Time Management in FabAcademy¶

"Take me seriously...or suffer the consequences"" anonymous Fab Academy Guru

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FabAcademy is a Rapid Prototyping Learning Course¶

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The course objective...is for you to individually design and produce a fully functioning, smart device...from scratch...within 18 weeks

Many Rapid Prototyping knowledge topics will be introduced...2D & 3D design, Electronics, Programming, Machine Building, etc...but also Time Management
The pace of learning is fast...every week a new (difficult) topic
In addition to topic learning and assignment completion...detailed documentation of process and methods needs to be completed
Rapid Prototyping...is not possible (e.g. the project will not get done on schedule) without rigorous management of Time

Low(er) stress success...will depend on time management proficiency¶

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"The most successful people in the world...manage their time perfectly"

Time Management is one of the most important skills you will learn in Fab Academy
A MINIMUM of 25hrs per week should be dedicated (focused, uninterrupted time) to Fab Academy work...this is not an exaggeration
As the weeks progress...Time will feel like an increasingly precious commodity...every minute will be important
Fab Academy is like running a marathon...planning, pacing and discipline is required to succeed
Getting behind on work will snowball into an increasingly difficult challenge to overcome...and exponential increase in stress and anxiety
Be kind to yourself and develop good habits from the start...be time disciplined

Supply Side Time Management¶

Organize and control your TIME...not your tasks. Most people start with a ToDo list. Start instead with identifying available dedicated FA working time slots in every day in every assignment week.

Supply Side Time Management...is a highly effective Time Management technique that fits tasks into available time slots...to aid in efficiently scheduling and completing tasks.

Aim to find a minimum of 25hrs of aggregated time slots
Be constantly aware of time...do not lose track of it
Learn to develop a sense of how much time has passed
Be brutally realistic...about how much time you have every day in the week...to do Fab Academy work
Be brutally realistic...about how much time it takes for you to do a task, don't be overly optimistic...things go wrong...schedule debugging time
Stick to your schedule...have Spartan discipline about moving on to the next task when time is up
If you constantly break your own schedule...stop lying to yourself...constantly reevaluate and refine your work schedule to be more realistic...for you
Some recommended FA Time Management categories...research time, planning time, work/fabrication time, debugging time, documentation time

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Spiral & Parallel Development¶

"Aim high, be ambitious, go beyond your comfort zone to learn and progress as much as possible...but done is better than perfect"

You don't have time to get stuck on one thing...move constantly forward and get everything done
Again...Spartan discipline
Design your project objectives so that there are different spiral levels of completion...from "Bare-Bones" to "Full-Featured and Market-Ready"
Develop all aspects of your project simultaneously...get them to similar levels of completion as the project timeline progresses

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