Cooking recipes ?? Do you do Time Management???

[ganymed]

Hello Guys,

I am 20 years old and studying. Usually, my Mom and I cooked together, which we really enjoyed. But in course of my life, she had to work longer, coming back home at 6 pm. Even though she came home that late, we still cooked or she alone cooked for me or my father.  Things have changed and now she is ill that means I got to do it alone. If I asked her, she would still try to cook for me. But I dont want that, feeling that I have to grow up. I want to get more indepent. And I have the feeling that I have to start to get my own rhythm or a daily routine in my life, independent from the non existent routine of my parents.They  never really taught me how to plan my day. We didnt eat regularly at 12,  evening meal at 6pm.

The thing is that I have problems of living my own life. Mostly my parents arent there anymore and noone is around. It is hard for me to be alone all the time without anybody. It happens often that I end up browsing on the internet, wasting valuable time of my life, walking around in our flat being confused about my life.
. That's why, It is my objective to get accustomed to a proper  Time Management.
Ever since I have gotten older, I have the feeling that I am a passive spectator of my  own life without any will to change my life. It is just that I lack motivation and have a feeling of listlessness. Besides, my parents are pressuring me to choose the proper subject to study. I started studying a semester ago but its not the right thing that suits  me. Even though I have leisure time now, I still dont really know with which job i will be comfortable.

Were there times where you felt the same?
Do you do proper time management, prepare day schedules or week schedules?
Planning your activities ? It is just that my life is changing so fast and I dont know in which direction it goes. Im scared of loosing control over my own life.


Any advices on this ??
Any tipps to learn to cook?

[Bob]

To cook?  To what your comfortable with and then expand from there.  You get out whatever you effort you put in, but expect some flops if you try next things.

For time maganement I just use a calendar and then make to do lists and keep revising that.  I used to do more, but you can start wasting time organizing things and there really is only so much you do.  So when I'm working, I just work on the next thing on the list for a certain amount of time.  Something like that.

[Petter]

Don´t listen to your parents and buy ready made food. 

[bernhard]

Awareness of time is an important pré-requisite for time management. So:

1.   Make a table with 3 columns and 96 lines. This represents the 24 hours of the day divided in 15 minutes slots. On the first column write down the times:
00:15 – 00:30
00:30 – 00:45
00:45 – 01:00
01:00 – 01:15
Etc.

On the second column write down what your plan for that day so that you know exactly what you should be doing at any particular 15 minutes slot (get really precise: brushing teeth, breakfast, watching TV, sleeping, etc.) It is up to you how you organise your daily tasks and activities, and what tasks and activities will be part of your schedule.

On the third column, write what you actually did during those 15 minutes you had planned doing something else.

2.   Now observe: It is almost impossible to keep to your schedule no matter what that schedule is. You will find that all external events will conspire against it (unexpected visitors, accidents, emergencies, etc.). But far worse will be the internal conspirators (“what am I doing this for?”, “How boring, I don´t feel like doing what is on the schedule right now”, etc.). Now, do not worry about that. The goal here is to make you aware that you don´t do anything, everything happens. This is everyone´s predicament, but they will deny it angrily. Therefore you must prove to yourself that this is indeed the case. Hence the schedule.

3.   Therefore, you must keep this activity for quite a long time, constantly failing to keep to your schedule, until you start to realise what is it that you need to do in order to take control of things. This is a personal trip, so I can only take you so far. I am showing you the gate, now cross it and follow the yellow brick road.

Then have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1825.msg13858.html#msg13858
(Accommodating practice times – 10 minute sessions – some mention on mental practice)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2526.msg21829.html#msg21829
(how to organise piano practise in short/medium/long term – Principle of memory retention – Principle of 15 minute sessions – stopping when you achieve your goals. Teachers should teach how to learn)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4718.msg45266.html#msg45266
(Time management)

Then read these three books:

Ray Josephs – How to gain an extra hour every day (Thorsons)

Ronny Eisenberg & Kate Kelly – Organise yourself! (Piatkus)

Don Aslett – Is there life after housework? (Exley)

(There are lots of similar books with similar titles. They more or less say the same thing. Any of them will do. I am recommending those not because they are the best, but because I happened to have read them)

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." (Carl Sandburg)

For cooking:

James Oliver – The Naked Chef (there is a whole series of books and DVDs) – Wholesome, healthy food, with a touch of gourmet, all of which very delicious. (He has a program on TV too).

Or go the next step up to Gordon Ramsay. Here is a sample.

Gordon Ramsay´s recipes

(rib eye of beef & gridle of artichokes)

(sticky lemon chicken)

(baked pork with picquant sauce)

(papardelle, smoked trout and tomato sauce)

(Mussels in coconut broth)

(Sea bass)

(Mutton stew)

(chicken in mushroom sauce)

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(Beef Wellington)

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(monkfish)

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(Brill)

(Seabass with perpper sauce)

(vegetable curry)

(pheasant)

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(rack of lamb)

(marinated mushrooms antipasti)

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(Courgette stuffed rolls)

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(beetroot & Roquefort)

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[db05]

Awareness of time is an important pré-requisite for time management.

I may have hit gold right here, even if I completely disregard everything else. Thanks you very much, Sir bernhard. You hit the nail in the head. I'd need a couple of years to exhaust this one.

To the original poster:
I'm 19, I still live with my parents, but I have problems living my own life, too. I had a taste of living away, though. 3 years in high school, and 1 semester in university. I thought I wold be comfortable in university, since I'd lived in a dormitory for 3 years, but I was wrong. Home is where the heart is, and I wasn't able to find that place anywhere in university. Transferred to another college close to home, didn't work out either. It has nothing to do with the place, but what you're doing and the people you're with.

Don't let your parents or anyone pressure you to "choose a proper subject." Even if you learn how to cook, and do time management, if you're living for someone else's sake, you're not living at all! You lose control of your life precisely because you are letting others dictate your actions. That's what I've learned so far. The only proper subject is the one you are dying to study. I decided to take my music studies seriously, though I only started 3 years ago, and I don't regret it. It's difficult as hell, but given a choice, I would have done the same thing.

Very few people irl understand how important music is to me, thus this forum is like home to me. I even have a family here! Well, sort of.

As for your question, I don't do strict time schedules, but I do some sort of checklist, and check when I've done something. For example:
Piano
Guitar
Solfege
History Theory Forms
Ear Training [check]
Piano Street [check]
Listening [check]
other errands

Then for studies, I track the total time I spend daily and weekly. It keeps me from studying too much/ too little of one thing in detriment to another, which used to happen a lot. I find it's better to do a little of everything everyday than do a lot of one thing in a day. So don't beat yourself up if you just studied piano for 15 mins today, as long as its focused practice, and you keep it up, you'll get results.

Hope this helps!

[Bob]

Time management for college?

Decide which classes are important and focus on those.  Some of those gen eds are really worthless and are there because a committee said they had to be.  That doesn't mean you have to put much effort into them.  Just buy the book (or not, share) and show up for class.  Split up the readings with others.  Things like that.  Take easier gen eds if you don't need any more information in that area.  If you're in music and you have a choice between two math courses, neither of which will really do much for you, take the easier one.  You also don't really have to do a lot of the readings for some classes.  I'm not saying be lazy.  Just priotize.  Some of those classes really aren't that important and don't have much impact.  You have limits on your resources.  All of the classes will seem to demand more time.  That doesn't mean you have to give them any though.

A strategy that worked... Just keep working until the semester is over.  Then sleep, sleep, sleep.  Just knock things off the To Do list.  Focus on what's more important and slide by on what's not.  Most profs can't tell whether you put 5 hours of work into something, compared with 10.  If it's not important, don't waste much time on it.

Another time strategy that works for me is just to block out time.  Not what the goal is, but just some time to work in that area.  Project 1 for an hour.  Project 2 for an hour.  And work like that. 

There will always be more things you can do.  There comes a point on a project where you have to wrap it up though. 

Don't neglect your health either.  You can't get much done if you're exhausted.

And another planning one.  Plan in the long term for doing less.  If you think you can do a project in two weeks, plan it out for four.  Then it's more likely you can count on sticking to that original schedule.  If working on four projects each day is wearing on you, make it three.  That idea.

[Bob]

Oh, and... Are those quick recipes?  I'm interested in quick recipes.  10 minutes of preparation tops.

[rc]

I wasn't sure if other institutions made the students take random classes as well...  I'm a bit annoyed that I'm going to have to take 12 courses that have nothing to do with the reason I'll be going to school.  If I'm curious about something I'd rather walk to the library and read a book than pay so much money on something I won't use...  Or maybe I could just not take them.

The thing is that I have problems of living my own life. Mostly my parents arent there anymore and noone is around. It is hard for me to be alone all the time without anybody.

This reminds me of an interesting podcast I heard the other day, about the general characteristics between the different generations.  They said the baby-boomers worked harder, as a result their children (generation X) tended to grow up without parents at home and learned to be independant.  In reaction to this, GenXers were very close to their children, so the children of Xers grew up being buddys with their parents, which made them more socially adjusted.  (a brief synopsis of a generalization )

Apparently I would be considered an X - I remember the parents not being around very often.  Being on my own feels natural.

Were there times where you felt the same?
Do you do proper time management, prepare day schedules or week schedules?
Planning your activities ? It is just that my life is changing so fast and I dont know in which direction it goes. Im scared of loosing control over my own life.

Any advices on this ??
Any tipps to learn to cook?

Yeah I went through a similar thing after living on my own a bit, it's a good thing to think of - better to build good habits sooner than later.

I read all kinds of self-help type books, tried different things to structure my days/weeks/years.  Most of it didn't work out so well as it did on paper, but I think it was useful to try, and I learned a few things along the way.

It's good to be goal oriented, but not too strict, and not too far in the future.  Too strict leaves no wiggle room and eventually gets suffocating.  I found myself trying to plan FAR into the future, all the way to old age.  That was no good, the objectives I imagined for myself at different ages were at odds with my current situation.  What a silly approach   Instead, I keep more general goals, and will modify them along the way, or scrap 'em if needed...  But it's important to have some sort of overall direction, or else I wind up dissipating all my energy on useless things.

Also, to leave room for relaxing.  Like Bob says, give yourself plenty of space in timelines.

A lot of things that take up time are just the regular situations of living: dishes, groceries, car maintainance, taxes, etc.  The golden rule is to keep on top of these things, because if left alone too long the task can become daunting and it's harder just to start.  One thing I found useful is to do my dishes first thing every morning, since it has to be done anyhow it's also a good way to get my hands warmed up before doing some morning practice

Another thing that took me a long time was to get my sleep habits under control.  Left on its own, I stayed up later and later every night and pretty soon was dead tired during the days.  But when the sleep habits are good and regular, I can have more energy during the day and feel better over all.

Eating habits are also tied into this.  If I eat too much I lose energy, and if I eat too close to bedtime I can't get to sleep, or I don't have a very restful sleep.