Allow me to paint you a picture: I am in my dorm, sitting at my desk, hair disheveled and eyes leaking tears during the final scenes of Amadeus as Mozart's Requiem plays. I came to be in this state of emotional turmoil though a series of events beginning with being assigned to analyze a snippet of "Don Giovanni" for theory class. As I was writing out chord symbols and cadences, I thought about the fact that I've never really "liked" Mozart, however, I found myself really appreciating the genius evident in the writing of this piece. I began thinking about his music in relation to his personal life, drawing connections, one thing led to another, and now I love Mozart. This is only one example of the situations I find myself in all too frequently. I get distracted, and then I become focused, but rather than being focused on the original task, I become focused on my distractions. In all fairness, this has led to some rather wonderful outcomes (such as a newfound appreciation for Mozart and some truly top-notch doodles in the corners of my homework), but has also led to frantic paper-writing sessions and less than perfect assignments that could have been avoided had I simply channeled my concentration on the task at hand. This becomes an issue of time management when a project that should take an hour of my time ends up taking three, and while this is simply part of my nature, it's also an issue of personal discipline.

My biggest struggle with time management and my biggest strength are two sides of the double edged sword that is my personality. Because, while I do end up venturing off on rabbit trails, I don't consider any opportunity to learn something new to be a waste of time. I believe that a critical part of using your time wisely is putting one hundred percent of your passion, energy, and focus into whatever you choose to do. Making the most of every moment opens an entirely new spectrum of possibilities for the minutes in an hour, the hours in a day, and the days of a lifetime.