Time management – Randy Pausch: life and death

Managing time effectively is a key skill for improving productivity in a business environment, and for achieving success in personal life. But it is an area often overlooked where small changes to established practices may produce dramatic and far-reaching results. There are many books available which claim to teach one how to manage their time effectively, but these are often poorly written, condescending, and talk a great deal of theory, without ever going into any depth as to how you can apply the theory to real life situations.

This leads us on to the point of this blog entry. Professor Randy Pausch was a leading researcher in the field of human-computer interaction, and wrote several groundbreaking programs designed to inspire an interest in computer programming in young people, especially girls.

In September 2006 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He underwent many procedures to attempt to fight the disease, which were unsuccessful. In August 2007 he was informed that he had three to six months of “good health left.” His old University, Carnegie Mellon, had a long standing tradition of inviting an academic to give a lecture at the beginning of the semester as if it were their ‘Last Lecture’. Randy was in the unique position of being able to give the lecture for real; he was facing death as he gave it. He chose to speak about time management. The lecture is a striking example of the strength of human spirit. Randy is upbeat, positive, and humorous throughout. He also offers some sage, practical advice which is easy to apply to everyday life about how to manage your time more effectively. Randy died on July 25, 2008; a full six months later than doctors predicted. Two months earlier, speaking at the Carnegie Mellon graduation ceremony, after delivering a short speech, he carried his wife off stage to wild applause.

Randy was a unique individual, and his courage, wisdom and teaching serve as an example to us all.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management