dragonbook

18 UNIT III DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOWWHAT TIME MANAGEMENT IS? DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE? EFFECTIVE PLANNING One of my good friends during my undergraduate days was a guy named Jim Rich. Jim was probably the most impressive student I’ve ever met. It took him only three years to graduate from Stanford—with straight A’s and a degree in physics. He went on to Harvard and, in three more years, he had has Ph.D. Now Jim was a bright guy, but not that much brighter than most of his fellow students. What made him so successful was that he was one of the best-organized people around. Jim wasn’t the kind of guy who did nothing but study. He played water polo and table tennis, spent some time at the card table, and contributed his fair share to the ongoing dorm discussions of life, the universe, and everything. But, early in his academic career, Jim established some excellent study habits. In particular, he set aside specific times for studying—and when it was time to study, that’s what he’d do. If you want to be really good at anything, or even sort of good, planning and time management skills are extremely valuable—so valuable that businessmen will pay hundreds of dollars to attend seminars that help them improve in these areas. The Dale Carnegie training seminars, for instance, have been popular for years—and they do offer something of a recipe for success. But, fortunately for you, you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars for Dale Carnegie training. No. For only the hundred and fifty dollars you paid for this course and the price of this book (cheap!) you get most of what the Dale Carnegie people can teach you—and more!