Time Management Activity

Activity #1 - To begin this program, write down below the top five ways you waste your time.
1. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________________________________ 3. ___________________________________________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________________________________ 5. ___________________________________________________________________

Activity #2 Time Management Quiz: Answer each of the following questions by circling Yes (Y) or
No (N): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Do you estimate how many hours you will need to study each week? Do you meet assignment deadlines? Do you begin working on semester long projects early in the semester? Do you write a daily "to do" list? Do you prevent social activities from interfering with your study time? Do you have a job that requires fewer than 10 hours a week? Do you set specific goals for each study period? Do you begin your study time with your most difficult assignment? Do you complete most of your studying during your most productive hours each day? 10. Do you think of being a full-time student as you would a full-time job? Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N

Total # of Y circled: When you have answered all questions, add the number of Ys (yes) circled to determine your Time Management Quiz score. If you have a high total score (10 is the maximum score possible), this indicates that you are using effective time management techniques. If your total score is low, it may be helpful to learn some techniques for using your study time more effectively.

Reflection Question How do you feel your time management skills rate? What areas do you
think you can improve upon? ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

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FOUR STEPS TO IMPROVED TIME MANAGEMENT
There are four strategies that can be very useful for managing time more effectively. They are: Create a semester schedule Assessing and planning your weekly schedule Adjust your plan each day Evaluate your schedule

Step 1: Create a Semester Schedule

Record known class assignments including quizzes, tests, projects and papers o Recording your class assignments from the beginning of the semester creates a framework for your semester. It lets you know when you are likely to have high academic demands and when you will have more flexibility for scheduling pleasurable activities. Record co-curricular activities including work hours, meetings, social commitments and out-oftown weekends o Recording co-curricular activities allows you to have a more accurate picture of how full or open your schedule will be throughout the semester. These activities are important for providing balance in your schedule.

It will be important to update you semester schedule regularly. Assignment due dates can change, assignments are added, and activities are planned. Keeping an accurate semester schedule facilitates the next step of this process, assessing and planning your weekly workload.

Step 2: Assessing and Planning Your Weekly Schedule

Make a list of what you have to accomplish during the coming week, including class assignments and class attendance. o Being inclusive in your list of school work that must be done for the week is essential for making your schedule work. Everything takes take time, whether it's reading a chapter, working problems, or writing an outline for a research paper. Include co-curricular activities, work hours, errands, exercise, meals and time with friends on your list of things to do for the week. o Daily living activities and co-curricular activities are important and provide balance in your schedule but take time away from study time. Preparing dinner and cleaning up afterwards or attending a student organization meeting can take as much time as reading a chapter in a textbook.

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Estimate how long each task will take. o This is an essential, but often overlooked step in the time scheduling process. Activities take different amounts of time so to effectively use your time, it is important to estimate how long a task will take and allow that amount of time for the task. It's better to estimate conservatively if you don't know how long something will take. If you finish 30 minutes or an hour early, you can use that time however you would like but if you haven't allowed enough time, you'll have to take time away from another task to complete the one that is taking longer than planned. Identify the day on which you will accomplish each task, keeping in mind the amount of time the task will take and other things you must also do that day. o This facilitates the next step of this process, making a daily schedule. By looking at your whole week and realizing everything you need to accomplish during that week, you are more likely to avoid missing deadlines. You can make adjustments throughout the week instead of finding that you have a 6 hour task with only three hours remaining before the deadline. Making your schedule for the next week is a good activity for Friday afternoon or evening, before beginning your weekend. Weekends provide the largest blocks of time for study so if you will have a very full week ahead, it may be helpful to complete some of the tasks on the weekend to decrease the time crunch during the coming week.

Step 3: Adjust Your Plan Each Day

Write out a daily schedule at the beginning of each day. Include uncompleted tasks from the previous day as well as new tasks. o This should only take a few minutes because you can use your weekly schedule to create it quickly. Use an index card or a daily planner. Carry your schedule with you so you can refer to it as needed and cross items off once they are completed. This last step provides a sense of accomplishment. As you write out your daily schedule, assess your priorities. o Some activities must be done on a particular day while others may be optional for that day. You can use the A, B, C system of prioritizing your tasks. A's must be done that day and C's are optional. B's are important but not as important as A's. Try to accomplish all your A tasks before moving on to the B tasks and finally the C tasks. This can reduce your stress level.

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Step 4: Evaluate Your Schedule

Evaluate your schedule in the morning. o Ask yourself whether the schedule for the day is realistic, given the amount of time each of the tasks will take. If it's not, remove some of the B and C priority items from your schedule so the schedule is manageable. Evaluate your schedule in the evening. o Did you accomplish everything on your list? If not, why not? Was the schedule unrealistic or was your time management ineffective? What adjustments can you make in the future to make your schedule work better for you?

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Where Does Time Go?
It may seem like there aren't enough hours in the week to get everything done. That may be true or it may be that you are not using your time as efficiently as possible. To assess where your time goes, complete the inventory below. Be as honest with yourself as you can. Some of the items are done every day so those will need to be multiplied by 7 to arrive at a weekly total. One item may be done any number of times a week so you'll need to multiply that one by the number of times each week you do it. A # of Hours per Day B # of Days per week C # of hours per week (=A*B)

On the average, how many hours do you sleep in each 24 hour period, including those afternoon naps? On the average, how many hours a day do you engage in grooming activities? On the average, how many hours a day do you spend on meals, including preparation and clean-up time? How much time do you spend commuting to and from campus and how many times do you do this during a week? Include the amount of time it takes to park and walk from your car or the bus stop to class. On the average, how many hours a day do you spend doing errands? On the average, how many hours do you spend each week doing co-curricular activities (student organizations, working out, church, etc.)? On the average, how many hours a week do you work at a job? How many hours do you spend in class each week? On the average, how many hours per week do you spend with friends, going out, watching TV, going to parties, etc? Add the total from column C to compute the number of hours you are spending each week engaged in daily living activities and school activities. There are 168 hours in a week. Subtract the above number from 168 to find out how many hours remain for studying, since this is not one of the activities included above.

Reflection Question Were you surprised by the number of hours you had (or didnt have)? Why?
____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

Time Management Activity

MAKING YOUR SCHEDULE WORK
Here are some strategies that you may find helpful to try if your schedule is not working as efficiently or effectively as you would like. When trying any new strategy, it is important to practice it regularly and to practice it long enough that you have a way of evaluating whether or not it is helping. Tests are good ways to evaluate new study strategies. If you begin a new strategy after one test on which you didn't perform as well as you would like, try a new strategy until you receive the results of the next test to get an idea whether the new strategy is working for you. Identify your best time of the day Studying at your best time of the day, whether that is morning, afternoon, or early evening, will enable you to complete your assignments in less time. Research studies show that what we can accomplish in 60 minutes when we're less fatigued will take as much as 90 minutes to accomplish when we are more fatigued. Study difficult or boring subjects first Study subjects that are more of a challenge to you first when you are less fatigued. Save subjects you like to study for later, when you are feeling more tired but need to continue to study to keep up with your work. It will be easier to find the motivation to study something you find enjoyable when you are tired than for a subject you dread studying. Use the same place to study every time Studying in the same place each day is like going to class in the same room. You begin to associate a particular activity with a particular location so when you are in that location, you and able to focus on the task at hand more quickly. Studying on your bed or in your bedroom is not advised because you probably associate your bed and bedroom with sleeping, not studying. It's too easy to take those 10 minute naps that turn into 2 hour naps. Use the library Libraries are good places to study because this is the only activity we do in this environment. If there are reasons you choose not to use the library, try to find another location outside of your room that provides a good study environment and is relatively free of distractions. Avoid distractions Many things can provide a distraction to studying if we are looking for ways to procrastinate. Earlier in this program, you identified your top five time wasters. For the next few weeks, try to find ways to reduce the frequency with which these distracters are interfering with your study time. This might mean that finding another place to study would be helpful.

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Use waiting time If you use public transportation to commute to and from campus, there is probably some waiting time involved. This is a great time to study discrete pieces of information such as learning vocabulary for a foreign language class or memorizing a chemical reaction sequence. Write this information on note cards and carry them with you so you can study your cards during your waiting time. Treat school as a full-time job Try to accomplish as many of your school tasks as possible within a concentrated period of time, such as 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. If you use these hours either for attending class or studying, you'll have much more free time in the evenings and on the weekends to spend time with friends. Your classes are likely to get the amount of attention they require as well. It doesn't mean that you'll never need to study in the evenings or on the weekends because there will still be crunch times and you probably will. However, treating school as a full-time job and adopting the hours of a full-time job will probably result in better, more efficient management of your time.

Reflection Questions
1. What do you think is your best time of the day to study?

2. What are your current most difficult and/or boring subject this semester?

3. What are some of the most common things that distract you when studying?

4. Do you have any waiting times? What are the ones you could use for studying?