I have a special affinity for the Pac-Man video game as my brother and I played it for hours and hours when I was in between college and graduate school.
It never occurred to me at the time, but a friend pointed something out that got me thinking of other ways the game is a helpful time management analogy.
You need to eat the Pac-Man dots one at a time; there is no “super-eater” that can gobble them all at once. The same is true with your tasks — unfortunately, you need to chase down each aspect of your project until there are no more. Sometimes, you’re more successful than others, but even if you eat them all another game will pop up. So it goes with project work, laundry, meal prep, and just about everything out there. It’s a continuous effort to complete as many things as possible without being eaten by the ghost (deadline). There are dead ends, backtracking, and moments of glee — and then you insert another quarter.
My hours with Pac-Man were lots of fun. I’ll keep them in mind and start to see each task as a little dot for me to gobble up!
Thanks, Brian!
