Time Management for Students

Archive for October, 2009

Have you ever wondered why you are cramming every time your final examination is nearing? Your choir group is having a practice on Friday afternoon and at the same time, you and your classmates will have a group study at the same day.

What will you prioritize? Difficult, but it is the reality among college students today.

Time management is a vital factor in fulfilling a successful college career. It is a well-known fact that college life is full of surprisesótons of homework and projects, almost endless examinations, and other things with regard to studying.

If do not use effective time management skills, you will have quite a hard time organizing different appointments and commitments.

Unlike in your high school classes before that you are dealing with the same subject matter every day, most college classes do not meet on a daily basis.

There will be times that your next class is due for another 2 to 3 hours, so you still have time to play a game of Frisbee. If you have habits like that, always watch out for the time, or else your college life will end up sooner than you have expected.

Here are the following tips to help you maximize the use of your time dealing with different activities and at the same time minimize your stress level.

Tip No.1: Use a time chart.

In time management, time chart is always recommended. It helps to find the best time for different types of activities you will engage in. College students have a unique time management challenge in particular portions of their schedule that are fixed and with lots of free time in between.

It will help you to add some additional structure to your schedule based on the times that you think is best suited for different activities.

For instance, you can set studying some mathematical and design problems during your free time in between two light subjects. Not only you have managed your activities, you are also keeping your mind away from possible stress that you may acquire.

It also adds more balance to your schedule. Some students focus too much on studying and forgetting other types of activities like sports, recreation, and social events.

Tip No.2: Prioritize

Prioritizing is one of the most common time management problems. Deciding what activities must be done first or second is difficult, especially when all of these activities are all you priorities.

It is essential for college students to select and prioritize the activities they want to spend their time with.

In case that you cannot figure out which must be prioritized, here are the guides that you can refer to. Knowing your priorities will help you fix your schedule much better.

ï  Reward: Ask yourself what things give you the greatest joy. As you sort through your personal priorities, look on the aspect of personal fulfillment.

You will find that there is satisfaction in doing what you are gifted. In other words, do the things that you think will give you something good in the end.

ï  Requirement: When you feel plagued by obligations, all you have to do is to stop first and try to sort out your “must dos” from your “choose to dosî.

It is a well-known fact that you have obligations. Certainly, you are not asked to perform all the obligations in this world. Ask yourself what are the things that you are required to do.

ï  Results: When sorting your priorities, ask yourself if what things that gives you favorable results in return. Spend most of your time working in things of your greatest strength.

You will not waste your time and effort in doing something that you know will not give you the favorable result that you want.

College is a great time to have experiment with new things. Setting priorities will help you balance these new experiences with focus for the things that really matter to you.

Tip No.3: Be careful with over-commitment and attempting to do too much.

Exerting too much effort on a certain activity can lead to excessive stress, pressure, and eventual burnout. Remember that when you take on something, you are declining everything else that you could have done with that time.

Tip no.4: Write things down.

The habit of writing things down using an effective time management system will help you remember even the smallest detail of your activity especially during your classes.

Avoid memorizing. Our brain is just like a recordable compact disc wherein a new recording will erase everything previously recorded.

Enjoy your college life. Use your time management skills and get rid of messy schedules.

At last you are now in college! Only a few more years and the career you have been dreaming to achieve for years is already within your grasp.

However, the path is not easy and wreath with beds of roses. Lack of financial means to pay for your tuition, books and other necessary expenses can be an aspect to make your college student life miserable. Of course, you can get a part time job to and support yourself, but it will be precious time away from your studies.

You need accomplish also other college activities in successfully finishing your course. Notwithstanding old and new friends which will surely invite you to social events.

Well then, you need to hone up your time management skills and draw up a time management calendar. Having a Calendar of your activities will help you get through the difficulty of balancing your time between study and work, extra-curricular and social activities with friends.

More and more State Universities and Community Colleges are aware of the fact that college students have to work in order to survive and finance their college education. Because of this insight, these schools adjust their class schedules to meet every studentís needs.

However, administrators and advisors in the office find a hard time of scheduling and managing classes for working college students. This is because there are too many people to schedule and manage and few people to draw up the class schedules.

College working students like you who practice effective time management strategies can be a big help. You can assist university and community colleges administrators in drawing up class schedules that are effective for working students. Professionals at college need your definite schedules so that they can draw up a fair enough class schedules.

You can work out by yourself an efficient time management schedule, which takes into consideration your studies, and part time job schedules. In the end, with an effective time student calendar time management plan, you also save money.

Here is a great method of setting up your calendar of time management schedule:

1.  First off, you must have a semester calendar. Universities and other colleges provide students with blank semester calendars. You can obtain one through online or create one according to your own liking.

2.  In the semester calendars, enter your class schedules, project due dates, registration dates and other important dates. These important dates may come from your class syllabi and the school timetables provided in their brochures and announcements. Enter each date as you find them into your semester calendar.

Set up your own due dates for each phase of a big project, like term papers and projects. You can also add personal commitments to social and personal events

Maintaining a semester calendar as your time management method will give you a view of what commitments you need to fulfill. It will help you plan before a given schedule. This way, you will avoid last minute disasters.

3.  You can also set up a weekly planner. There are available weekly planners provided by institutions you can obtain them online or get them at the registration office during enrollment. If you want to, you can also buy or create your own.

In the weekly planner, you need to enter your regular class schedule and other obligations on a weekly basis, like work, club or church meetings and assembly.
Make it a point that you insert ample time for review and reading before and following each class lecture you attend.

Take note of it in your planner. If you are wondering the enough time to put in for a review, have a general rule to plan two hours of study for each hour a lecture transpired.

Plan your regular time off from work and school. Enter bed and wake up times in your planner. Meanwhile, for projects, exams and other personal commitments, leave off blank slots

4.  Tally out your weekly planner and semester calendar every Friday night or late afternoon. This will enable you to check out the things you have accomplished for that week and adjust on the activities that you still need to do for the following week.

Incorporating these other commitments can be done by placing them in the blank time schedule you have on your weekly planner. Then add new items you are committed in for the incoming week. Enter new things and schedules as new obligations, commitments and engagements come up.

You can have your weekly planner to check out before saying your affirmation to a commitment or engagement. If you find you have a previous entry on the said date and time, then it is best to turn down the invitation early on.

5.  Every night create a daily “action list” for the following day.  Use your weekly and semester calendar to do this. You can even put in categories to set your priorities straight.

Having a calendar for effective time management will reveal its importance when you reach your goals. The main purpose of maintaining it is that it will help remind you of the key goals you have set forth to achieve.