TIME MANAGEMENT 101

The time you spend on task has some relationship to the quality of work you end up producing. A good gauge to follow is to perform 2-3 hours of schoolwork outside class for every hour of class time. Yes, this means for a full-time student with 15-hours of class per week load the recommendation is to do between 30 and 45 hours of homework each week.

Sure, that's a big jump, especially if you breezed through high school or previous years of college on less. This estimate simply reflects the time it actually takes to learn effectively. It’s not steadfast and set in stone. If you find yourself really grasping the concepts of a chapter after a half-hour, feel free to stop. The key here is to set aside this time exclusively for studying. If you get done earlier than expected – that’s a bonus! 

Now this number shouldn't mean that you completely forgo time for yourself. It is important to have some personal time. Even though you may work a part-time job, and doing so isn't necessarily counter-productive to success at school, you'll need to take some time for yourself and for recreation each week.

A starting guideline might be something like 10% of your week, or 17 hours. What is more important than these specific targets is that you spend enough time on school work to ensure that you're successful and that you spend enough time outside of school to ensure that you have a healthy balance.

Allow for unanticipated interruptions in your schedule. This means leaving some empty spaces during the day or in some way being flexible enough to handle interruptions. If the unexpected does not happen, time is available to do something we were saving until the next day.

Schedule homework early in the day so it is less likely to be crowded out by unexpected events like meeting an old friend or having a roommate ask for help with one of his classes. Homework should be a part of each day’s schedule. Students who participated in a major study on stress, reported doing homework as the most frequently used method for reducing stress in their lives.

That might sound odd to you, but by staying ahead of the game and keeping homework done, the stress levels will be lower because you won’t have that unfinished work hanging over your head and in your mind constantly.

Remember again that your daily schedule should include at least some time for doing what we want to do rather than just a long list of "have-to-dos." Looking forward to something each day is good for our mental health and can help prevent the feeling of burnout.

Some days may feel overwhelming when we look at our schedule. If this is the case, it is helpful to concentrate on one thing at a time and avoid looking at the whole day. We will be amazed how quickly the tasks of the day will be completed.

Inevitably, you will need to make adjustments to your plans and your time management habits. As you encounter time troubles, keep in mind that some are predictable, some are not; some are controllable, some are not. For those that are not controllable, keep your cool and get back on track as soon as possible. For time troubles that you can control, and particularly those that occur predictably, deal with them directly and forcefully so that they don't prevent you from achieving your goals.

Time management requires self-management. It takes time but after a short period of self-management, time-management becomes an everyday habit.

  • Pay attention to how your time is spent.

  • Do not procrastinate on chores to be done. Do not leave assignments and projects until the last minute.

  • Schedule enough time in the day for doing things you enjoy and for eating and sleeping. Getting enough sleep is beneficial to those with an active schedule.

  • Learn to delegate things that do not need your attention.

  • Use your time wisely. If you take the bus, plan to catch up on your reading while traveling.

Possibly one of the best time management strategies is staying one day ahead. I'm sure this statement is met by some collective groans, but I promise that staying exactly one day ahead of your classes will make your life much easier.

At the beginning of most of your classes, your professors probably will give you one of the most important pieces of information you will ever receive -- the syllabus. In high school you probably never received a syllabus. You didn't know what the reading assignment or homework assignment was going to be in two weeks. In college, if the syllabus is any good, you do. Why is this important?  It is the key to taking control of your time.

Let's say it's the very first day of class. You get your syllabus for your biology class. In most cases, the first day of class is a no-brainer -- often lecture doesn't really begin because the professor knows that a lot of people are going to do the "schedule shuffle." You eye your nifty syllabus and see that the next class period will be a lecture over the first chapter of your $189.99 book. At this critical juncture, you may think:

"Wow, I already know what I'll be doing next class period. I wonder if this is really valuable information? Could I use this to my advantage?"

Needless to say, many people ignore this golden syllabus, stuff it into their pocket, make a paper airplane, or find some other creative use for this sheet of paper and do nothing until next class period.

So next class period arrives two days later, you haven't read chapter one, but who cares, because your professor is going to talk about it. You figure that you will use the time-honored tradition of taking notes in class. After all, everyone's doing it...

But if you're spending all of your time trying to copy overheads or copy written words (your professor will most likely have handwriting that resembles some ancient language), you simply aren't going to really absorb the material in most cases.

Let's say you take some great notes - good for you! Then you take the notes, which have all of the information you will ever need, and you put them in your folder, binder, backpack, or saddle-pack and leave them there until next lecture. Then you take more notes, add them to the pile, and soon you have lots of notes. Whoopee.

Before you know it, you have a test or quiz approaching, so you assemble your nifty notes and start restudying them like mad. You have to set apart a large chunk of time out of your schedule to review this old information so that you will be fresh for your test. There is a better way.

Now, let's pretend that you decided to get one day ahead. After your first class period (and I know this is hard to do because during the first week there's so much fun to be found and so little work to do), you have a heart-to-heart with yourself and decide that you are going to get one day ahead.

If today's Monday, and next class is Wednesday, you set aside some time on Monday afternoon or anytime on Tuesday and read the first chapter. You may even decide to take your own notes, highlight, or even make flashcards for definitions (more on flashcards later).

So when you walk into class on Wednesday and your teacher starts talking, you have at least some idea what they are talking about. You don't have to copy down definitions you've already read off sloppy overheads because you know they are in the book -- you remember reading them. Instead of frantically trying to copy notes like your poor, confused classmates, you can relax a little and really listen to what the professor is saying.

Lecture becomes your own review session, and then you are that much ahead when test time comes. If the professor starts talking about something that you don't remember make certain to take good notes. The topic is either not covered in the book (so you can guarantee the professor will put it on a test), or it's something that you didn't quite absorb the first time you read it.

If you can do this for each of your classes at the very beginning of school, you will be in pristine shape. Once you get one day ahead, you can work at the same pace as everyone else, but always be a day ahead. Lectures will not be “note cramming sessions”; they’ll be pseudo reviews. 

The toughest part is not getting lazy by using that one day as a buffer. You can’t let yourself slip behind because you know you’re that much ahead already. Once you lose that day, it’s much, much harder to get it back in the middle of the semester because the pace of your classes will be picking up. If you can get ahead in that first week, the load will be much lighter.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Not every class is equal in difficulty, and it may be extremely hard to get that one-day edge in certain classes that have very poor books, or in classes that depend almost 100% on lecture material that doesn't come from your book.

Some classes may be just plain hard, and if you can't get a day ahead in one or two classes, that's fine. The time that you save by being ahead in your other classes will help you enormously in that really tough Microeconomics class you're taking.

If you find that reading your book is doing you no good, then go talk to your professor. If they learn that you are really trying to stay a day ahead, besides the inevitable brownie points that will follow, they will be willing to help you out. Professors are generally willing to bend over backwards for any student that is putting out a serious effort to succeed in their class.

Let me mention that you may have some classes in which the professor has put together a "notes packet" that really does contain copies of all the overheads and notes that will be used. This could be a trap. Don't let those notes become an excuse to get lazy. Don't think that lecture really doesn't matter because you have all of the material -- get one day ahead in the class notes, and again, all of the lectures will be your own personal review sessions.

All of this does not guarantee your success at college. That’s because everyone learns differently. Try some of these suggestions and see if it doesn't leave you with more time than you would have if you tried cram sessions, group study sessions, yoga, or any other technique.

Time management is so much easier when you have control over the other parts of your life. A key concept that goes along with this is organization skills.  When you are organized, it’s easier to stay on task and reduces your stress.

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