Time Management
Tick, tick, tick ...No, it's not the beginning to 60 MINUTES nor is it the dreaded crocodile coming to get Captain Hook. It's time moving on. College students often report that their inability to manage their time is the biggest problem they face in college. Time management is a skill few people master, but it is one that most people need.
Do you agree? Probably, since you are reading this right now. You have so many competing demands on your time: friends, movies, studying lectures, home, relationships and on and on. How can you come to grips with all of it? Most time management experts say that one of the first things people need to do to manage their time is to determine how they spend their time now. A tool for doing this is called a time audit (see sample below) Did you catch that? Time really can't be managed. You can't slow it down or speed it up or manufacture it. It just IS. Time management is MANAGING YOURSELF.
So where does time go? Time is often equated with money, and just as we often find ourselves short of cash, we also find ourselves with short of time. To understand where your time goes, it is important to assess how you actually spend it. One way to do this is to keep simple operating records, and for this you will need a "yardstick" to evaluate your utilization of time. For this purpose, you will need a calendar or planner where you can record activities and accomplishments during a typical week. This should give you a start in observing your time usage more objectively.
Record everything you do during each half-hour period of a week that you choose. (You may even want to divide the blocks in 15 minute periods). At the end of a week, complete the Summary of Activities to see how you spend your time. Good Luck!!!
Sample:
| Time | Mon. | Tues. | Wed. | Thurs. | Fri. | Sat. | Sun. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00 am | |||||||
| 6:30 | |||||||
| 7:00 | |||||||
| 7:30 | |||||||
| 8:00 | |||||||
| 8:30 | |||||||
| 9:00 | |||||||
| 9:30 | |||||||
| 10:00 | |||||||
| 10:30 | |||||||
| 11:00 | |||||||
| 11:30 | |||||||
| NOON | |||||||
| 12:30 | |||||||
| 1:00 | |||||||
| 1:30 | |||||||
| 2:00 | |||||||
| 2:30 | |||||||
| 3:00 | |||||||
| 3:30 | |||||||
| 4:00 | |||||||
| 4:30 | |||||||
| 5:00 | |||||||
| 5:30 |
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