Time Management
Essentials of Managing Your Time
Managing your time is an essential factor in your academic success
or failure. Students who lack good time management skills
frequently find themselves scrambling at the last minute to complete
assignments and study for exams, and grades often suffer.
Below are four essential components of managing your time effectively.
1) Use Schedules To Keep Yourself Organized
- Semester Schedule. Enter classes and fixed weekly
activities (meals, wake and sleep times, job, TV programs, sports,
socialization, household chores, travel time, etc.) for the current
semester. Do not include study times. After completing your
schedule, note the time slots that are not filled in. These
are the times that are available for studying and other activities.
Complete a Semester Schedule. When you’re finished, count
the hours that are free. These are the hours that are available
for studying each week. Do you have:
- the minimum number of hours available for studying (2 hours
per week for every credit; 12 credits = 24 hours of study time
each week)?
- free time for relaxation, long-term projects, and “the unexpected?”
(Note: If, as the semester progresses, you find that
you need to spend more time studying, what change(s) could you
make in your schedule that would give you extra time?)
- Assignment-Based Monthly Calendar. Record assignments
and exams for one or more of your classes for one month.
If you enter course requirements for more than one class, you
may want to highlight the tasks for each course in a different
color. Begin working on tasks approximately one week prior
to the due date.
- Daily/Weekly “To-Do“ List. Make a daily or weekly
list of academic and personal tasks as a reminder of what
needs to be accomplished for the day/week. It’s important
to include only the most essential tasks for each day and to prioritize
them, listing the most important ones first. Be specific
as to what you intend to accomplish, and check off each item when
it’s completed.
- Structured Daily “To-Do” List. Assign times of
the day you will work on various tasks. Since tasks
may not be in order of priority, list the level of importance
of each task to help ensure that the most important items are
accomplished.
2) Prevent Procrastination.
Procrastination is putting off work that needs to be done.
It often occurs when a task is difficult, uninteresting, or fear
of failure exists. Since getting started is sometimes the
most difficult part, try one or more of the following suggestions
to help you begin a task.
- Break Large Tasks Into Smaller Parts. It’s often
overwhelming to approach a task in its entirety. Therefore,
if you have a large task to do, break it up into smaller parts.
For example, if you a 30-page chapter to read, read only one section
of the chapter at a time. Similarly, if you have twenty
math problems to do, do them in groups of five.
- Reward Yourself. Before you begin an assignment,
decide on a reward for completing the task. Incentives can
be listening to your favorite music, calling a friend, watching
a TV program, exercising, etc. Be prepared to withhold the
reward if you don’t accomplish the task.
- Assign a Specific Time to Start the Task. Instead
of wondering if you should begin a task now or later, designate
a time to begin it and “just do it!” When a time is assigned,
you won’t have to think about when you’ll start an assignment;
the decision has been made.
- Study With Someone Else. You might consider going
to a designated place (e.g. library, Study Center) and studying
with a friend. Whether you study the same subject or a different
subject, being with a friend can be an incentive to making a commitment
to study. If there’s a course your find particularly challenging,
you may want to study with one or more students in the class.
It not only provides the motivation for starting a task but can
help increase your understanding of the material.
- Begin With Small Increments of Time. Tell yourself
you’ll work on a task for a very small amount of time – perhaps
only 10 or 15 minutes. At the end of the time period, decide
if you’ll continue. Since you’ve already invested some time
in the task, you’ll probably want to continue with it. You
can then designate another period of time to work on the task
and, at the end of that time period, decide once again if you’ll
persist. At this point you could have 30 minutes invested
in the task, and you may want to finish what you started.
3) Use Hidden Time.
Hidden time refers to the small amounts of time in your schedule.
It often consists of “wait time” such as waiting for a friend
to pick you up, waiting for a pizza delivery, waiting in a doctor’s
office, waiting in traffic, etc. It can also include time
between classes. You can use this spare time to learn new
vocabulary terms, review lecture notes, read a chapter summary,
work a couple of math problems, etc. Identify where these
small amounts of time exist in your schedule, and use them to
your advantage.
4) Reduce Timewasters.
Timewasters are activities that cause you to squander time.
They include activities such as watching TV, talking on the phone,
playing computer games, spending time on the internet, socializing,
etc. Put a time limit on these activities or, in some cases,
don’t start them at all if they’ll consume large amounts of your
time and you find it difficult to stop once you’ve begun.
Susan Ziegert, University
of Wisconsin – Waukesha, Time Management: Essentials of Managing
Your Time
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