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One way or "technique" that I have always gone by in my 4 year journey of college is that I will always be proactive, not reactive. This came from a book I read in an engineering class my first ever semester of college, and this book was called "the 7 habits of highly effective people" by Stephen Covey. Although it is just one of the 7 habits, I took so much from this book and my professor made us live by this book, which I thank him for to this day. This could be translated in many ways, and for the purpose of time management to me it means that I make time for what's important to me, regardless of the obstacles "life" throws at me. Often times, I see the people around me complain that there just isn't enough time in the day to do all the things they want to do, yet I see the behaviors of these people and it tells me the complete opposite. I love going to the gym, as it gives me a feeling of peace and lets me ease my "stress" from my life, as well as the benefits that come from it. I work out 5-6 days a week and don't miss a day, regardless of "there not being enough time in a day", even if I have to go at 12-1am in the night, I am a firm believer that you make time for what's important to you. All in all, this means that rather than sitting around blaming life's obstacles for getting in the way of my "time management" or "agenda", I will find a way around things to make it work. I know of people who study for an entire week, from the time they wake up, to the time they go to bed, and the Ted talk I watched confirmed what I thought the whole time, which was that an hour or two of focused studying can outweigh an entire of day of distractive studying, where you aren't fully tapped in. This led me to the fact that I always think and the Ted talk mentioned which is that saying you don't have time just equals "it's not a priority". To get back on topic, I have been on top of my schedule and even though sometimes life just gets in the way, I don't make my daily routines concrete, and find that adding spontaneity helps get rid of that disappointment that comes with hardcore scheduling that most people do. I simply work my Monday-Friday job 8-4 get off, go to the gym, eat, do homework or hang out with friends/family/relationship and continue to the next day. Weekends is gym in the morning, then get homework finished if I haven't already, and then go out and enjoy the rest of my evening, simple as that. I prioritize gym and schoolwork, while emphasizing the fact that it never gets in the way of my personal/social life unlike many others who complain and blame others (life) for their bad time management rather than doing something about it to be more effective/productive. I have a full time job, full time school, a relationship, tons of friends, family, gym, and so much more to balance and I feel I do a very good job at balancing it all rather than letting it eat me alive like most people. This isn't to downplay others, because I know some people simply have harder lives (kids to raise, pets, harder jobs, etc.) but I think anything is possible if you put your mind to it and truly put time in for what matters to you, because like mentioned, you may feel you don't have time to clean your house after an exhausting day at work and responsibilities, but If I paid you $1000 to clean it, you would find time to get it done. I follow a simple method and it's by knocking out the hard things first, then get to the easy things, and after the stuff you can enjoy for self pleasure. I treat my priorities like emergencies, and set it as a goal to get done ASAP, rather than leaving it for the weekend to stress about how I don't have "enough time". I also tend to break things down, if it's very time consuming, and putting an entire one to two hours to lock in and get as much as I possibly can done, and then continue another day, which helps my work quality drastically rather than doing it all in one sitting and putting zero effort into it to get it submitted or done. All in all, I highly recommend the book I mentioned as it really teaches you common sense, which is something most people lack in todays society, as sad as it is to say. It also helps motivate you to become your best self, and learning to "put first things first" which is another great habit that I explained already. Sometimes it's very tempting to just go home and relax in bed with Netflix on, while you snack on a bag of potato chips. While that may seem all fine and well, sometimes you need to get home and do what needs to be done first, because that self pleasure, which is a want, not a need, can be put on hold for after when all priorities/responsibilities have been completed. There is so much more pleasure in doing things you want after the needs are done, then there is in doing self pleasure things knowing you are not being productive and wasting time on what truly matters. I am very passionate about this topic and am glad we went over these Ted talks, as well as being able to mention one of my favorite books to the class. I am hoping that whoever hasn't sat down to read it, will read it and I will let you be the one who decides how impactful it really is to the average person with a "busy" lifestyle. Living by these habits can really impact your career, and current lifestyle by giving you a winners mindset and ridding you of the "victim" mindset most people have believing that life is "against them" and "doesn't want them to achieve". I have been able to keep my GPA very high, enjoy my social life, work my full time job (40-45 hours), go to the gym, work on my car, and do all of the things I love simply by believing in myself and knowing there is always time if we are willing to make time for it, because time is most definitely elastic.