To Do

Write up a paper that acknowledges the final project. That is, write an evaluation of Hyrum Smith’s Time Management techniques. Also, you wish to ground his techniques, if possible, in the narrative that gets one to Time Management books or classes to begin with. You sense that if one is to engage in the techniques, really engage in them, not forget them after a week, one must be able to appreciate why it is that one is going about doing them and be able to recall this whenever one doubts the experiment. You feel that Smith does not do justice to this narrative, the narrative that acts as an impulse to change oneself. You also notice that he does not critique the culture in which diffusion and the sense of entrapment are the pervasive norm – these being the major impulses to manage one’s time. Perhaps his view is like yours: that change can only happen if individuals sense the need to change, and from here, commit to enacting that change within themselves –that society is simply the interplay of relationships and that relations are only healthy when the individuals are, as far as possible, free to do as they see fit, free to care, free of Expectational living, free from entrapment. Does Smith think that finding out what you want to do is as simple as considering, planning, writing down your governing values? Granted there is value in this, but how much? How do you know they really are yours and not the social narrative or what your parents want or once wanted? You are suspicious of this idea – that you could easily understand yourself by writing down your most-basic values. A definition of ‘therapy’ could be that process of sorting out what you want for yourself from what others want for you. This suspicion, you think, must inform the whole project.

How to go about starting this paper? For one, you have not, as the prompt requires, used his method for one week. You’ve been a bit of a wreck, stressed, dull, dead, anxious. So you will not entirely be able to do the project as it is. Perhaps you could switch to ‘Value Programming’ the 2^nd option. Will Candia care? I suppose it doesn’t really matter. In fact it makes more sense to start with values as opposed to managing one’s time. Candia pointed out in one of your journals that you handed in that, “I am not sure you know what you want in all compartments of your life. What is necessary to ‘care for self’? The answer is so individual, but certainly basic needs must be met. Your question is all so human. I hope for your clarity and commitment to it.”

You will be addressing then, this prompt: Identify your governing values. Create your own personal constitution by stating each as an affirmation with a brief explanation describing what each means. Write a 1-2 page essay identifying some of the factors that influenced your value system. Have you experienced a significant emotional event that has influenced your values?