Time Management
Time Management
A lot of people want to manage their time better, but it's such a broad concept that it's hard to know where to start. If you want to feel more in control of your time, there are some basic principles to start with:
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Balance your short- and long-term planning by thinking small and prioritizing
Balance your short- and long-term planning by thinking small and prioritizing
Effective time management means doing the things you need to do this week while also making progress on the things you need to do by the end of term and your goals for five years from now. Expand this section to get some more information on how to break down and prioritize your tasks.
It is very easy to get distracted by your most immediate tasks and forget the longer term ones. First, short term tasks tend to be smaller and more concrete, so we are often more comfortable dealing with them ("read chapter 3" feels more manageable than "get a job as an accountant," for example). Second, we feel a greater sense of urgency to do short term tasks because of their closer deadlines.
A key way to make bigger or longer term tasks feel more manageable is to think of them in terms of small, concrete steps. That way, you can fit some of those actions into your day and make progress on your bigger projects while also getting more immediate things done.
Even if you break up bigger projects, it is still very easy to fill your day with short term tasks because they feel more urgent than the smaller steps of a bigger project. Setting mini-deadlines for the steps of your bigger projects can help motivate you to get them done.
Thinking about urgency and importance together can also help you prioritize what you spend your time on. If something does not have an immediate deadline but contributes to your long term goals or helps you maintain your well-being, for example, it should likely be prioritized over something that is urgent but less important. Many people find a grid, sometimes called an urgency-importance matrix, priority matrix, or the Eisenhower matrix, helpful for deciding their priorities.
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Develop a routine schedule
Develop a routine schedule
A routine provides structure and ensures you're making time for all of the things you need to do. Routines are especially important for online classes. Developing a master or template schedule and then updating it with more specific tasks will add predictability to your day while also helping you complete individual tasks [expand for more information].
Going to class on campus provides a general routine into which you can fit your other work: you can review notes on the bus, work on a paper between classes, finish readings when you get home, and so on. When you do all of your coursework at home, your day has less structure because it isn't divided into "at school" and "at home" time, which can make it harder to get things done. For example, some people feel overwhelmed by the large chunks of time they have and don't know what to do first, some spend all of their time on one thing because there are no natural divisions in their day to signal when to change tasks, and some overestimate how much time they actually have and put things off. In any of these cases, a routine schedule can help.
Start with the weekly commitments you need to work around, like classes and work, and add your assignment and exam dates (they're all on your syllabus). This will be your baseline schedule that you use to plan the rest of your work, keeping in mind these tips:
- Schedule your scheduling
Develop a routine for planning your time (how very meta!). For example, you might make a somewhat detailed plan for your week each Sunday, and then spend 5 minutes each morning adjusting it in and filling in more details for your day (e.g., pages to read, practice questions to do, people to email, etc.).
2. Consider what makes sense for you
2. Consider what makes sense for you
If you can barely string two words together first thing in the morning, then don't plan to study for your most challenging course at 9 am. Arrange your time so that you are doing more complex work when you're most alert and simpler work when you're not.
3. Plan smaller, more specific chunks of time
3. Plan smaller, more specific chunks of time
Rather than scheduling 2 hours on Monday morning for math, try something like 45 minutes to review your notes from last week, 30 minutes to do practice questions, and 45 minutes to work on the lab assignment. Or, better yet, spread these tasks out across your day or week and take advantage of spaced review.
4. Build breaks into your schedule
4. Build breaks into your schedule
You need to eat, drink, and stand up and walk around once in a while at the very least, and you should also do things you enjoy and spend time with people who are important to you. Putting them in your schedule gives you something to look forward to and helps you avoid using them to procrastinate.
5. Make room for the unexpected
5. Make room for the unexpected
An overly full or rigid schedule is destined to fail because unexpected things are inevitable. Make sure you have some flexibility in your plan so that you can deal with things like assignments that take longer than expected or your internet going down for an hour.
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Article - College SasquatchUse at least one tool to help you manage your time
Use at least one tool to help you manage your time
It doesn't matter what type of tool you choose - a paper agenda, an to-do list app, the Google Calendar connected to your email account, a massive paper calendar - but you need at least one of them. You will not be able to remember all of the short and long term tasks you need to work on or get them done on time without something to record your schedule.
While you can choose any tool or combination of tools you like, make sure that:
you can do both short and long term planning (e.g., an app that lets you use a weekly and monthly view of your schedule, pairing an agenda with a monthly calendar on your wall)
you have enough space for you to record details like which chapters to review, articles to read, etc., and when you plan to do them
you can adjust things easily (e.g., you can click and drag appointments to new times, erase what you wrote, etc.)
it's accessible and convenient (e.g, you don't have to sign in every time you need to use it, it's small enough to put in your backpack, etc.)
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