should be to maximize fun and happiness, rather than merely increasing productivity.

Keywords

💡Time Management

Time management refers to the process of organizing and planning how much time to spend on each activity to make the best use of one's time. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of time management by discussing his own battle with cancer and how it has given him a unique perspective on the value of time. He uses his experience to stress the importance of not wasting time and provides practical advice on how to set goals and avoid procrastination.

💡Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a type of cancer that develops in the pancreas, a glandular organ in the abdomen that produces enzymes for digestion and hormones for regulating blood sugar. The speaker mentions his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, which has given him a limited time frame and has made him an 'authority' on what to do with limited time, thus making this keyword central to the theme of valuing and managing time effectively.

💡Honor Code

An honor code is a set of principles or rules that members of a community agree to uphold, often emphasizing trustworthiness and integrity. The speaker praises the University of Virginia's honor code as something that all university administrators should study, indicating that it represents values he admires and wishes to see preserved in society, thus tying it to the broader theme of respect and tradition.

💡Tradition

Tradition refers to beliefs, customs, and practices that are handed down from generation to generation. The speaker expresses his admiration for the University of Virginia for preserving tradition and history, which he sees as qualities worth maintaining in American society. This concept is used to set the stage for the speaker's values and the context in which he discusses time management.

💡Goals

Goals are the specific objectives or targets that a person aims to achieve. The speaker talks about setting goals as a part of effective time management, suggesting that having clear goals can help individuals avoid wasting time and achieve more within their finite time.

💡Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or actions. The speaker identifies procrastination as a real problem in life that prevents people from making the most of their time. He promises to provide concrete ways to deal with stress and procrastination during his talk.

💡Stress

Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. The speaker mentions stress as one of the issues that his talk will address, indicating that managing stress is crucial for effective time management and leading a happier life.

💡Delegation

Delegation is the act of entrusting a task or responsibility to another person. The speaker plans to discuss how to delegate tasks to others as a skill for getting more done within a limited time, suggesting that effective delegation can free up time for more important activities.

💡Pragmatic

Pragmatic refers to a practical approach that is focused on achieving specific goals rather than adhering to theories or ideologies. The speaker describes his lecture as 'very pragmatic,' indicating that he will provide actionable advice and techniques for managing time better, rather than just discussing abstract concepts.

💡Time-Famine

Time-famine is a term used to describe the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it. The speaker uses this term to illustrate the systemic problem of modern life where people feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and the lack of time to fulfill them, which is the central issue his talk aims to address.

💡Fun

Fun refers to enjoyment or pleasure derived from an activity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of fun in life, suggesting that the ultimate goal of time management should be to maximize enjoyment and happiness. He uses the example of his child, Logan, who embodies the spirit of fun and living life to the fullest.

Highlights

Introduction to the speaker's admiration for the University of Virginia and its honor code.

Speaker's personal battle with pancreatic cancer and the impact on his perspective on time management.

The importance of treating time as a valuable commodity, similar to money.

Calculating the monetary value of one's time to better understand its worth.

The concept of 'time famine' and the need for systemic solutions to manage time effectively.

Advice for students on valuing their time in education over monetary concerns.

The speaker's commitment to delivering a pragmatic lecture on time management.

The speaker's family connections to the University of Virginia and their academic pursuits.

The goal of the lecture to provide concrete methods for managing time and stress.

The importance of setting goals and avoiding wasted time in achieving them.

Strategies for dealing with a boss or adviser to optimize time usage.

The role of delegation in managing time more effectively.

The speaker's emphasis on the importance of fun and enjoyment in life and work.

Inspiration from two key books on time management, distilled into practical advice.

The speaker's personal anecdotes and experiences to illustrate points on time management.

The significance of the honor code at the University of Virginia as a model for ethical conduct.

The speaker's tips for dealing with stress and procrastination to make better use of time.

The importance of considering the long-term impact of time management decisions.

The speaker's encouragement for the audience to reflect on their own time management practices.

Transcripts

welcome to Carnegie melon online for

more multimedia from carnegi melon

University visit

www.cmu.edu

[Music]

multimedia thank you that that's very

kind but never tip the waiter before the

meal

arrives um it's uh thank you Gabe and

Jim I I couldn't imagine

uh being more grateful for an

introduction these are two people that

I've known a long long time uh I taught

here at the University of Virginia I

love this school it's just an incredible

Place filled with tradition and history

and respect uh the kind of qualities

that I really admire that I want to see

preserved in American society and this

is one of the places that I I just love

for preserving that I think the honor

code alone at the University of Virginia

just is something that every University

administrator should study and look at

and say say you know why can't we do

that too so I think there are a lot of

things about this place to love uh I'm

going to talk today on the topic of time

management uh the circumstances are as

you probably know a little bit unusual

uh I think at this point I'm an

authority to talk about what to do with

limited

time uh my uh my battle with pancreatic

cancer started about a year and a half

ago fought did all the right things but

it's you know as my oncologist said if

you could pick off a list that's not the

you'd want to pick so on August 15th uh

these were my CAT scans you can see that

if you scroll through all of them there

were about a dozen tumors in my liver

and the doctors at that time said uh you

are likely to have three to I love the

way they say it you have three to six

months of good health Left Right

optimism and and positive phrasing it's

sort of like when you're at Disney what

time does the park close the Park is

open until

8 so I have 3 to six months of good

health well let's do the math today is 3

months and 12 days so what I had on my

daytimer for today was not necessarily

being at the University of Virginia I'm

pleased to say that we do treat with

paliative chemo they're going to buy me

a little bit of time on the order of a

few months if it continues to work uh I

am still in perfectly good health um

with Gabe in the audience I'm not going

to do push-ups because I'm not going to

be shown

up Gabe is really in good shape uh but

uh I I continue to be in relatively good

health I had chemotherapy yesterday you

should all try it it's great uh uh but

it it just sort of beg the question I

have finite time uh some people have

said you know so why are you going and

giving a talk well there are a lot of

reasons I'm coming here and giving a

talk uh one of them is that uh I said I

would right that's a pretty simple

reason and I'm physically able to

another one is that uh going to the

University of Virginia is not like going

to some foreign place people say aren't

you spending all your time with family

and by coming back here for a day I am

spending my time with family both

metaphorically and literally because it

turns out that many of you have probably

seen this picture from the talk that I

gave um these are my niece and nephew

Chris and Lara and uh my niece laara is

actually a senior a fourth year here at

Mr Jefferson's University so Laura could

you stand up so they see what you you've

gotten taller there we

are and I I couldn't be happier to have

her here at this University um and the

other the other person so that's Laura

the other person in this picture is

Chris uh and uh Chris if you could stand

up so they see you've gotten much

taller and they they have grown in so

many ways not just in height and it's

been wonderful to see that and be an

uncle to them uh is there anybody here

on the faculty or PhD students of the

history Department we have any history

people people here at all okay anybody

here's from history find Chris right

after the talk because he's currently in

his sophomore year at William and Mary

and he's interested in going into a PhD

program in history down the road and

there aren't many better PHD programs in

history than this one so so I'm pimping

for my nephew here all right let's be

clear all

right so what are we going to talk about

today we're going to talk about you know

this is not like the that you may have

seen me give before this is a very

pragmatic lecture and one of the reasons

that I had agreed to come back and give

this is because Gabe had told me that

and many other faculty members had told

me that they had gotten so much tangible

value about how to get more done and I

truly do believe that time is the only

commodity that matters so this is a very

pragmatic talk and uh it is

inspirational in a sense that it will

inspire you by giving you some concrete

things you might do to be able to get

more time more things done in your

finite time so I'm going to talk

specific specifically about how to set

goals how to avoid wasting time how to

deal with a boss originally this talk

was how to deal with your adviser but

I've tried to broaden it so it's not

quite so academically focused uh and how

to delegate to people uh some specific

skills and tools that I might recommend

to help you get more out of the day and

to deal with the real problems in our

life which are stress and

procrastination I mean if you can lick

that last one you're probably in good

shape and really you don't need to take

any notes so I'll presume if I see any

laptops open you're actually just you

know doing I am or email or

something uh if you're listening to

music please at least wear headphones I

would always say uh but all of this will

be posted on my website and just to make

it really easy uh if you want to know

when to look up uh any slides that have

a red star on them are the points that I

think you should really make sure that

you you got that one all right and

conversely if it doesn't have a red star

well all right so the first thing I want

to say is that Americans are very very

bad

at dealing with time as a commodity

we're really good at dealing with money

as a commodity I mean we're as a as a

culture very interested in money and how

much somebody earns is a status thing

and so on and so forth but we don't

really have time elevated to that people

waste their time and it just always

fascinates me and one of the things that

I noticed is that very few people equate

time and money and they're very very

equatable so the first thing I started

doing when I was a teacher was asking my

graduate students

well how much is your time worth an hour

or if you work at a company how much is

your time Worth to the company what most

people don't realize is that if you have

a salary let's say you make $50,000 a

year it probably costs that company

twice that in order to have you as an

employee because there's Heating and

lighting and other staff members and so

forth so if you get paid $50,000 a year

you are costing that company they make

they have to raise $100,000 in revenue

and if you divide that by your hourly

rate you begin to get some sense of what

what you are worth an hour and when you

have to make tradeoffs of should I do

something like write software or should

I just buy it or should I Outsource this

having in your head what you cost your

organization an hour is really kind of a

staggering thing to change your behavior

because you start realizing that wow if

I free up three hours of my time and I'm

thinking of that in terms of dollars

that's a big savings so start thinking

about your time and your money almost as

if they are the same thing and of course

Ben Franklin knew that a long time ago

so you got to manage it and you got to

manage it just like you manage your

money now I realize not all Americans

manage their money that's what makes the

credit card industry possible uh and and

that's and apparently mortgages too

so but most people do at least

understand they don't look at you funny

if you say well can I see your monetary

budget for your household in fact if I

say your your household budget you

presume that I'm talking about money

when in fact the household budget I

really want to talk about is probably

your household time budget uh at the

entertainment Tech Technology Center at

Carnegie melon students would come in

and during the orientation I would say

this is a master's program everybody's

paying full tuition and uh it was

roughly $30,000 a year and and the first

thing I would say is if you're going to

come into my office and say I don't

think this is worth $60,000 a year I

will throw you out of the office I'm not

even going to have that discussion and

of course they would say oh God this P

guy's a real jerk and then they were

right but what I Then followed on with

was because the money is not important

you can go and earn more money later

and what you'll never do is get the two

years of your life back so if you want

to come into my office and talk about

the money I'll throw you out but if you

want to come into my office and say I'm

not sure this is a good place for me to

spend two years I will talk to you all

day and all night because that means

we're talking about the right thing

which is your time because you can't

ever get it back a lot of the advice I'm

going to give you particularly for

undergraduates how many people in this

in this room Are undergraduates by show

of hands okay good still young ah

um a lot of this uh what did Hans and

fron on Saturday Night Live if you're

old enough hear me now but believe me

later right uh a lot of this is going to

make sense later and one of the nice

things is I gab Gabe is volunteered to

put this up on the web i' I understand

that people can actually watch videos on

the web now so this

is uh so a lot of this will only makes

sense later and uh when I talk about

your boss if you're a student think

about that as your academic adviser if

you're a PhD student think of that as

your PhD adviser and uh if you're you

know if you're watching this and you're

a young child think of this as your

parent because that's sort of the person

who is in some sense your boss and the

talk goes very fast and I as I said I'm

very big on specific techniques I'm not

really big on platitudes I mean

platitudes are nice but they don't

really help me get something done

tomorrow the other thing is that one

good thief is worth 10 good Scholars and

in fact you can replace the word

scholars in that sentence with almost

anything all right uh so almost

everything in this talk is to some

degree in inspired which is a fany fancy

way of say saying lifted uh for from

these two books and I I found those

books very useful but it's much better

to get them in distilled form so what I

basically done is is is collected the

nuggets for your

behalf I like to talk about the time

famine I think it's a nice phrase does

anybody here feel like they have too

much

time okay nobody excellent and I like

the word famine because it's a little

bit like thinking about Africa I mean

you can airlift all the food you want in

to solve the crisis this week but the

problem is systemic and you really need

systemic Solutions so a time management

solution that says oh I'm going to fix

things for you in the next 24 hours is

laughable just like saying I'm going to

cure hunger in Africa in the next year

you need to think longterm and you need

to change fundamental underlying

processes because the problem is

systemic we just have too many things to

do and not enough time to do them the

other thing to remember is that it's not

just about time management that sounds

like a kind of a lukewarm you know a

talk on time management that's kind of

you know milk toast

but happen of the talk is how about not

having ulcers right that catches my

attention uh so a lot of this is life

advice this is how to change the way

you're doing a lot of the things and how

you allocate your time so that you will

lead a a happier more wonderful life and

I loved in the introduction that you

talked about fun because if I've brought

fun to Academia well it's about damn

time uh I mean you know if you're not

going to have fun why do it

right that's what I want to know I mean

life really is too short if you're not

going to enjoy it you know people who

say well I'm you I've got a job but I

don't really like it and I'm like well

you could

change well that would be a lot of work

you're right you should keep going to

work every day doing a job you don't

like thank you good night right uh so

the overall goal is fun um my middle

child Logan is is my favorite example I

don't think he knows how to not have fun

now grant that a lot of the things he

does are not fun for his mother and me

but he's loving every second of it and

he doesn't know how to do anything that

isn't ballistic and full of life and

he's going to keep that quality I think

he's my little Tigger and uh I always

remember Logan when I think about the

goal is to make sure that you lead your

life you know I want to maximize use of

time but really that's the means not the

end the end is maximizing

fun people who do intense studies and

and log people and videotape them and so

on and so forth say that the typical

office worker wastes almost two hours a

day right their desk is messy they can't

find things misao pointments unprepared

for meetings they they can't concentrate

does anybody in here by show of hands

ever have