Last Wednesday, I watched a talk given by Randy Pausch at the University of Virginia about time management. In it, he discussed how time is in fact much more important than money and how everyone should try keeping a time log – a written record of how you spent your time. He suggested that you will be amazed how much time you spent doing some things and how little time you spent doing others. Then he made the natural analogy to a budget. Keeping track of everything you spend financially is identical to keeping track of everything you spend time-wise.

I no longer keep a budget in the strict sense because our expenses are relatively stable and we have a strong handle on what we need to save and how much. I don’t have a strong handle on where I spend my time and so I feel that a Time Budget Log is a great idea.

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Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Randy Pausch taught Building Virtual Worlds, a class that started sometime in my sophmore or junior year, at Carnegie Mellon University and was a force on campus even before his famous Last Lecture. I always wanted to take Building Virtual Worlds but demand for the class was tremendous those first few years. I wasn’t going to get in the first few years it was offered but I’m upset I didn’t try harder. The class was well known around campus and it’s not surprising he was able to turn that into the ETC.

In listening to his Last Lecture, I understood where all his passion and his energy came from. He was following every dream he had and is an inspiration. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it, you’ll be inspired.

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