Time-management

Time-management is indispensable for success in any field of endeavour. I hope, you enjoy reading this document and learn many things. Do experiment with various insights and aids shared in this document and enhance your time-management skill. And share these insights and aids with others also in a noble spirit of selfless service. Anyone is most welcome to distribute or copy contents of this document for non-commercial purpose. Thanks, Gopal Krishna B. Tech, Computer Science, IIT Kanpur M.S., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (USA) Email: gopalkrishna.mission@gmail.com & Website: http://gopal4mission.wordpress.com Yahoo-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yoga_for_enlightenment

Table of Contents
1. Importance of time-management 2. Core principles and practices of time-management 2.1. Core principles of time-management 2.2. Core practices of time-management 3. Todays planning: 1st core practice of time-management 2 4 4 4 4

3.1. Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals 5 3.1.1. 2 techniques for removing untimely sleep 3.1.2. Understanding sleep 3.1.3. Factors which contribute to good sleep 3.1.4. When and how much to sleep? 3.1.5. How can I wake up till late at night?/How can I remove untimely sleep? 3.1.6. Whether to use an alarm-clock or not? 3.1.7. How to wake up rather than sleep back after putting off alarm? 5 7 8 10 11 11 11 1

3.1.8. How to shift my sleep-period by a few hours? 3.1.9. Is there a way to train the body-mind mechanism to reduce need for sleep? 3.1.10. A fixed schedule for exercises, bathroom and meals 3.1.11. A sample example of daily routine 3.2. Daily create a prioritized task-list for today 3.2.1. What are the benefits of a prioritized task-list? 3.2.2. Priority scheme 3.2.3. When to create the prioritized task-list for today? 3.2.4. Dealing with unexpected tasks 3.2.5. A sample example of prioritized task-list 3.3. Do self-analysis on daily basis 3.3.1. When? 3.3.2. How? 3.3.3. A sample example of self-analysis table 3.4. Other useful aids 3.4.1. Session table 3.4.2. Task details 4. Long-term planning: 2nd core practice of time-management 5. Planning notebooks: using all ingredients together

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1. Importance of time-management Time management is life-management. The truth of this statement is discernible to anyone who studies his/her own life and others' lives intently. I am just trying to sum up some basic principles of time-management which I learnt (and still learning learning is a never-ending process, isn't it?) by observing success as well as failures of myself and others. The reader is most welcome to analyze them and use them in original or modified form in their own lives. Whenever I found myself facing unsatisfactory result in my life, one of the major reasons was always lack 2

of good time-management. Likewise, whenever I found myself feeling true satisfaction in my life, one of the major reasons was always good time-management. And this is the case with all of us. Success in any endeavour depends on self-discipline. Self-discipline can be sustained either through self-motivation or through a firm habit of good time-management or through both. Often it happens that when we are driven by aspiration for goals, which really excite and interest us, we show enormous self-discipline and eventually produce satisfactory results. But, once we lose such inspiring goals, we lose our self-discipline also and end up producing highly dissatisfactory results. These ups-and-downs happen with most of us because our self-discipline is driven primary by self-motivation, which, in turn, depends largely on how strong our aspiration and interest are in the goal pursued by us. Our entire educationsystem also supports this kind of psychology to some extent because of lack of formal training in timemanagement skill. These ups and downs drain lots of our time, energy and motivation. Every down becomes a drag on us the recovery from down to up is always more demanding and often frustrating. This regular pattern of ups-and-downs never allows us to achieve our true potential in life. Thus, total self-satisfaction always remains a distant dream for us. To avoid huge ups and huge downs in life, we have only one choice: combine goal-driven selfdiscipline with self-discipline driven by firm habit of good time-management. Once we do so, we will find that when the goals that we pursue are interesting and inspiring enough for us, we will produce excellent or exceptional results and when the goals are not that interesting and inspiring enough, even then we will be able to produce good or excellent results by sheer power of firm habit of good time-management. Thus, we will be able to realize our true potential to a satisfactory extent.

Apart from helping us in cultivating a permanent state of self-discipline (and hence, a satisfying level of success in our field of activity), other notable advantages of good time-management include the following: 1. One who spends his/her time wisely will be able to counter negativity from the past and day-today life much better because his/her attention will be in creative activity, which will burn up all negative energy stored in mind. The more we give attention to negativity, the more they drag us. It is good to reflect and draw lessons from negativity from the past and day-to-day life, but in absence of good time-management, we end up getting overwhelmed by such negativity instead of learning from it and moving on in life. So, developing and maintaining the firm habit of good time-management is good for maintaining a healthy and peaceful mind. 2. One will tend to avoid worries about future more, because one will recognize that one is wasting time & energy by worrying about future rather than focusing on present task. An empty mind is devils workshop. - thus, through proper use of time, our mind will avoid unnecessary anxiety and pessimistic thoughts about future & remain focused on task at hand. 3

3. By developing and maintaining a firm habit of good time-management, one will have an inner clarity, will-power and strength, which will always guide one through all desirable as well as undesirable circumstances. 4. Such a person is able to help his/her family members and other people much more because he/she has a strong mind, inner clarity and a good personal example. So, those who want to help others in leading a happy life, should make a point to develop & maintain the habit of good timemanagement. Due to aforesaid advantages, this document will explain core principles and core practices of good timemanagement. 2. Core principles and practices of time-management 2.1. Core principles of time-management 1. Take life (and time-management) on today basis. This is a true fact in life that every yesterday came as today and every tomorrow will also come as today. Those who miss todays, will miss living life. They will live either in memories of dead past or fantasies about unknown/uncertain future. But, the future never comes as future. Future always comes as present. And past also came as present only. Life exists in present. Also, we should keep in mind that future does not get created out of nowhere future gets created out of present. Thus, the foundation of a good future is laid down only by doing the present task at hand with full devotion. So, practice timemanagement on today basis. Make the resolution every day that today my practice of timemanagement would be excellent or exceptional and live that resolution with full devotion. 2. Combine today's planning with long-term planning. Living in present most of time is quite necessary, but long-term planning at appropriate time (which stands in clear contrast with daydreaming and worrying about future) is equally needed so that we can define and accomplish our long-term goals and thus, achieve long-lasting self-satisfaction.

2.2. Core practices of time-management 1. Todays planning (to put first core principle into practice). 2. Long-term planning (to put second core principle into practice.) 3. Todays planning: 1st core practice of time-management Properly planning for today is a must if we aim to develop a firm habit of good time-management. A good degree of todays planning should include below traits: 1. Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals. 2. Daily create a prioritized task-list for today. 3. Do self-analysis on daily basis. 4. Other useful aids. 4

We will discuss all these things in good details in next few sections. 3.1. Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals Before we discuss this further, let us understand some fundamentals. Our body-mind mechanism is rhythmic/cyclical in nature. Due to this reason, we have self-induced regularity in our daily activities. So, to use our body and mind with optimum efficiency, we all need to do is, to attune ourselves to this natural cycle of body-mind mechanism by developing proper schedule for daily activities like sleep, exercises, bathroom & meals and by maintaining that schedule every day, including weekends/holidays. Any break in name of weekend/holiday drags our self-discipline and spoils our habit of daily routine. So, no exception should be allowed in this respect. Sleep is a very important function for giving rest to body-mind mechanism and for giving enough energy to subconscious mind to organize information properly. Exercises include physical exercises and breathing as well as thoughtless awareness techniques: they also should be done at fixed hours in order to gain maximum benefits from them. 3.1.1. 2 techniques for removing untimely sleep Since we will be referring these two techniques throughout next few sections, it is better to explain them in the beginning. Technique 1. Nadi Shodhana Advanced (NSA) technique Nadi Shodhana Advanced (NSA) is an advanced technique of Nadi Shodhana (nerve purification) breathing exercise, which uses internal breath-retention and is recommended as the first and foremost technique for removing untimely sleep to everyone who has a completely healthy body. Description: 1. Sit in any comfortable sitting posture or even on a chair, with spine, neck and head held in a straight line. 2. Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes. 3. Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand. Index and middle fingers rest on forehead throughout the entire practice or alternatively, they can rest tucked inside the palm. 4. Inhale slowly and deeply through left nostril. 5. Close the left nostril with ring and little fingers of right hand. 6. Hold the breath and while holding the breath, bend the head forward and press the chin tightly against the upper part of chest. Stay in this position as long as breath can be held comfortably. Concentrate the mind in the mid-center of two eyebrows. 7. Remove the chin from chest and straighten the neck and head. 8. Remove the thumb from right nostril. 9. Exhale slowly and completely through right nostril. 10. Now, inhale slowly and deeply from right nostril. 11. Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand. 5

12. Hold the breath and while holding the breath, bend the head forward and press the chin tightly against the upper part of chest. Stay in this position as long as breath can be held comfortably. Concentrate the mind in the mid-center of two eyebrows. 13. Remove the chin from chest and straighten the neck and head. 14. Remove ring and little fingers from left nostril. 15. Exhale slowly and completely through left nostril. 16. Steps 3 to 15 constitute one round. One should practice many rounds continuously for at least 3-5 minutes. Precautions: 1. One should not hold breath to the point of pain or suffocation otherwise it may harm lungs. One should hold breath only till one feels comfortable. 2. One should practice at least 30 min before meals and at least 1 hour after taking meals. 3. One should take a bath after at least 1/2 hour of practice (because lots of heat is generated in the body during breath-retention, so body should be allowed time to get normalized before taking bath). 4. Only after the age of 12, it should be practiced. This is because the chest, heart and lungs are not strong enough before 12 for the practice of breath-retention. 5. One should have healthy lungs, heart and normal blood pressure. 6. Our mind becomes very concentrated during internal breath-retention. So, whatever thoughts one has in mind while holding breath that becomes very strong and has very powerful influence over the mind. It implies that one must have only positive thoughts during breath-retention (if negative thoughts come, quickly replace that with positive thoughts). 7. People suffering from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease should not practice it. 8. Dont inhale or exhale until the chin has been released and the head is fully upright. Benefits: 1. It helps in removing untimely sleep. 2. It equalizes the flow of breath in both nostrils, leading to calmness of mind, which helps in thoughtless awareness practice. 3. The whole body is nourished with an extra supply of oxygen and the carbon dioxide is more efficiently eliminated. This purifies the whole blood system and increases the overall health of the body, including its power to resist the disease. 4. The deep, slow breathing encourages the removal of stagnant air from the lungs, which helps us maintain healthy lungs. 5. It purifies the nervous system and makes our nerves relaxed and healthy, which in turn, saves us from various mental tensions and diseases. 6. Chin lock presses the carotid sinuses, which are located on the carotid arteries, the main arteries in the neck. These sinuses help to regulate the circulatory and respiratory systems. Normally, a decrease of oxygen and increase of carbon dioxide in the body leads to an increased heart rate and heavier breathing. This process is initiated by the carotid sinuses. By artificially exerting pressure on these sinuses, this tendency is prevented, allowing for decreased heart rate and increased breath retention. 7. It produces mental relaxation, relieving stress, anxiety and anger. 6

8. It develops introversion of mind and one-pointedness, which, in turn, helps in thoughtless awareness practice. 9. The stimulus on the throat helps to balance thyroid function and regulate the metabolism. Why does NSA technique help in removing untimely sleep? Ans. Untimely sleep/Drowsiness happens when there is not enough oxygen in our brain due to natural mechanism of tiredness, consumption of meals and so on, so forth. For example, when we consume food, lots of blood is needed in digestive tract to absorb nutrients from food and circulate them to various cells in the body. To perform this function, blood rushes from brain and other parts of body to digestive tract and lungs also circulate more blood to digestive tract. This reduces amount of blood (and hence, amount of oxygen because, oxygen is circulated to cells through blood) in brain, which, in turn, often produces drowsiness after meals. But, in internal breath-retention, we inhale deeply and hold the breath in lungs as long as comfortable, so we get more oxygen due to below 2 factors: 1. Larger amount of inhaled air, because we inhale air deeply during internal breath-retention. 2. And, more time for lung cells to absorb oxygen from inhaled air due to longer period of contact between inhaled air and lung cells as a result of breath-retention period. Internal breath-retention is most useful when combined with Nadi Shodhana/Nerve-purification: detailed technique is called NSA (Nadi Shodhana Advanced) technique and has been explained above. Believe me, it is much more powerful than any technique you have ever come to know about removing untimely drowsiness - better than believing me, experiment with this and find the truth yourself. Technique 2. Vigorous chanting of Aum/Amen/Amin People, who cannot do NSA technique due to medical reason, should practice this technique. Practice non-stop and rigorous (and if it will not disturb anyone, verbal also) chanting of mantra Om/Amen/Amin for 5-10 minutes is recommended for generating high level of mental energy to remove drowsiness. Drinking tea/coffee should be used as last resort only because they are addictive, produce many problems for digestive system like constipation, gastric problems, etc. and also reduces our peace and concentration level through excitation of our nervous system & mind. 3.1.2. Understanding sleep 1. Dreamless sleep is the state of thoughtless unawareness. It is not more than 3-4 hours. Rest time during sleep, we dream. This is a fact accepted by medical science. But, most of us don't remember our dreams when we wake up: so, we feel that we do not dream at all during entire sleep. Dream is a crucial psychological function in which we let out our repressed/subconscious stress caused by negative events and unfulfilled desires from past and day-to-day life. An advanced yoga-practitioner is able to free his/her mind from all kind of subconscious stress due to peace and purity acquired by thoughtless awareness, breathing exercises and positive thinking, hence, he/she doesn't need the phase of dreams and is quite fine with 3-4 hours sleep a day. Thats why Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda (Ramakrishna Mission), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (The art of living), Swami Niranjananda (Bihar School of Yoga) and almost all advanced 7

yogis sleep/slept 3-4 hours a day only, not because it gives/gave them any pride or saves/saved time, but simply because they do/did not need the phase of dreams during their sleep. 2. All automatic functions of body like inhalation, exhalation, blood circulation, digestion and so on are performed by our subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind keeps on working even during dreamless sleep. That's why these automatic functions never stop even during dreamless sleep. One function of sleep, both dreamless as well as dream phase, is to give rest to our involuntary muscles and involuntary nervous system, involved in these automatic functions of body. 3. One major function performed by our subconscious mind is: organizing information and analyzing problems. This is done during both waking state as well as sleep state. Our subconscious mind is, thus, at work whole 24-hours a day. But, during day, major part of our energy is used by conscious mind in perceiving sense-impressions and doing thinking. So, during day-time less energy is available to subconscious mind. But, during sleep, our conscious mind doesn't have any work, so all energy is available to subconscious mind. Hence, information gathered during day-time is organized and retained properly during sleep - thus, a good sleep is crucial to a good memory. Apart from that, subconscious mind also thinks about solutions of the problems which we try to tackle on conscious level with good level of attention. Since 90% of mind is subconscious and 10% is conscious, subconscious mind is more powerful. Many times, deeper problems are solved through thinking done by subconscious mind rather than by conscious mind. Thus, this phenomenon of a solution striking to us after few days or during sleep happens with all of us. This whole phenomenon of intuition happens due to this reason. A good sleep helps in functioning of intuition due to this reason and makes us more creative and smart. 3.1.3. Factors which contribute to good sleep There are many factors which contribute to good sleep. They include the following: 1. Be a good-hearted person. Only a good-hearted person is blessed with sound sleep. Those, who lead a morally loose and dishonest life, gets the first, quick punishment in the form of lack of inner peace and lack of sound sleep. 2. Always maintain a positive attitude. The more positive our attitude is, the better the quality of our life becomes and also, the more sound our sleep becomes. A negative attitude reduces not only our inner peace, energy and motivation level, but it also reduces the quality of our sleep. 3. Work hard. Work hard during waking time so that your body and mind are fully exhausted when you go to sleep. The harder you work, the deeper and more relaxing sleep you get. This is one of many sweet rewards of labor - playing hard during play time is included in the notion of labor. 4. Sleep only when you can fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed. This is indispensable for a good quality sleep. Going to bed before we feel real sleepiness (5-minutes at max on bed before one falls asleep is the real test for knowing the time when one feels real sleepiness), is a direct route to unsound and shallow sleep. If one cant fall asleep even after 5 minutes of sleep, know well that you have gone to bed before you should go: in such case, make sure, you go to bed later next-day. 8

5. Dont over-sleep for even a single day. Over-sleeping on one night reduces the quality of freshness and energy-level of body-mind on next day: apart from that, it also reduces the quality of sleep next night. So, ensure to neither over-sleep nor under-sleep. How to find out your optimum amount of daily sleep need is given in next section titled When and how much to sleep?. Not even in the worst possible attack of laziness, over-sleep by more than 30-45 minutes extra over your optimum amount of daily sleep need, otherwise your day (and next nights sleep) will get ruined due to lack of freshness and high-energy in body and mind. 6. Avoid watching movies & other videos within few hours before sleep. Otherwise lots of dream will occur to you due to effect of movies & other videos, which will make your sleep shallow and disturbed. 7. Avoid watching images & reading anything on emotionally sensitive issues: likewise, avoid emotionally sensitive debates within few hours before sleep. Otherwise lots of subconscious thinking on these matters will happen throughout that nights sleep and will make your sleep shallow and disturbed. 8. Avoid having nerve-exciting foods & drinks within few hours before sleep. Such foods & drinks include coffee, tea, etc. They make it harder to fall asleep and even if you fall asleep, the nervous and mental excitation produced by these foods makes it hard for our nervous system and mind to repose in full rest during sleep. 9. Doing thoughtless awareness exercises, reading emotionally soothing and inspiring literature and listening to soothing instrumental and other soft-music before going to sleep are always helpful in inducing sound sleep. Due to this reason, if you are not able to fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed, just get out of the bed and get involved in these activities for few minutes to induce drowsiness and of course, remember to go to bed next night later than when you went tonight. 10. Sleep after putting off light or using a very dim light, because bright light stimulates our body-mind system and makes our sleep shallow. 11. Sleep on left side preferably. The main reason behind this is: when we sleep on left side, breathflow becomes dominant in right nostril, which, in turn, helps in digestion process. The other reason is: for entire body and particularly for organs like heart and digestive system, sleeping on left-side is more comfortable and more suitable for proper functioning. 12. Sleep with head in East or South direction. Since in general, our bed is aligned either along East-West or North-South direction, this rule is very simple to follow. Sleeping with head in East is better than sleeping with head in West due to 2 factors: (a) the earth rotates on its axis from West to East. This induces subtle advantage by giving more rest and vitality to inner energy-field of body. (b) Since the earth rotates on its axis from West to East, the sun (source of vital energy for all life-forms) rises in the East so, there is more vitality in East direction at night, with which our entire inner energy-field gets recharged. Sleeping with head in South is better than sleeping with head in North. This is because there is a magnetic field along our 9

spine whose North Pole is in head and South Pole is in the lowermost part of spine. So, if we sleep with head in South, the North Pole of our spines magnetic field is attracted towards the South Pole of Earth and South Pole of our spines magnetic field is attracted towards the North Pole of Earth, thus increasing the vital energy in our body-mind. But, if we sleep with head in North, the repulsion between magnetic field in our spine and Earths magnetic field will make our sleep shallow and disturbed. These things are part of yoga-literature: modern science is yet to verify them. So, please forget this rule if you find these reasoning scientifically not convincing enough. I am including this because yoga has known many secrets about body and mind thousands of years before modern science could grasp them: but, feel free to accept or reject this rule.

3.1.4. When and how much to sleep? Need for sleep varies from person to person, depending on factors like age and occupation. But, as Edison said, "Given a chance, most of us will tend to over-sleep than to under-sleep, thus, wasting our precious time and energy due to our laziness." Thus, it is better to be more disciplined and honest with respect to sleep that our body-mind mechanism really needs. In general, for an adult, a sleep of 6-7 hours is said to be optimum. Some people say, a sleep of 6-8 hours is the requirement for an adult. Keeping in mind the suggestion of Edison, we all can find our optimum need for sleep through following means: 1. Sleep only when you are so exhausted that once you lie in bed, within at most 5 minutes, you will fall deeply asleep: this is the foremost principle to determine when to sleep. 2. Start with 6 hours (because of the truth in what Edison said): so, try to wake up after 6 hours and don't sleep during day-time. If you feel drowsiness during day-time, remove that through 510 minutes practice of one of 2 techniques explained above in section 3.1.1. Do so for few days (1 week is enough). If you feel, drowsiness problem is over and your feel good level of freshness and clarity of mind throughout the day, then you need only 6 hours sleep. Just maintain this habit. Otherwise, experiment with 6.5 hours now - if that doesn't work, then experiment with 7, 7.5 & 8 hours. Eventually, you will be able to find the optimum sleep-need for yourself and believe me, it would never be more than 8 hours for an adult as well as teenager: a pre-teenage (less than 13 years old) child have genuine need for even more than 8 hours sleep. Some people want to maintain a range of sleep. It is good to do that if that suits you the most but do try to keep the range of not more than 1 hour, otherwise all benefits of regularity will be lost. And try your best to maintain fixed time for waking up so that your day can be started with good level of regularity. For example, one may keep a range in sleeping time, yet should maintain a fixed waking up time: like, sleep during 10 pm - 11 pm and wake up at 5 am. Because, if even waking up time is not fixed, the beginning of day ends up becoming too haphazard. If due to some reason, keeping waking up time fixed is not feasible, then also, keep a range of not more than 1 hour for waking up period.

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Last thing: some people find that by taking a nap of, say, 20-30 minutes during day-time, they feel more energy. If that is the case with you and you find a real advantage, go ahead. But, this is not a general principle at all. In fact, need for a day-time nap may mean that you have not slept for sufficiently longtime or deeply enough at night or that, you are eating more during lunch than you should (gluttony is not good, my friend!). So, it is better to increase the quantity and deepen the quality of sleep at night than to indulge in naps during day-time: this is what this document clearly recommends.

3.1.5. How can I wake up till late at night?/How can I remove untimely sleep? Remove drowsiness/untimely sleep through 5-10 minutes practice of one of 2 techniques explained above in section 3.1.1.

3.1.6. Whether to use an alarm-clock or not? Many people say, using an alarm-clock wakes us before we are naturally ready to get woken up. Partly, it is true. But, many times, our faculty of conscious will is so subdued by drowsiness that we tend to oversleep, which produces dullness and lethargy in body and mind whole day. So, if one finds oneself able to wake up automatically after sleeping optimally, without any alarm clock, great! If not, then use of an alarm-clock is quite proper - if one finds oneself feeling continuous drowsiness during day-time, one should simply increase sleep-duration by either sleeping earlier or increasing waking up time through setting alarm-time later till one comes to the optimum sleep, which means - a sleep which overcomes us within 5 minutes of going to bed and leaves us completely fresh, clear-headed and energetic throughout whole day.

3.1.7. How to wake up rather than sleep back after putting off alarm? Many surveys say that more than 80% people have tendency to sleep back after putting off alarm unless they are forced by an urgency produced by time-critical task like going to office/school. Due to this reason, most people tend to over-sleep during weekends and holidays when no such urgency is present. But, this is a very unfortunate break in time-management. The question is: how to avoid this? Let us first understand this whole phenomenon: One makes a plan with firm resolution that I have to wake up at this time, say 5 am, everyday. One sets up alarm and gives few times auto-suggestion before sleep that wake up when alarm rings instead of sleeping back. Then, one falls asleep. When alarm rings what happens in the mind: Phase 1: The only thought in mind after waking up and before putting off alarm is: go and put off the alarm. Why? Because, alarm wakes us up all of a sudden and sleepy mind wants to shut off this disturbance as soon as possible. In general, no other thought come to mind during this phase. Phase 2: After putting off alarm, we are still in the state of semi-alertness/semi-consciousness in which one part of mind reminds us about waking up and other part motivates us to go back to bed 11

and sleep again. Depending on our habit-pattern and level of determination, the former part may win or lose. If the former part wins, we wake up, generally go to bathroom to wash eyes and face and then, come back to start our day as per our daily routine. But, if the former part wins, we go back to bed and sleep again, eventually waking up after few hours extra sleep and end up cursing our laziness and lack of firmness. Thus, the solution lies in solving the problem of second phase: to go back to sleep or to wake up. What we think just before sleep, is often the first thought just after waking up. People often use autosuggestions just before sleep in the hope that the auto-suggestion will come up in mind when alarm rings and will make us wake up rather than sleep back. If this works, then great! No need to read further in this section. If this doesnt work, then go ahead. The insight that can solve this problem is: why not shut off all thinking from mind during second phase: neither the question of waking up nor the question of sleeping back will arise and the body would behave like a machine and automatically go to bathroom to wash eyes & face with water. But how to shut off all thinking from mind during second phase? Just after waking up and even before putting feet on ground, start non-stop chanting of a mantra/inspiring quote or singing a song (pick whatever suits you the most) and doing this non-stop chanting/singing, go to put off alarm and doing this continuous chanting/singing, go to bathroom. Once you wash face and eyes with water, it will wake you up to a great extent (and if that is not enough, come back and do 5-10 minutes practice of one of 2 techniques explained in section 3.1.1 to remove the last trace of drowsiness.). And of course, to remember doing so after waking up, give yourself following auto-suggestion 10-20 times just before sleep: When alarm rings, just after opening eyes, I start non-stop chanting/singing of this (replace this by actual name of mantra/song) mantra/song and doing so, put off alarm and go to bathroom.

To make this auto-suggestion firmly implanted in subconscious mind, give the auto-suggestion in below manner Give the auto-suggestion during the state of external breath-retention: exhale completely and hold the breath out (i.e. stop inhalation as long as comfortably possible) and give the auto-suggestion while simultaneously creating mental picture of whole process of alarm ringing off, you starting non-stop chanting/singing of mantra/song just after opening eyes, then doing so putting off alarm and then doing non-stop chanting/singing going to bathroom.

Why to give auto-suggestion in above manner? Why breath-retention: During the period of breath-retention (both internal as well as external), the thinking process becomes much less speedy and even stops completely. So, the 12

mind is more concentrated/one-pointed during the period of breath-retention, which makes the auto-suggestion reach our subconscious mind more deeply, because the more concentrated/onepointed is thinking at conscious level, the more is the chance for it to reach subconscious mind. Why external breath-retention rather than internal breath-retention: Internal breathretention means inhalation followed by breath-retention/holding breath in whereas external breath-retention means exhalation followed by breath-retention/holding breath out. Inhalation is associated with the process of energization of our body-mind complex, whereas exhalation is associated with the process of relaxation of body-mind complex. Internal breath-retention intensifies the energization effect of inhalation process; likewise external breath-retention intensifies the relaxation effect of exhalation process. Thats why internal breath-retention is useful when we need more energy in body-mind mechanism, for example, when untimely drowsiness happens. And external breath-retention is useful when we need more relaxation of body-mind mechanism, for example, for removing stress-producing negative thoughts from mind and before sleep. Hence, we use external breath-retention rather than internal breath-retention during the period of auto-suggestion before sleep. Why to make mental picture of whole process during auto-suggestion: Subconscious mind understands the language of picture more. This is one of the reasons why most of our dreams are like videos (i.e., combined with lots of pictures) rather than like audios (i.e., without any picture). This is also the reason why we remember a picture more vividly, but forget words easily: if one views one picture of a natural calamity, the mind remembers that calamity more vividly and for a long-time than by reading a full paragraph of news on that calamity. And due to this reason only, a child whose conscious mind is not that developed, is often taught in language of pictures: when we learn alphabets first, all of them are associated with pictures (like A with Apple, etc.) and all of them are drawn so big to seem more like a picture. Hence, an autosuggestion combined with visualization/mental picture always produces more powerful influence on subconscious mind than an auto-suggestion without visualization/mental picture.

3.1.8. How to shift my sleep-period by a few hours? Two approaches can be suggested for doing this: 1. Direct change 2. Gradual change Let us understand both approaches through an example. Suppose, a person has 6-hours sleep routine of 1 am to 7 am and he/she wants to shift it to 10 pm to 4 am (a shift of 3 hours). The two approaches can be used in below manner for doing so. 1. Direct change. From first-day itself, one will try to sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 4 am. On first-day of switch, do activities like eating more than normal during dinner, more physical/mental exertion during day-time and giving yourself a heavy dose of either of these sleep-inducing activities: thoughtless awareness exercises, reading emotionally soothing and 13

inspiring literature and listening to soothing instrumental and other soft-music before going to sleep. And then, go to sleep at 10 pm. The sleep may not come yet, but, dont get up: the rule of falling asleep within at most 5 minutes of lying on bed is not applicable when trying this approach. Keep on lying on the bed till sleep comes, even if it takes 1-2 hours: during this time, keep on doing thoughtless awareness practice or chanting something to create boredom like chanting your own name or any mantra (please dont misunderstand me - your name is really interesting, in fact, it is one of the most interesting names ever used by a human, but such is our mind that repeated chanting of even the most interesting word produces boredom.). And then, wake up at 4 am even if your sleep is not deep and is not for 6 hours and start your day as per your new daily routine at 4 am. During the day-time, you will feel drowsiness because your night sleep was not deep and long enough: but, remember, you have to persist during entire waking up time by not allowing any day-time nap/sleep. It will be difficult, but you have to use all possible determination and resources like techniques explained in section 3.1.1, as many times as required. If you are able to do so, second day, you will be able to sleep more quickly and more deeply. And once you keep on implementing this every day, after a period of 2-3 weeks continuous success, you will find: you are able to fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed around 10 am, able to wake up at 4 am and feel no drowsiness or lack of freshness during day-time. This is a fast but unsure approach. This approach may fail due to lack of sufficient determination or due to a very rigid habit of old sleep-routine. In this case, you should try the second approach of gradual change. 2. Gradual change. Direct change approach should be used for 3-4 weeks (never more than 4 weeks) and if it fails to produce the desired shift in sleep routine, only then this gradual change approach should be tried, because it is slow and sure approach. Shift the sleep-routine by 5-10 minutes every week and keep on doing so till shift of 3 hours happen. For example, 1st week sleep at 12:50 am and wake up at 6:50 am; 2nd week sleep at 12:40 am and wake up at 6:40 am; 3rd week sleep at 12:30 am and wake up at 6:30 am and so on, so forth, till you reach sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 4 am week: after that persist with that new routine. Since the change is gradual, the body-mind mechanism gets attuned to the change easily and steadily. 3.1.9. Is there a way to train the body-mind mechanism to reduce need for sleep? Optimum sleep-need is not fixed for anyone. It may get reduced automatically with age or with growth in peace and purity level. One can make a conscious effort also to make this happen through gradual change. Since, the sleep hour is a much deeper need and habit of body than sleep-schedule, so direct change is almost completely impossible to achieve for any of us. Gradual approach the only realistic approach: To explain this approach, let me present an example of Swami Niranjananada (current President of Bihar School of Yoga). In the beginning of teenage, he used to sleep at 9 pm and wake up during 6-6:30 am. One day, he felt that he should wake up at 4 am so that he can do yoga and other activities in calm atmosphere of early morning hours. So, he took the resolution of sleeping from 9 pm till 4 am from next day onward. So, next day, he set up the alarm at 4 am and was able to wake up also. But, during day-time he felt some amount of drowsiness and lethargy in body and mind due to abrupt change in quantity of sleep hours, but somehow using his determination, he did not sleep during day-time. Second day, he again set up the alarm at 4 am. But, he was not able to wake up at 4 am, largely because of unmet sleep-need of previous day and partly because of a slackening of determination: he instead woke up few minutes later. During day-time, he again did not sleep by using 14

determination. Third day, he again slept at 9 pm but was not able to wake up at 4 am. He woke up much later on third day than even second day. And in a matter of few days, he was doing this as a daily, albeit most undesirable, routine: waking up at 4 am to put off alarm and then feeling such strong drowsiness that, going back to sleep and waking up much later around 6 am. Then, he realized his body and mind are not able to adjust so fast to reduction of sleep from 9 hours to 7 hours. So, he applied gradual approach, which he felt, is the only realistic approach. First he determined his natural need for sleep. So, he slept at 9 pm without setting any alarm and with this auto-suggestion that when his sleep will break on its own, he will wake up without showing any laziness. That day, he woke up at 6 am. Thus, he determined that he needs 9 hours of sleep currently. For next 1 week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 6 am. 2nd week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 5:55 am. 3rd week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 5:50 am. Continuing this process of setting alarm 5 minutes earlier than previous week and thus, reducing sleep hours by 5 minutes every week, he was able to reduce his sleep hours from 9 to 7 in a matter of 24 weeks (i.e., approximately 6 months). Thus, he fulfilled his aspiration of developing a fixed routine of sleeping 7 hours a day during 9 pm to 4 am.

Thus, similar approach can be used to reduce the amount of sleep-need of our body and mind. But, in no case, total sleep hours can be reduced below 3-4 hours because the phase of dreamless sleep is an absolute must for giving proper rest to our involuntary muscles and nervous system which are involved in automatic processes of blood-circulation, heart-beating, inhalation, exhalation, digestion, etc. 6-7 hours sleep a day is very much optimum. Perhaps, it would be motivating to know what Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) said about his sleep hours during one interview: I have tried to sleep less, but eventually I realized that I need 7 hours sleep a day for most efficient use of my mind during waking hours. But, I do envy those who are able to manage full efficiency of mind during waking hours even after sleeping 3-4 hours a day: they have so much time for work and play.

No need to feel envy with those who are able to manage full efficiency of mind during waking hours even after sleeping 3-4 hours a day: such people are almost 1 among lakhs of people and often are advanced yoga-practitioners who dont need the phase of dreams because of a completely peaceful and relaxed mind. But, yes, this approach is recommended by us for reducing sleep-need from, say, 8 hours a day to 6 hours a day. 6 hours a day is minimum sleep quantity recommended by this document because almost all of us do need phase of dreams to let out subconscious stress caused by negativity and unfulfilled desires from our past and day-to-day life. 3.1.10. A fixed schedule for exercises, bathroom and meals

15

A broad or precise schedule for exercises (by exercises, we mean physical exercises, breathing exercises or thoughtless awareness practice), bathroom and meals should be kept depending on what suits one the most. Some people will find it better to have a broad schedule, say, finish lunch sometime between 1 pm to 2 pm and some people will find it better to have a precise schedule, say, have lunch exactly during 1 pm to 1:30 pm. One should experiment and finds which suits him/her the most. But, some central principles should be followed by everyone in this regard: 1. Don't make it too broad, otherwise it will dilute the notion and advantage of regularity - if a daily activity takes, say 30 min., give it a broad range of not more than twice, say 60 min. 2. Schedule meal only during that time-period when there is real hunger - hunger is the best spice as well as a natural catalyst for activating digestive juices in our digestive system. Thus, meal taken during hunger tastes the best and also gets digested the best. 3. Eat meal slowly and with awareness - the primary reason why people over-eat and end up having many diseases caused by over-eating and obesity is because during taking their meals, their attention wanders too much in either past or future, so they are able to enjoy sufficient taste of food only through over-eating. One sure way to bring attention to present while taking meals is: to take meal when there is real hunger and then too, eat slowly and with conscious attention about taste, movement of hands and mouth for taking and eating food. 3.1.11. A sample example of daily routine Daily routine (Read this routine after breakfast and just before sleep) 9:50 pm - 10 pm: Update self-analysis table and set alarm for 5 am 10 pm - 5 am: sleep 5 am 6 am: wake up and wash eyes & face in bathroom -> 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced technique -> 5 min Kapalbhati technique -> 30 min thoughtless awareness technique -> 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced technique 6 am - 7 am: bathroom -> break-fast 7 am 7:10 am: creating a prioritized task-list for today. Lunch hours: 1 pm 2 pm Dinner hours: 6 pm 7 pm During day-time, if untimely drowsiness happens, at once do 10 min NSA technique. Right attitude towards the past: Remaining stuck to dead past is like living permanently in graveyard/'cremation ground'. 'Learn and move on' is the best approach to deal with past, both negative past as well as positive past, because by getting stuck with our negative past, we become negative, demoralized and pessimistic, thus, crippling our lives both mentally as well as emotionally. Likewise, by getting stuck with our positive past, we become complacent and end up losing our inner drive for further self-improvement and success. Right attitude towards the future: Future is always unknown - but, if you maintain a positive outlook about it, future will have more chance to be positive and if you maintain a negative outlook about it, future will have more chance to be negative. So, always maintain a positive outlook about future. The highest inspiration: Society comes first. So, if for the sake of society, an individual needs to sacrifice him/herself or his/her family, he/she should gladly do so without any hesitation. Time-management is life-management. Ego and laziness are two greatest enemies of peace, happiness and wisdom. 16

Note: In daily routine, writing instructions or some inspiring quotes is highly recommended because it helps a lot in developing more clarity, self-discipline and motivation. 3.2. Daily create a prioritized task-list for today 3.2.1. What are the benefits of a prioritized task-list? Daily creating a prioritized task-list for today is very important for todays time-management. Let us first understand what we mean by Daily create a prioritized task-list for today. A prioritized task-list means a list of all tasks that one needs or aims to finish today with suitable priority assigned to each task. The priority-assignment can be done in many ways you can develop your own way. One way that we can suggest is explained in next section. Daily creating a prioritized task-list for today has numerous benefits: 1. By knowing about all tasks that we aim to do today, we gain a clear picture and inspiration about todays time-management. 2. This helps us in not forgetting very urgent or very important tasks in the hustle and bustle of many activities. 3. When we realize we can do only some of all tasks in remaining hours of today, we are able to choose tasks which are more important. 4. By scheduling tasks appropriately, we will be able to finish more important tasks on daily basis to a great extent, which will be quite helpful in producing good amount of self-satisfaction on daily basis and good long-term result. Note: One should not write down routine tasks which one does on daily basis and during fixed hours, for example, sleep, bathroom, meals, etc. simply because doing that will unnecessarily increase the size of task-list. But, sometimes they may be written if one feels they are part of a tight day-time schedule: use your discretion to determine which and when to write/avoid about such routine tasks in prioritized tasklist. 3.2.2. Priority scheme Give each task one of these priorities: 1. 4/4-priority. It means exceptional priority. This is for a task which must be finished today at all costs because of its importance or urgency or both. 2. 3/4-priority. It means excellent priority. This is for a task which must be finished today at all costs, but is less important or urgent than 4/4-priority task. So, in case, one is forced to choose between finishing a 4/4-priority-task and a 3/4-priority task, one will choose the former. 3. 2/4-priority. It means good priority. This is for a task which one aims to finish today, but it is alright even if one is not able to finish. 4. 1/4-priority. It means average priority. This is for a task which one aims to start working upon today if one is able to find time for doing that.

17

3.2.3. When to create the prioritized task-list for today? One can create the prioritized task-list for today either in the beginning hours of today or just before previous days sleep, depending upon which suits one the most. 3.2.4. Dealing with unexpected tasks A good prioritized task-list should be able to handle unexpected tasks also. For this, we can simply keep the task-list with ourselves either in planning notebooks (notebooks used only for todays planning and long-term planning) or a note and keep updating it whenever we remember or get any new important or urgent task. 3.2.5. A sample example of prioritized task-list A suggested task-list may be in the form of below table: Sequence number Status Task Priority level Deadline

Before we go ahead, let us understand the meaning of each column. 1. Sequence number: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it so that it suits you the most. a. Use 1,2,3,.... for tasks which you aim to do today: this is very useful for referring to the task mentally. b. Use -> in this column if the task referred to has deadline of some other day. This is useful for noting down all tasks which get assigned today. Just before you sleep, you should move all these tasks to long-term planning notebook under appropriate topic: detailed explained about long-term planning notebook will be given later. c. Use decimal point sequence number when you have cancelled an existing task at sequence number, say, 9 and added, say 2 new tasks, during same time: so, sequence number for these new tasks will be 9.1 and 9.2. This is just to help us in keeping a clear perspective of sequence of task-schedule in an easy manner in face of cancellation or modification of existing tasks. 2. Status: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it so that it suits you the most. a. Leave it blank for task not started yet. b. Mark it with F once the corresponding task is finished. c. Mark it with C it if the task is cancelled: if the task is scheduled at some day, note that also in status column. For example, suppose today is 1 January 3047 and one of tasks that a kid, called Gopal, has, is to give a 2-hours lecture in a seminar on time-management to the group of CEOs of top 100 (by revenue-size) companies on planet Mars during 12 pm to 2 pm. But, unfortunately, while at Mars, Gopal gets an unexpected call at 11:30 am 18

from his mother planet Earth which requires him to go back to Earth to remove a very nasty bug in universal internet-system, which has disrupted internet services between our solar system and rest parts of the universe. So, Gopal marks the task of Timemanagement lecture to CEOs of Mars as C and shift the seminar with agreement of CEOs to 10 January 3047. So, he updates status column in his task-list row for that task as: C: Shift to 10 Jan, 12 pm 2 pm and adds a new task Find and remove the universal internet-system bug in todays task-list. 3. Task: In this column, describe the task broadly but clearly. 4. Priority level: Write down the priority level of the corresponding task in this column. You may use the priority scheme suggested by us in Priority scheme section or develop & use your own priority scheme. 5. Deadline: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it. a. Tasks which may reduce our concentration and energy level, but are too important to avoid, must be scheduled in the late hours of the day (like in the evening or after the evening) but before few hours of sleep (so that they do not end up disturbing our sleep), as far as practically possible. For example, reading newspaper, reading personal emails, watching news or videos and discussion on sensitive matters are some of the tasks, which often have potential to reduce our concentration and energy level. So, they should be done in the late hours of the day (like in the evening or after the evening) but before few hours of sleep. Generally, such tasks are related to receiving some external information or sense-stimuli which often start a chain of unwanted, uncontrollable thoughts and thus, reduce our concentration level or worse still, which have a demoralizing effect on us and end up reducing our peace and energy level also apart from reducing our concentration level. b. Tasks which reduce over-all time and energy spent when they are done together, should be scheduled together. This will save precious time and energy. For example, one may need to do some marking someday if one schedules it during the same time when one comes back from the office/school, one will not need to go to market again after coming home from office/school and thus, will save ones precious time and energy. c. Taking above 2 factors into account and leaving aside all tasks, whose schedule cannot be changed by us, out of all remaining tasks, we should schedule more important tasks earlier than less important tasks. This helps us in focusing our time and energy on more important tasks first, which ensure that more important tasks get finished on daily basis even if some less important tasks might not get finished someday. d. If exact timing is known (for example, for task like attending some class during say, 10 am to 11 am), write both starting as well as finishing time, like 10 am 11 am in deadline column. e. If you aim to start a task at certain time, at say, 10 am but are not sure when you will be able to finish, then write just starting time, like 10 am in deadline column. f. If you aim to finish a task by a certain time, at say, 6 pm but are not sure when you will be able to start, then write just finishing time, like 6 pm in deadline column. g. If you are not sure about either starting time or finishing time, but are aware about approximate amount of time needed to finish that task, like say 2 hours 30 min, write 2 hrs 30 min in deadline column. h. Leave this column blank for tasks which may not be put in any of above categories. 19

i.

Use date also when it is used to store deadlines for tasks assigned today but to be finished later.

Let us consider a hypothetical example to understand how this prioritized task-list can be used. Background: Rajneesh is a very sincere student who is studying in class ten in Madhya Pradesh. Today is Monday, November 10, 2008. Rajneesh daily sleeps at 10 pm and wakes up at 4 am. He then does 2-hours practice of thoughtless awareness and breathing exercises during 4 am to 6 am. Thereafter, he goes to bathroom and takes breakfast all by 7 am. Just after taking breakfast, he creates his prioritized task-list for today. Today, his school is (unfortunately!) open: his school schedule for today is fixed and being a sincere student, Rajneesh always attends all his classes. Apart from attending school, Rajneesh has other tasks to do today like playing Football in evening hours, watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV and then, doing self-studies. Rajneesh creates the prioritized task-list for today after taking morning meals at 7 am. Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 7 am: creation. Sequence number 1 2 3 4 5 6 Status Task Priority level 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 3/4 Deadline

Social studies class Science class English class Music class Lunch Revising previous days mathematics notes Mathematics class Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV Playing football Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday

8 am 8:55 am 9 am 9:55 am 10 am 10:55 am 11 am 11:55 am 12:00 pm 12:45 pm 12:45 pm 1:30 pm

7 8

4/4 2/4

1:30 pm 2:25 pm 3 pm 5 pm

9 10

1/4 3/4

5 pm 6:30 pm 7 pm - 9:50 pm

20

Background: Rajneesh gets a home-work in social studies which he needs to submit on Nov 13 and another home-work in English, which he needs to submit on Nov 15. He introduces 1 entry for each of these 2 long-term tasks in todays task-list at the same time when he first learns about these tasks. Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 12 pm: 2 long-term tasks added, one during social studies class and one during English class.

Sequence number 1 2 3 4 5 6

Status

Task

Priority level 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 3/4

Deadline

F F F F

Social studies class Science class English class Music class Lunch Revising previous days mathematics notes Mathematics class Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV Playing football Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday Assignment on non-cooperation movement in social studies Assignment on Chapter 5 of English text-book

8 am 8:55 am 9 am 9:55 am 10 am 10:55 am 11 am 11:55 am 12:00 pm 12:45 pm 12:45 pm 1:30 pm

7 8

4/4 4/4

1:30 pm 2:25 pm 3 pm 5 pm

9 10

1/4 3/4

5 pm 6:30 pm 7 pm - 9:50 pm

->

4/4

Nov 13: - 8 am

->

4/4

Nov 15: - 10 am

Background: After coming to home at 3 pm, Rajneesh remembered suddenly that his toothpaste and notebooks got finished today morning, so, he needs to buy his favorite monkey-brand toothpaste (Bandar-chhap Dant-manjan an absolute must for healthy teeth and gums!) and notebooks from market. He has no choice but to cancel Football games and add these tasks at end of table. He will not need more 21

than 45 minutes for buying these things: remaining 45 minutes, he aims to spend in doing social studies assignment. Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 5 pm: first modification for todays tasks.

Sequence number 1 2 3 4 5 6

Status

Task

Priority level 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 3/4

Deadline

F F F F F F

Social studies class Science class English class Music class Lunch Revising previous days mathematics notes Mathematics class Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV Playing football Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday Assignment on non-cooperation movement Assignment on Chapter 5 Buying toothpaste and notebooks Working on assignment on noncooperation movement

8 am 8:55 am 9 am 9:55 am 10 am 10:55 am 11 am 11:55 am 12:00 pm 12:45 pm 12:45 pm 1:30 pm

7 8

F F

4/4 4/4

1:30 pm 2:25 pm 3 pm 5 pm

9 10

1/4 3/4

5 pm 6:30 pm 7 pm - 9:50 pm

->

4/4

Nov 13: - 8 am

-> 9.1 9.2

4/4 4/4 2/4

Nov 15: - 10 am 5 pm 5:45 pm 5:45 pm 6:30 pm

Note: We use 9.1 and 9.2 sequence numbers for new entries because they were created due to cancellation of task 9. This technique helps us in remembering the sequential timing of tasks easily even in face of cancellation of existing tasks and addition of new tasks.

22

Background: Rajneesh daily takes dinner during 6:30 pm to 7 pm. At 9:50 pm, Rajneesh writes todays self-analysis in self-analysis table and shifts all deadlines got today (marked by -> in sequence number column) to long-term planning notebook under appropriate topic. Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 9:50 pm. Sequence number 1 2 3 4 5 6 Status Task Priority level 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 Deadline

F F F F F F

Social studies class Science class English class Music class Lunch Revising previous days mathematics notes Mathematics class Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV Playing football Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday Assignment on non-cooperation movement Assignment on Chapter 5

8 am 8:55 am 9 am 9:55 am 10 am 10:55 am 11 am 11:55 am 12:00 pm 12:45 pm 12:45 pm 1:30 pm

7 8

F F

4/4 4/4

1:30 pm 2:25 pm 3 pm 5 pm

9 10

C F

1/4 3/4

5 pm 6:30 pm 7 pm - 9:50 pm

->

4/4

Nov 13: - 8 am

-> 9.1 9.2 F F

4/4 4/4 2/4

Nov 15: - 10 am 5 pm 5:45 pm 5:45 pm 6:30 pm

Buying toothpaste and notebooks Working on assignment on noncooperation movement

Note: This is just a sample: feel free to modify it suitably so that it works best for you. 3.3. Do self-analysis on daily basis 3.3.1. When? 23

The best time is just before sleep. 3.3.2. How? 1. Develop clear and precise benchmarks to do self-analysis for today. 2. Use a self-analysis table in todays planning notebook. This will help in analyzing the patterns and performance of many days also whenever you feel the need to do so. 3.3.3. A sample example of self-analysis table Let us continue using the example of Rajneesh. Rajneesh does his self-analysis daily based on below factors: a) Sleep hrs: SH, b) Sleep timing: ST, c) Positive thinking: PT, d) Good behaviour: GB, e) Timemanagement: TM, f) Over-all concentration level: OCL, and g) Total self-study hrs: TSH. Acronym can be used instead of whole name due to limited width of page in notebook or one may use both left and right pages for writing all columns of self-analysis table. Do whatever you feel most convenient. Rajneesh uses a comprehensive grading scheme to grade todays performance whenever it suits any factor. It is given below. a) b) c) d) e) f) g) -2/4 grade: exceptionally bad -1/4 grade: very bad 0/4 grade: bad 1/4 grade: average 2/4 grade: good 3/4 grade: excellent 4/4 grade: exceptional

He uses below self-analysis table (written in his todays planning notebook). Let us view it carefully to understand how Rajneesh does daily self-analysis just before sleep during 9:50 pm to 10 pm.

Date

Sleep hrs

Sleep timing

Positive thinking

Good behaviour

Timemanagement

Over-all concentration level

Total selfstudy hrs 5.5 hrs

Nov 1

6 hrs

10 pm 4 am

3/4

3/4

3/4

2/4

Suggestion for self-improvement: concentration level should be increased by studying in isolated atmosphere of library rather than in crowded class-room during free schooltime. Nov 2 6 hrs 10 pm 3/4 3/4 1/4 3/4 4 hrs 24

 4 am Suggestion for self-improvement: dont indulge in long debate with friends, so that precious time doesnt get wasted.

3.4. Other useful aids 3.4.1. Session table Session-table is very useful for anyone who is engaged in doing many tasks related to a focused field. Students definitely fall in this category. Each session means at-a-stretch studies/work during that time-period. One should try to maintain every session of at least 90 minutes duration, because a) keeping session-duration too short reduces the concentration level and wastes time because every time we start a new session, we need initial few minutes just to get our mind attuned to the work. b) keeping session-duration too long also reduce the concentration level because our mind may get exhausted or bored. The definition of too long will depend on many factors which include our work habit and energy-level during a particular time-period. A good planning for developing minimum session-length for students may be as follows: a) During nursey & kinder-garden: 20-25 minutes often, this is the time-period for each class in school for this age-group. b) During class 1 to class 2: increase from 20-25 minutes to 40-45 minutes. c) During class 3 to class 4: increase from 40-45 minutes to 60-65 minutes. d) During class 5 to class 6: increase from 60-65 minutes to 90 minutes or more. e) After class 6: maintain 90 minutes minimum session-length. This is good enough length for whole life also. Increasing minimum session-length can be done by increasing minimum session-length by 5 minutes every few weeks. For example, as per above scheme, during class 5 and 6, a student has to increase his/her minimum session-length from 60 to 90 minutes: this increase of 30 minutes over a period of around 24 months can be easily achieved by increasing minimum session-length by 5 minutes every 3 months. A sample session-table. Sequence Number Task Starting time Finishing time Duration Concentration Total hrs level

All columns except last 2 are easy to understand. Let us understand last 2 columns: 25

a) Concentration level: one can use same grading system as used in self-analysis table to judge ones concentration during this session. b) Total hrs: This means total hrs of studies/work done at the end of this session. Maintaining this column is very helpful in sustaining self-motivation and drive for more labor. Columns like sequence number, task, starting time and duration will be written just at the beginning of the session, whereas columns like finishing time, concentration level and total hrs will be written at the end of session. Let us consider again the example of Rajneesh. Rajneesh is totally free from extra activities on (Sunday) Nov 9, 08. He decides to spend all his time on preparing for Mathematics test to be taken next day in school: it will include first 6 chapters of Mathematics text-book. After finishing his meals at 7 am, he starts his first-session with an aim to finish chapter 1 of text-book during a session-period of 90 minutes: he sets up an alarm clock for 8:30 am so that he can focus fully on studies without bothering about whether the sessions finishing time has arrived. Just at the beginning of the first-session, he writes below details in session-table. Rajneeshs session-table at the beginning of 1st session. Sequence Number 1 Task Revise chapter 1 of Math textbook Starting time 7 am Finishing time Duration 1.5 hrs Concentration Total hrs level

Rajneesh is able to finish revision of chapter 1 during the session. The alarm rings at 8:30 am. Rajneeshs attention goes to alarm: he puts it off and ends the session after updating his session-table. Rajneeshs session-table at the end of 1st session. Sequence Number 1 Task Revise chapter 1 of Math textbook Starting time 7 am Finishing time 8:30 am Duration 1.5 hrs Concentration Total hrs level 3/4 1.5 hrs

At 8:30 am, after updating session table, Rajneesh takes a break for 10 minutes, during which he drinks 1 glass of water and goes to bathroom. Throughout this break-period, Rajneesh maintains a relaxed attitude through practice of present-moment awareness so that his mind gets fully recharged for next session. At 8:40 am, he starts his second-session with aim to finish chapter 2 of text-book during a session-period of 90 minutes: he sets up an alarm clock for 10:10 am so that he can focus fully on studies without bothering about whether the sessions finishing time has arrived. Just at the beginning of the first-session, he writes below details in session-table. Rajneeshs session-table at the beginning of 2nd session. 26

Sequence Number 1

Task Revise chapter 1 of Math textbook Revise chapter 2 of Math textbook

Starting time 7 am

Finishing time 8:30 am

Duration 1.5 hrs

Concentration Total hrs level 3/4 1.5 hrs

8:40 am

1.5 hrs

Rajneesh is able to finish revision of chapter 2 during the session. The alarm rings at 10:10 am. Rajneeshs attention goes to alarm: he puts it off and ends the session after updating his session-table. Rajneeshs session-table at the end of 2nd session Sequence Number 1 Task Revise chapter 1 of Math textbook Revise chapter 2 of Math textbook Starting time 7 am Finishing time 8:30 am Duration 1.5 hrs Concentration level 3/4 Total hrs 1.5 hrs

8:40 am

10:10 am

1.5 hrs

3/4

3 hrs

Rajneesh continues maintaining session-table for studies done during entire day. 3.4.2. Task details This can be used for explaining detailed description and steps/sub-tasks of a task. For example, one may write down all goods that one need to buy before one goes to market. This will help in not forgetting anything unintentionally. Depending upon the need, one may develop a priority-scheme for all subtasks of a particular task also, so that more important sub-tasks are given attention first over less important sub-tasks. Task-details for a particular task can be written in a small note made on a page torn from a notebook or better still, we can put this in todays planning notebook itself. 4. Long-term planning: 2nd core practice of time-management Long-term planning may involve any or all of following information: 1. 2. 3. 4. Task-list/plans for next few weeks Task-list/plans for next few months, Task-list/plans for next few years. Important information like phone and contact addresses. 27

5. Important reflection done on any issue. Before we end this section, let us understand what long-term planning is. 1. It is neither day-dreaming nor worrying about future: it is about setting goals and plans for future at proper time and with conscious use of thinking process. We would do well to note that both day-dreaming as well as worrying about future happen at wrong time and with uncontrollable/unconscious use of thinking process. 2. It does not contradict the philosophy of live in the moment. Rather it complements this philosophy by giving a sense of direction and depth to our present. 5. Planning notebooks: using all ingredients together We have discussed many aids for time-management. Use of planning notebook is indispensable to make proper use of so many aids like daily routine, prioritized task-list for today, self-analysis table, session table, task details and all items in long-term planning. One sample scheme is described below: feel free to modify or develop a new scheme so that it suits you the most. 1. Use 2 planning notebooks: one for todays planning and other for long-term planning. This is suggested because long-term planning involves so many crucial details that they need to be retained for many months and even years, whereas todays planning itself will occupy many pages on daily basis if we use many of aids like daily routine, prioritized task-list, selfanalysis table, session table and task details. 2. Todays planning (TP) notebook. In TP notebook, use beginning part of notebook on daily basis for aids like prioritized task-list, session table and task details for today. Use end part of notebook for aids like daily routine and self-analysis table. This helps in systematic and clean writing pattern in TP notebook. 3. Long-term planning (LP) notebook. In LP notebook, keep on including all these details: task-list/plans for next few weeks/months/years, important information like phone and contact addresses & important reflection done on any issue. Task-list can use same format as one used in prioritized task-list for today in TP notebook. Plans and other information can be written using suitable format. 4. Do page-numbering and use an index table in LP notebook. Since we will need to refer to information stored in LP notebook very frequently, we need to maintain page number for every page in LP notebook and use an index table which stores following details for each and every topic in LP notebook: sequence/topic number (for easily mental referral), name of topic and range of pages where topic is written. Whenever we write any new topic (for example, say, major goals for year 2008), we should write the corresponding index in index table for an easy and fast retrieval of information.

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5. Keep TP notebook with yourself most of the times. The reason behind this is obvious: we need to use TP notebook throughout whole day for using aids like prioritized task-list, session table and task details. 6. Keep LP notebook also with yourself most of the times if that is genuinely needed. This is quite useful for people like managers/leaders, poets and writers, so that they can refer to existing long-term plans as well as write down new long-term plans and inspiring poems/writings as and when they come up in mind. 7. Always put your detailed address - name, address, phone & email in LP notebook, with a request to contact you in case it gets lost and someone finds it. In general, one should write this information in every notebook, but it becomes a must for LP notebook, because this contains all your long-term plans and important writings.

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