Ten Lessons In Time Management — A Final Lecture From A Dying Professor

After computer science professor Randy Pausch got diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer, he shared his wisdom on time management in a last lecture

Wouter van Heeswijk, PhD
ILLUMINATION

--

Maximizing our time is key to get the most out of our lifes [Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash]

Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful. — Randy Pausch

In 2006, time must have stood still for Randy Pausch, the moment he heard he had a terminal form of pancreatic cancer. With a remaining life expectancy of mere months, the computer science professor decided to get the most out of what time he had left on earth.

One of his final contributions to the world was the famous lecture on time management that he gave on November 27, 2007 at the University of Virginia. In his humorous address, Pausch jokingly introduced himself as an ‘authority to talk about what to do with limited time’. Given the circumstances he was in, it is hard to argue with that.

Prof. Pausch sadly passed away in 2008, but his lessons and impact are as relevant now as they were back then. In this article, I will summarize my ten main takeaways from his lecture.

--

--

Wouter van Heeswijk, PhD
ILLUMINATION

Assistant professor in Financial Engineering and Operations Research. Writing about reinforcement learning, optimization problems, and data science.