Balancing Time

I always have a problem with balancing my time. I am always late in my life until I started to work in a Japanese firm. It is always so hard to focus when you have to many things on your check list. I always end up doing nothing and feeling bad for myself.

Getting back into school while working is the toughest and demanding phase of my life. I am having a middle manager role where I need to exert greater effort on exceeding expectation to achieve my career goals and I have to balance that with my MBA requirements. More to that I have personal matters which include getting engaged and preparing for a wedding. In the early years of my career I learned how prioritizing is critical and very important lesson but what should you do if everything is in priority?

I have listed below some techniques that helps me currently to get though a highly demanding job with extensive travel requirement and a demanding MBA schedule and deadlines.

1. Create a check list

This is very important because it will give you a gausge on how much time you need. Start listing all of your responsibilities and list under that the things you need to accomplish. Below is a snapshot of my to do list on both work and school.

Once you are done with listing the requirements, put the deadlines beside it and put everything in your calendar. This will prompt you whether you are done with the deadline or not. Putting it in your calendar will also give you a reminder if you are on track or not. It is very difficult to keep on pushing back your targets and ending up to have to do three hard tasks in a day. Once you are done, start ranking your deadlines based on date and put it in your priority list.

2. Productivity Applications

There are several applications in android or appstore that are meant to help you with productivity. The key is to focus and keep your eyes on your target. There are too many distractions around you, do not fall on the traps and feel sorry later. Its better to finish your deadlines first before you do unnecessary things.

3. Stick to your goal

Your biggest enemy is procrastination! Finish everything that you can while you can. The best thing that could happen is to have free time and stress free day or week or even months. This is only possible if you keep on focusing in your goal and keep on pushing yourself to finish your deadline and starting ahead of other requirements so you have plenty of time to finish it. Finishing ahead of time is always a good feeling and a great achievement to be proud of.

4. Stop complaining and just do it

Sometimes we complain first before we actually do something. I remember there was a time where I cried because I was too busy and I have a lot of things to do. I feel so pressured and helpless so I just cried. After crying I realized nothing happened so I ended up wasting my time complaining and feeling sorry for myself. No one can really help you but yourself. So man up and face all the consequences of your choices because at the end of the day, what you do can make you better. The challenges you face today will make you stronger tomorrow. The best thing to do is to pray for guidance and do your best until you are done.

5. Have a good support system

I am lucky because my fiance is very understanding and he is also very supportive so I am not having a hard time. It is very important to have a partner that will support you in everything that you do and will bring out the best in you. I talk to him to share my insights and issues and he gladly listens and sometime argues with me if I’m being emotional. He comforts me when I am so tired and he gives me all the things I need. If your partner does not understand you, you should start thinking.

At the end of it all, stay focus in your goal which is to succeed in life. Find the things that motivates you and if you feel losing on track always remember the moment you chose that path. Keep a journal of your life goals so you get back on you feet and start again.

Practice makes Perfect

I wanted to share my friend’s story and how his example inspired me to become a better me. During my first year in college, I have a classmate named JB who claims he used to live in  Payatas. Well he doesn’t look like he was but told us that he got a working scholarship to study in UST due to the help of an organization called Pathways in Ateneo. He invited us to be part of the UST expansion of the organization where I became a physics tutor to 4tth year public high school students.

I have small encounters with JB because we have different set of friends. I remembered everyone in the room laughs at him and talks behind his back because he talks in English all the time. Sometimes his grammars are incorrect and he tries to sound very elite or expert on the way he speaks which makes him look really funny. Even when he answers to the professor or casual conversations, he will talk in English.

During third year we parted ways because I got finance as my major and he went to get a major in marketing. In one of the organization activities in Business Administration department, I was asked to get a volunteer for debate team to compete with other departments such as Economics, PreCom and Entrepreneurship. Getting a volunteer is very hard because UST BA students doesn’t like to speak in English and are typically shy people. Since I am part of the organization, even if its against my will, I have to be part of the team and I remembered JB and though he would love to join the competition.

On the day of the competition, we were handed by our topic and decided on which role to take where I decided to be the deputy prime minister because I think I am the weakest link and it would be hard to construct an argument and definitely harder to close one. JB then took the role of whip because he is the most confident among us. When it was his turn to speak everyone in the room got amazed on how good he is. We won and was able to reach second place. People got so amazed with him he was offered to be part of the university team of debaters which he gladly accepts. I was so proud of him and I thought practice and determination will really make you improve and get where you want to be. I thought If I practiced along with him, I might have been as good as he was.

During my first year in the corporate world I realized how important it is to be able to speak in English fluently, most specially if you are working in a treasury department of a company and all your dealings with bankers are in English. It was so hard for me and I almost gave up, but I remembered JB and how he became successful in his journey. From then on, I strategized on how to learn to speak conversational English fluently which includes watching series , internal narrative and practicing.

Whenever I watch series, I tried to answer back and try to explain how I feel about the episode. My internal narrative involves describing everything around me in my head as I commute on my way to work. I keep on answering in English even though I know I sounded struggling.

Now, I have gained the confidence to speak in front of anyone and I still practice to sound more professional. JB is one of those inspiring people who are never ashamed of where he came from and he is truly deserving of how far he had accomplished in life because he worked hard for it. He is one of the reasons I keep believing that I can do anything as long as I put my best effort into it and keep on practicing to be better.