On Efficiency and Time Management

Recently, when I came across to Cal Newport's blog, I have found an interesting blog. The title is "You can be busy or remarkable --- but never both". I stood in awe at such an unconventional topic, and after reading through this blog, I went through a moment of reflection on my time management. One of the essence of that post includes:

"Terence Tao is one of the world’s best mathematicians. He won a Fields Medal when he was 31. He is, we can agree, remarkable.

He is not, however, busy.

I should be careful about definitions. By “busy,” I mean a schedule packed with non-optional professional responsibilities.

My evidence that Tao is not overwhelmed by such obligations is the time he spends on non-obligatory, non-time sensitive hobbies. In particular, his blog.

Since the new year, he’s written nine long posts, full of mathematical equations and fun titles, like “Matrix identities as derivatives of determinant identities.” His most recent post is 3700 words long! And that’s a normal length."

It is indeed surprising that even the most remarkable mathematician, Terence Tao, is not 'busy'. A further reading of that blog reveals that we have phases of deep work and phases for other activities. So as I finished reading Cal Newport's blog, I've decided to devise my own time, in an efficient way. In the process, I have found a secret key, and the key to greatest efficiency is flexibility.

After a thorough "think-through", I have found that my efficiency works in 3 phases. These 3 phases occur at different times and there seem to be a cycle between these 3. When disciplined people will most probably make a timetable that sounds like "7.00 am school, 5.00 pm sports, 9.00 pm revision, etc.", I have found that rigid timetable will sufficiently reduce efficiency (at least it works for me). And I have found that for me personally, I work in 3 phases. The 3 phases are, Phase of maximum productivity, phase of medium productivity, and phase of low productivity. This post will generally discuss about my way of exercising flexibility in my time, so maybe readers will have different flexibility and preferences. So at least this time management is applicable to me as my current state of being an A Level student. So here you go:

1.) Phase of maximum productivity. These are the times where I can maximize my creativity. Most suitable activities during this phases are creativity-based work. In this phase, I will have my 100% focus and concentration to sit down and conduct deep work. Most probably I will work on creating my own research paper in physics during this phase. I will also use this phase to tackle toughest and deepest Physics Olympiad level problems. During this phase, many creative ideas will be produced and it is best to work on projects, researches, and problem solving situations that require maximum concentration and greatest creativity. I will optimize this phase to produce good physics.

2.) Phase of medium productivity. This phase can be subdivided into 2 phases, upper-medium productivity and lower-medium productivity. For upper medium productivity, it is best for me to work on something that requires an adequate amount of concentration and routine works. Appropriate activity during this phase is revising for SAT (which requires the routine use of test-taking strategies) or A-Level (routine use of classroom knowledge, yet does not require creativity). Upper medium productivity is suitable to be used to prepare for school exams or admission exams (for me personally). For lower medium productivity, I will work on something that does not require much thinking process. Writing my blog is an example of activity that best suite me when I'm in lower medium productivity phase. So by the time I'm writing this blog, I'm in the phase of lower medium productivity.

3.) Phase of low productivity. This phase is the most unproductive phase, unfortunately. And many individuals, including myself, do experience this phase. I tried to produce something creative during this phase, but the plan just does not work out. And that's the problem that rigid timetable poses to me. After more reflection on this phase, I have found that actually I can benefit from this phase. Appropriate activities for this phase include taking a nap or rest, reading other's blog, logging on the Facebook and Hotmail to check for updates, watching a series of Japanese Animation, etc. I have gone through a moment of reflection on how to best benefit from this phase (as I'm getting bored to keep on logging on to Facebook and Hotmail during this phase), and I have come out with an idea of maximizing the benefits of low productivity. I can use this time to learn to play ukulele, an easy-to-learn musical instrument that will soothe my mind and bring the peace of mind to me when I'm in this low productivity phase. I'd prefer learning ukulele (beneficial) than logging on to Facebook, though I'm still working on reducing the number of hours I spent of Facebook each day.

So these are the 3 phases that describe my productivity. The key to be remarkable, as I have found, is the ability to optimize the benefits of each phase. Each phase exists for a purpose, and I believe that failure to make full advantage of each phase will only mean one thing--- poor time management. So I will strive to make myself more flexible instead of planning a nice looking timetable, and to gain maximum benefits from each phase. 

If we are looking for next successful physicist/ mathematician, we can ignore the guy who rush back home to check for his email, while rushing to prepare for next meeting. Instead, look for the quite fellow who stares at the cloud, thinking about what works can be done in this afternoon.------Paraphrase from Cal Newport blog.