Purpose: The Time Traveler's Guide allows the student to plan enough time to do each assignment on the course syllabus, including an estimate of how long reading and reviewing will take. Please scroll down to read the directions for use.

Working forward and backward in time, you can keep up to date on all your course assignments by figuring out when to start and monitoring yourself in linear time.

Preparation:

Estimate your reading time. Time yourself so you know how long it takes you to read one page of text. It is probably best to include the time it takes to highlight and take notes. Experiment by timing yourself reading five pages of text, and divide the total time by five. Plug your number into this formula:

Pages of reading divided by days X your time per page = Time per day

As the course progresses, add in review time which is approximately half of the reading time. You can use this form to estimate time to prepare for exams.

1 & 2. Using the course syllabus, highlight all the requirements. On the "Time Traveler's Guide", write in the major assignments under the "Course Requirement" column. Include the date each assignment is due under the "Due Date" column.

3. Estimate the amount of time each assignment will take, using the formula above. For term papers, you will have to begin with big blocks and refine your estimate as you go along. The "Project Planning Guide" can help break a large project down into chunks, which will help give you a more accurate idea of total time. Put your estimate in the column labeled "Total Time Estimated".

4. Next read over the columns and decide in what order you will complete these tasks. It is important to consider when to begin long term assignments and those due in the last part of the term. Plan enough time to complete all the steps. Enter a number in the "Order to be Done" column.

5. Give yourself a deadline for each assignment and record it under the "Ideal Date Complete" column. Add in a "fudge factor" so it is a realistic estimate. This helps to account for unexpected occurrences.

6. Working backward from your ideal deadline, decide on the date to begin working on each requirement. Write this date under "Date Start".

7. Keep your "Time Traveler's Guide" up to date. Write in when you have finished a task under "Actual Date Completed". This helps you fine-tune your long range planning. Be sure to use pencil or erasable pen to fill it out so you can adjust times and deadlines as needed. Adjust times as you monitor how long tasks take to complete. Use the knowledge gained about how long tasks take for future planning.

Reworked with suggestions from the '98-'99 Student Success Grant Team from the original source:

Scharf-Hunt, Diana, and Pam Hait. Studying Smart. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990.