Time management should be flexible for students

張貼日期：Jul 04, 2014 1:36:8 PM

Coco Yang

Everyone plans his or her own life. When I was young, I dreamed of going to a good school, finding a well-paying job, marrying a rich person, raising a couple of smart and lovely children, living a wealthy and healthy life, and going to see God without any sense of guilt and regret. However, will everything go on with what I have expected? Accidents always happen. Therefore, I assert that time management needs to be flexible so that students can respond to unexpected problems as they arise.

First, in the long-term and mid-term study plans, specific goals, action points, and deadlines should be set. Also, several check points should be arranged. For example, teachers should review the mid-term plans with students to discuss the implementation and make necessary adjustment per semester. Senior students should go through the long-term plan with their professors per year to make sure that it is a good goal and they can solve unexpected problems in the near future.

In addition, I think another way is to make up weekly schedule. As a student and a part-time worker at the same time, I will schedule the intensive study or review time for each class, and will also try to schedule some study time each day for each class. For example, I will meet with a GMAT instructor to find out how to make the most of the learning style that is effective to students like me. Therefore, it is always very difficult for me when the deadline is approaching and several customers call for additional service. In that case, I always plan my “weeks” rather than my “days.” A calendar on my desk will remind me that I have to complete tasks by the end of the week. I plan a schedule for each task and leave some blanks to give me the flexibility that I might need. Each day, I will have a to-do-list and a must-do-list and applying these tools will keep my daily work as efficient as possible.

Thirdly, there is no rule of thumb from my experience because it is impossible to predict the future accurately; that is, a detailed plan still cannot take into account all future scenarios. In turn, by encouraging a certain degree of flexibility, management is acknowledging the need to be able to cope with unpredictability in the future. Moreover, this more flexible approach will also encourage students to use their brains to cope with unexpected problems.

In summary, I have shown many advantages of using more flexible approaches to time management. Furthermore, this flexibility has the added advantage of allowing students to solve any newly arising problems.