Student's Question of the Week
Student's Question of the Week
Q: How do I remember all the things I have to do? Not only is there school, but I enjoy surfing, biking, hiking and just having some free time to do what I want.
A. It is wise to keep in shape and stay healthy by taking good care of yourself. Time management is definitely necessary when your responsibilities increase as a college student.
Here are just a few ideas:
1. Make a time schedule. List all the unchanging activities and commitments in one color, and those that you want to do at a certain time but which are a bit more flexible in another color.
2. Keep a time log of how long it takes you to do all the important things you have to do.
3. Adjust your time schedule based on what you find out from #2. For example, did your history class really involve studying 3 hours per in class hour, while another class took 2 hours? This may relate to how you learn and the particular emphasis of each class (i.e., remembering facts or synthesizing concepts). You will have a better idea of how much time to give yourself for each class after you time how long reading a certain amount of pages in each text takes. Use this estimate of reading time to plan studying time. (See link to forms below.)
4. Give yourself some planning time each day to reflect on what you did, what you completed, what you will need to plan to complete or continue tomorrow. You can gain more control over how you use time by monitoring it.
5. Plan in enough time for surfing, sports, and social activities. If you find too much time is going into those and not enough time is going into studying, make a decision to change to a better proportion of time use, and stick to it with integrity.
To use some forms that might make time planning easier, click here.