TOP 10 TIME WASTERS

There are many time wasters that will really eat into your time if you allow them to. To free up
your time you need to identify those time wasters, decide what you want to do about them and
then take action.
I've identified what I've seen to be the 10 most common time wasters. Just consider in what
way these are relevant to you, rather than just assume they're not. This will open you up to
seeing how you can make improvements in the use of your time. For each item, I suggest you
ask yourself the question, "In what way does this waste my time?" For now, just see it as it is.
Later on, you can identify any action you're going to take.

1. Lack of planning, prioritising and focus.
Without these, you'll find yourself drifting and working in a scattered and disjointed way, and
not spending time on what's most important to you. You'll end up working on activities that
aren't moving you towards your vision and if this is so, it's not an effective way to spend your
time. You'll feel directionless and your productivity will drop. When you're not fully focused in
the moment, you inhibit the momentum required to be effective and to get things done faster
and more easily.

2. Procrastination.
Putting things off wastes not only your time but also your energy and thoughts. When you
procrastinate, much time is spent thinking and worrying about the things you need to do. You
give yourself a hard time for not doing them and therefore you're unable to spend your time
effectively, especially when crunch time arrives and what you've been procrastinating over
finally has to be done. If you see yourself as someone who procrastinates, you'll remain in that
endless cycle. read more . . overcome procrastination



9. Lack of organisation and untidiness.
Clutter zaps your energy and not only leaves you less able to work effectively, but wastes time
as you try to sort through it. You may find yourself looking through the same clutter time and
again. Clutter can be a distraction for you and anything that distracts doesn't allow for effective
use of your time. When you lack organisation, much time can be spent doing the same thing
repeatedly or because there aren't the necessary systems or processes in place. Not simplifying
robs you of your time.

10. Not enough time-off or time for yourself.
You need to step back, evaluate and re-energise yourself in order to be effective. Many people
'try' to do more and more thinking they're using their time better. But in actual fact, this can
often result in being less productive and not working on what's most important. You waste time
when you keep doing, doing, doing, without enough time for just being and listening to your
inner wisdom. Without enough time-off or time for yourself, your health may suffer and
eventually you'll reach a crisis point where you're forced to take even more time off.

Now you have more clarity about the time wasters in your life, you are free to make a choice
about what, if anything, you want to do about them. Action is required for things to change if
you want to eliminate the time wasters you've identified today. I say today because this is a
process and I encourage you to continue with the process to see if there are any more or new
time wasters. To be truly effective in the use of your time you need to introduce a continual
process of improvement. Take a look at how your time is wasted, pick one specific thing and
then define the specific action you're going to take today to plug the hole in your wasted time.

Serious Problems with the K-12 Senior High
School Curriculum
Posted on February 18, 2014by Joel Tabora, S.J.
During the DepEd-CEAP Mindanao Summit organized by CEAPs National Basic
Education Commission (NBEC) and co-hosted by Ateneo de Davao University on 17-18
February, the intention was to appreciate progress attained in the implementation of the
K-12 educational reform and to understand the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Act of
2013 (RA 10627) for the Mindanao schools.
The presentation on the content of the Anti-Bullying Act was straightforward. Atty.
Joseph Estrada combined competence with humor overcoming an irksome cough!
to describe the content of the law and clarify its requirements for the schools.
But the presentations on the K-12 were more problematic. Brother Armin Luistro, FSC,
DepED Secretary, whod come to the Mindanao Summit despite an injury sustained in a
basketball match among Cabinet members, spearheaded the presentations with an
update on where K-12 is. He reminded all of a prior commitment: basic education was
not merely to be reformed, but transformed. It was to be genuinely learner
centered. He pointed to a nearly-completed K-12 curriculum that would allow for
creativity, innovation, and in Mindanao, a Mindanao perspective. Therefore, such
features as the mother-tongue based education, and an assessment system based on the
conviction, No child is a failure! were to be appreciated. He encouraged Catholic
schools in Mindanao to return to their original religious charisms to understand how
each might contribute uniquely to the success of the educational reform. In Mindanao,
special challenges that Catholic schools might address would be the educational needs of
the Indigenous Peoples, of the out of school youth, and even of the street children.


Over-Congested Curriculum
No problem with that. When Mr. Elvin Ivan Y. Uy, DepEds K-12 Program Coordinator,
presented the status of the Senior High School curriculum, problems began to
emerge. He echoed Bro. Armins summary of the reform as Learner-centered
education. But from the Power Point Presentation entitled: The K-12 Curriculum:
CEAP-NBEC Summit he spoke of 31 total Subjects required for Senior High School,
15 of which were Core Subjects and 16 of which were Track Subjects, the latter
broken down into 7 Contextualized subjects and 9 Specialization subjects. From the
same slide came the non-negotiable announcement: Each subject will have 80 hours
per semester.
The latter came as a shocker to curriculum planners from within the assembly like Dr.
Gina Montalan, Dean of the College of Education Ateneo de Davao University, who was
quick to point out that this would mean 6.5 hours of contact hours daily in the senior
high school for the DepEds required courses. If this were to be reckoned in todays
college units, this would be the equivalent to a whopping 32.5 units where college
students who need time to read and study outside of class should be taking no more
than about 20 units. The heavy daily 6.5 hours of required DepEd courses allowed little
room for mission-driven schools as all CEAP schools are! to add courses required
by their educational mission. These include subjects such as religious education or
theology, philosophy, and special formational courses such as in leadership training.
From the floor, Dr. Montalan suggested that the 80 hour per semester per course
requirement be tempered into 80 hours for some courses, and less for others. She even
suggested that if the 80 hours per course be truly required then classes be allowed on
Saturday in order for the mission schools to be able to accommodate their subjects. Bro.
Armin, sensitive to the learner, was not too enthusiastic about the latter, and suggested
that some of the mission courses might be the content of the required DepEd
courses. How that might sit, however, with zealous guardians of disciplines or DepEd
officials more sensitive to the letter of rules than their spirit is a serious concern.
It was because of this that the CEAP-DepEd Mindanao Summit unanimously passed a
resolution that the DepED, in consultation with Mindanao educators on the ground
revisit the 80 hours per subject requirement.

Tec-Voc Track Wont Prepare Students for Work as Industry Requires
A similarly serious problem came with the presentation of Fr. Onofre G. Inocensio, Jr.,
SDB, Superintendent of Don Bosco Schools and TVET Centers, on Implementing the
SHS Tech-Voc Track. All know that the Don Bosco schools are long-time recognized
experts in technical vocation educational training. Basically, Fr. Inocensio explained
that the senior high school core curriculum requirement is so heavy that there would
be no time to develop the hands-on skills in the students that such as the manufacturing
industry requires. There is adequate time to train manicurists and pedicurists, but shall
these provide the skills necessary for industrial development of the nation. Within the
time-constraints of the senior high school, Fr. Inocensios thesis is that it is not possible
to truly develop the multi-skilled students needed for industry. He confirmed his thesis
in recent dialogues with industry: what is important is not that the student has gone
through a required number of hours in vocational training, but that the student actually
have the skills required by industry. His solution: for the Don Bosco schools, they will
focus on teaching the skills as required by industry, using skilled teachers and the
industrial machinery and equipment required to impart them, and insure thereby that
the student be employed. To do so they will set aside the DepEd requirement of the core
curriculum. Once employed without having graduated from senior high school! the
student will be given the opportunity to come back to school and finish the academic
requirements that might also qualify him for college.
For the K-12 program, however, this position is disastrous. The K-12 program was
precisely supposed to either prepare students for gainful work after basic
education orprepare students for college. The either/or has become a both/and. It
intends both to equip the students with the skills necessary for gainful
employment and to prepare them for college within the same time constraint. And
because the designers are all college graduates with PhDs from the best of higher
educational intentions, but without the experience of training students in handling a
lathe or a welding machine, we now have a policy which has effectively shut out
meaningful skills development in favor of pre-college preparation. The K-12 program
has been reduced thereby to pre-college preparation whose core curriculum, according
to Mr. Elvin Uy, will prepare the student for college according to the College Readiness
Standards of the CHED.
Originally, there was supposed to be a pre-work track and a pre-college track. Pre-work
would equip students with industry-required skills. The pre-college track (not the core
curriculum common to all!) would prepare students for college according to CHEDs
college readiness standards.
Despite the fact that the K-12 reform was inspired by the conviction that not all need to
go to college, it is designed so that all can go to college. This either disrespects the
requirements for work, or disrespects the requirements for college. DepEd has chosen
to disrespect the requirements for work. For Fr. Inocensio to continue respecting the
requirements for work, he must sacrifice the DepED requirements for senior high
school.
In fact, in the presentations given by Dr. Tina Padolina on the Science, Technology and
Mathematics (STEM) strand and by Dr. Maria Luz Vilches on Humanities in Senior
High School, many of the subjects like Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research
sounded very HEI like belonging more to college or even graduate school education
rather than to basic education. I squirmed to find out that future nurses shall be
categorized under STEM and so be required to take even modified calculus. Is this
really necessary?
So again, the participants of the CEAP-DepED Summit in Mindanao unanimously
resolved that the DepEd revisit the requirements for the Tech-Voc Track.
Flexibility Required: Less May Be More
Of course, putting together curricular requirements for the K-12 reform is one
thing. Teaching them is quite another. A curriculum is like a wish list, but all the
components of curricula need real teachers. Here is, I think, where reality will demolish
the conceptual castles some may be taking satisfaction in in the formulation of these
curricula. For K-12 to succeed in being truly learner centered if must be realistically
teacher and region sensitive.
In the implementation of the K-12 reform, it must be clearly set in policy that these
curricular requirements for a long time cannot be decreed FYI for your
information (as was asserted by one speaker at the Mindanao Summit), but shall have
to be tentative and subject to the educational, pedagogical and industrial realities of
the countrys many different regions including the actual skills sets of our available
teachers. The outputs of a relatively high concentration of highly-qualified educators in
the Metro Manila areas cannot be expected in provincial areas. Tec-Voc training in
industrial areas will have to be different from that in rural areas. Policy must be set so
that there is ability to put the senior high school together and operate with the limited
resources of particular regions.
At this point, DepEd needs to take more of a dialogical rather than a prescriptive
stance; it must be encouraging and empowering, not over-demanding and
discouraging. It must capitalize on the good will of people who want this reform to
work.
In this sense, less may truly be more.
Distance education

By Schatzi Quodala
Inquirer
First Posted 00:40:00 11/11/2007

Filed Under: Education, Technology (general)

Nowadays, a student can earn a college or master?s degree or a doctorate even if he or she does not attend classes.
One can also earn a degree in the Philippines while the student is working abroad. This has been made possible by
distance education, which has been facilitated by the availability of Internet services in many parts of the country.
Distance education offers several advantages. Unlike traditional education in which one goes to school regularly to
meet teachers and classmates, a student availing himself or herself of distance learning can ?attend? classes while
at home or in the workplace with the use of e-mail, chat and video conference. Assignments and announcements are
posted online.
Like the mainstream learning experience, distance education follows a curriculum. Deadlines are set but studying can
be done at one?s pace. At the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) face-to-face sessions between
the teacher and student are done four to five times per semester.

At least 19 schools offer distance learning in the country. At the moment, UPOU offers the biggest number of courses
among the schools.
A total of 1,738 students are enrolled at the UPOU this second semester, 129 of whom are abroad, according to
Eden Salon of the UP Learning Center Administration.
Last semester, there were more than 2,000 students enrolled at the Open University.
A study by the UPOU has found that there is little difference in the quality of learning received by distance education
students and regular students.
SHARON CUNETA was reported to have not only passed in April 2006 but also placed second in the admission
exam of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), which provides learning through distance
education.
A year later, singer Sarah Geronimo followed in the footsteps of the singer actress and passed the exam.
Cuneta and Geronimo are among the students availing themselves of distance education.
Distance education is unlike the usual classroom setup where students and teachers are supposed to be present
regularly for education to take place.
In distance education, learning normally occurs in a different place from teaching, with the use of different forms of
medium. With this system, it is easier for individuals, who do not have the opportunity for a traditional learning
experience, to still pursue their studies.
Students are left to learn in the comfort of their homes or workplace.
Distance education still follows a certain curriculum. While students are usually left to study at their own pace,
learning materials have deadlines.
In the Philippines, apart from the UPOU, 18 other universities and colleges offer undergraduate and graduate
programs using distance education through open universities.
All the 19 schools make use of the Internet, specifically e-mail, chat (voice or via web cam) and/or video
conferencing, to provide distance education.
The schools also require regular face-to-face interaction between teachers and students at their respective learning
centers.
Others like the University of Santo Tomas and the ABS-CBN use distance education to help the less privileged get a
high school diploma.
UP Open University
Established on Feb. 23, 1995, students at UPOU follow a semestral schedule. Teacher-student interaction usually
takes place with the help of snail mail, telephone, electronic communication and occasional face-to-face interaction.
Face-to-face sessions are done at about four to five times per semester under the supervision of a tutor.
To ensure that the exams are done by the students themselves, examinations are supervised, whether face-to-face
or online. Examinations and assignments are the bases for the students? grades.
Face-to-face examinations are done at the UPOU learning centers that may be located on UP campuses in Diliman,
Los Baos, Manila, Baguio, Cebu College, Tacloban College, the Visayas and Mindanao or in other cooperating
institutions like Universidad de Sta. Isabel, Cagayan State University and the Department of Education-Cagayan de
Oro. The learning centers are also used for study sessions.
The programs offered are Diploma in Science Teaching, Diploma in Mathematics Teaching, Diploma in Research and
Development Management, Diploma in Computer Science, Diploma/Master in Environment and Natural Resources
Management, Diploma in Language Studies for Teachers, Diploma/Master in Social Studies Education,
Diploma/Master of Social Work, Master in Hospital Administration, Master in Public Health, Master of Arts in Nursing,
Master in Public Management., Master of Professional Studies in Development Communication, Ph.D in Education,
and Associate in Arts.
Tuition for formal or diploma courses range from P300/unit to P600/unit while nonformal or certificate programs cost
P3,000/course.
PUP
Although the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Open University was officially launched in 1990, its distance
education project started in the 1970s.
The project was intended to be an extension of the PUP on its provincial campuses where it offered technical-
vocational courses to mostly out-of-school youth and the poor.
Starting with 360 beneficiaries, the PUP Open University?s student population has grown to almost 2,000.
Since 1970, PUP has been able to open other learning centers in Manila, Quezon City, Taguig, Bulacan, Batangas,
Quezon, Nueva Ecija and Camarines Sur.
PWU
Then Philippine Women?s University president, Dr. Jose Conrado Benitez, in his inaugural address on Feb. 19, 1993,
formally announced the university?s policy on distance education. ?It is the classroom that will have to go to the
students and not the students to the classrooms. It will enter the homes through distance education; it will take place
in the offices and workplaces through various career development and continuing education programs; it will situate
itself in our communities through accredited experiential learning activities designed for community immersion,? he
said.
In March 1994, the PWU EDTV or educational television program was launched. It was the first and only cable
television channel exclusively dedicated for educational programming. On July 15, 1996, the PWU College of
Distance Education was formally created.
The PWU College of Distance Education says its learning centers are on its campus in Manila, and in participating
schools in Makati, Las Pias, Bataan, Bulacan, Imus in Cavite, Camarines Norte, Kalinga, Lipa in Batangas,
Pampanga, Bacolod and Hong Kong.
Konrad Adenauer Center
The Ateneo de Manila University?s (AdMU) distance education program is focused on just one course: Journalism.
The Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism, together with the university?s Department of Education, ?designed [the
program] primarily for working journalists who seek excellence and advancement in their craft through a
comprehensive academic graduate-level training.?
The program offers three core courses: Advanced Reporting and Writing, Media Ethics and Media Law.
Electives consist of: Advanced Computer-assisted Reporting, Creative Writing, Editorial and Opinion Writing,
Investigative Journalism, Issues in Broadcast Journalism, Leadership in the Newsroom, Media Economics, Media
and Politics, Newsroom Management, Online Journalism, Photojournalism, Reporting Business, Reporting Conflict
and Peace, Reporting about the Environment, Reporting Information Technology, Reporting Social and Development
Issues, Science Reporting, Visual Literacy, Writing for Broadcast and Writing about Culture.
The program also lets students choose any three graduate-level courses in Humanities, Social Sciences,
Management, Natural Sciences and Engineering, called cognate courses.
The core courses are taught online using on-campus methods while elective courses are taken purely online. The
cognate courses are held onsite on AdMU?s Loyola campus.
Students are required on campus for only two brief periods during the two-year program: two weeks in August and
the six-week summer semester from April to May.
UST
The University of Santo Tomas organized a distance education program to help less privileged individuals who do not
have the opportunity or the money to study.
UST?s project began in 1999. Classes were conducted through a two-way radio with a teacher supervising five sitios
in Bamban, populated mostly by Aetas who had never gone to school. Through distance education, the Aetas learn
basic literacy and functional skills?reading, writing and simple arithmetic.
Each radio set in every sitio runs on car batteries. The radio sets, including the one in the radio room of the university,
are licensed by the National Telecommunications Commission.
ABS-CBN
Its Distance Learning Center (DLC), established in 1998, was intended to be a school for young actors and actresses
who have no time for regular schooling.
Originally, DLC had only nine students, all actors. The DLC now accepts students, regardless of age or stature. It
also gives much consideration to students with special needs like those who have to undergo regular medication.
The DLC is divided into two programs: semi-regular and home school.
The former requires students to attend classes four times a week (Tuesday to Friday between 9:30 a.m. and 4:15
p.m.) at the Talent Center Building in the ABS-CBN compound.
The latter gives students the leeway to study at their own pace, in the comfort of their homes. Still, a student under
the home school program is required to come to the learning center to take their periodic trimestral exams, to submit
projects, and to participate in special school activities.
(Schatzi Quodala is on the staff of Inquirer Research.)
* * *
Open U offers convenience
MARIA PAULINE ARQUELADA, an Associate in Arts student, enrolled in the UP Open University because it was
?convenient.?
With the use of e-mail, chat and video conferencing, she is able to ?attend? her classes. Her cell phone also comes
in handy.
?Everything is posted online and I can access assignments and announcements anytime at my convenience. I can
take care of my kids, manage a business and continue my studies all at the same time,? Arquelada said.
Distance education can sometimes be a ?hassle,? according to Mark Rozell Sabille, also an Associate in Arts student
at the UPOU.
?Sometimes, homework deadlines are conflicting with my work schedule,?? Sabille said.
But the setup is suitable for working students like him because he does not have to be physically present in a
classroom, he said.
Distance education is spreading globally, enabling overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to continue their studies.
In fact, an OFW, Susan Eleanor Claro, topped this year?s graduating class of UPOU. Claro works for a United
Kingdom-based nongovernment organization in Laos.



SEC. 3. Statement of Objectives. This Act shall have the following objectives:
a) To modernize the agriculture and fisheries sectors by transforming these sectors from a resource-based
to a technology-based industry;
b) To enhance profits and incomes in the agriculture and fisheries sectors, particularly the small farmers and
fisherfolk, by ensuring equitable access to assets, resources and services, and promoting higher-value crops,
value-added processing, agribusiness activities, and agro-industrialization;
c) To ensure the accessibility, availability and stable supply of food to all at all times;
d) To encourage horizontal and vertical integration, consolidation and expansion of agriculture and fisheries
activities, groups, functions, and other services through the organization of cooperatives, farmers and
fisherfolks associations, corporations, nucleus estates, and consolidated farms and to enable these entities
to benefit from economies of scale, afford them a stronger negotiating position, pursue more focused,
efficient and appropriate research and development efforts and enable them to hire professional managers;
e) To promote people empowerment by strengthening peoples organizations, cooperatives and NGOs and
by establishing and improving mechanisms and processes for their participation in government decision-
making and implementation;
f) To pursue a market-driven approach to enhance the comparative advantage to our agriculture and
fisheries sectors in the world market;
g) To induce the agriculture and fisheries sectors to ascend continuously the value-added ladder by
subjecting their traditional or new products to further processing in order to minimize the marketing of raw,
unfinished or unprocessed products;
h) To adopt policies that will promote industry dispersal and rural industrialization by providing incentives to
local and foreign investors to establish industries that have backward linkages to the countrys agriculture
and fisheries resource base;
i) To provide social and economic adjustment measures that increase productivity and improve market
efficiency while ensuring the protection and preservation of the environment and equity for small farmers
and fisherfolk; and
j) To improve the quality of life of all sectors.