Time Management For University Students

Time Management For University Students

The grand tour of your time begins here and now. You as a student have special time

concerns and unique perspectives on various aspects of time management. Many of your

activities are scheduled for you as lectures, tutorials and lab times are. You may find

though, a substantial chunk of your time is flexible but must still be allocated to things

like homework, commuting, a part-time job, some recreational time and some social time

with friends. After all is said and done, many of us find ourselves disappointed with our

ability to plan, stay on track and get things done. To address this and other concerns

regarding your time we would like you to consider the following questions:

Have you set your goals? Within this first question we would like you to consider

things like: why are you here? what do you want to learn? and what do you want to do

after you graduate?

The second main question is What is your time perspective? Within this question

consider things like do you procrastinate? If you do, why? Do you do things because

they are easy or because they are necessary? And, how much time are you really using

well?

A third main question to consider is What sort of planning is involved? Consider

things like how do you plan? Do you get things done on time? Are they done to your

satisfaction? Do you feel comfortable with the pace of your work, or do you feel rushed?

The fourth consideration is Have you ever had a time shift? This question entails

things like have you ever been engaged in an activity where time seemed to just fly by, or

the opposite where time just dragged on and on. Or, have you ever found yourself doing

one thing while thinking about how you really should be doing something else?

If you have ever asked yourself any of these four questions you already know how

perplexing good time management can really be. Not to worry, we will be working

through all four of these questions throughout the course of the handout starting with

"Have you set your goals?"

Have You Set Your Goals?

By engaging in a program of study in a university you are embarking on a journey of

discovery. But unlike a journey across distances your journey is through time. During

the course of your journey you will be manufacturing your own reality. Your future

depends on your decisions and actions of today more than anything else. That's why it is

so important to clearly determine what you are trying to accomplish. The more clear and

specific you are about your future plans and the activities of today that will get you there,

the more likely it is that you will make them happen. So, to start yourself off with

momentum, take a few minutes to write down your top three short term goals. These are

goals that you should be able to accomplish within a year. While you consider these

think about some of the things that you would have to change in your life to make them

work. To help you in clarifying your goals we have provided a goal setting sheet for this

exercise toward the end of this package.

Once you have completed writing out your top three short term goals, write out your

top three long term goals. While you write keep in mind that the more clear and detailed

your goal statements are, the more likely it is that you'll succeed. Be warned that if you

have not completed the goal setting exercise the remainder of the exercises will be much

less effective. After all how can you manage time when you don't know what you want

to be doing?

Goal Breakdown

Now that you have taken the time to write out your short and long term goals, consider

all of the component parts that the goals are made of. Quite often goals can be

convergent problems; that is, they require you to work on a whole bunch of activities that

eventually converge as you reach the goal. Consider for instance the goal of obtaining

GOAL

GOAL

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

Subgoal

your degree. This goal can be broken down into four sub-goals. Each sub-goal is the

successful completion of one year of your program. These sub-goals can be further

broken down into individual courses within each year. The courses can be broken down

into tests, exams, term papers and such within the course, and finally down to your

homework for tonight. There is an unbroken path between the homework that you do

tonight and your convocation ceremony. The trick is to stay on the path.

As an example of how to break goals down into their component parts consider

yourself as a first year student in Introduction to Microeconomics. As part of your larger

goal structure you want to achieve a B+ in this economics course. All of the work for the

course has been completed except for the final examination and your current average is a

B+. So, all you need to do is get a B+ on the final and you get a B+ in the course. How

do you prepare for this final? Well, consider breaking down the work into logically

separate units. Three possible components might be:

? completing a review of the first term¡¯s work

? completing a review of the first half of the second terms work

? complete the review problems and practice test that your professor

distributed in class.

The point here is not to prepare you for a microeconomics exam but to demonstrate

the breakdown of a sub-goal into smaller, more concrete activities. Generally speaking

the smaller the chunks, the more easy and productive your planning will be.

AchieveaaB+

B+inin

Achieve

Microeconomics

Microeconomics

FinalExam

Exam

Final

Completereview

review

Complete

firstterm's

term'swork

work

ofoffirst

Completereview

review

Complete

firsthalf

halfofof

ofoffirst

secondterm's

term's

second

work

work

Completereview

review

Complete

problemsand

and

problems

practicetest

test

practice

By now you are probably wondering what all of this breaking down of goals has to do

with? Well, glad you asked! The purpose of the breaking down of goals into sub-goals

and their component parts is to be clear about what you should be doing. We are

constantly bombarded by opportunities and options of what to do with our time. Most of

our time believe it or not is spent in trying to decide what to do next! Vague goals are

often at the heart of the most dreaded of time management no-no¡¯s - procrastination. But

if you have clarified your purpose in advance you can get to it. The next section will

describe in detail how we can get sidetracked into doing things that aren't really that

important.

What Is Your Time Perspective?

Earlier, we talked about how you define your reality by the decisions and actions of

today. Your time perspective is part of that reality. Have you ever noticed how people

who have goals and are serious about their future take great care to use their time well?

These people seem to consider time a precious commodity and resource to be allocated to

appropriate ends, and only after careful consideration. This is in sharp contrast to the

wandering masses of people who are confused, lost and unfocused. These people do not

consider time as a commodity or a resource but simply as a measurement of how old

something is or when something is going to happen. These differing viewpoints are both

generated by the goals or lack of them of the people in question. Developing a personal

sensitivity to the value of your time is easy. It's a natural outgrowth of having goals.

Imagine you had one more day to live. Wouldn't every minute suddenly become

cherished and unwasted? Since none of us really knows how much time we have it

would make sense to consider our time to be of limited supply and great value. Being of

limited supply, our time should be spent on some things while other things should be

avoided. To know which is which, we'll discuss a few crucial spectra of time use

including importance and urgency, effectiveness and efficiency, and the Pareto Principle.

Importance and Urgency

A helpful strategy in clarifying your present time perspective is to think of your

activities in terms of importance and urgency. The diagram, displaying a grid of four

quadrants, represents different blends of important and urgent activities.

Importance

The lower-left quadrant for instance represents activities that you engage in that are

neither important nor urgent. As the urgency increases (towards the lower-right) we

often find ourselves doing things

faster and more hurriedly. Be

careful though. That does not

Important but Not

Important and Urgent

Urgent

mean that these things are more

important.

The upper-left

quadrant contains things that are

high in importance and low in

urgency, and the quadrant in the

Not Imprtant nor

Not Important but

upper-right corner represents

Urgent

Urgent

activities that are high in both

urgency and importance. Let¡¯s

briefly consider each of these

Urgency

quadrants in turn.

Not Important Nor Urgent

You are probably asking yourself why anyone would engage in activities that are

neither important nor urgent, but you would be amazed to find out just how much of your

time is really spent in this quadrant. If you find yourself engaging in such throw-away

tasks as sleeping in, watching game shows for hour after hour, playing video games, or

chatting on the phone - be careful. You might be engaging in activities that have nothing

at all to do with your goals. Doing things that are neither important nor urgent does not

make sense.

Not Important But Urgent

Engaging in tasks that are urgent but not really important is a potentially dangerous

behaviour. Imaging feeling rushed and pressured to get something done while you think

about how useless the task really is. Advertisers love taking advantage of our natural

tendency to act on urgency. They tell us to ¡°buy now and save!¡± or to ¡°shop soon there

are only a few days left!¡± The unfortunate tendency is to misinterpret urgency for

importance. But there is a simple solution to this problem. If you are feeling hurried,

stop for a moment and ask the following question: What would be the consequences to

me if I don't do this? The answer to this question will put the activities importance and

urgency into perspective. Urgency has a personal dimension and it is crucial that we

understand to whom the urgency really applies. Often, the consequences to you are so

small that it seems ridiculous to continue to do the activity.

Important But Not Urgent

The activities that fall into this quadrant tend to be tricky. Quite often we put off until

tomorrow a very important activity only to engage in something less important and more

urgent. Let's be honest, one of the most important activities students face is studying for

exams through regular reviews, but how many students do it with lots of time to spare?

The very best time to start studying for a final exam is the first day of class, but many

students find a third re-run of a situation comedy on television more compelling. It's

your choice to make as to which quadrant to be in, but be sure of your reasons for doing

what you do.

Important And Urgent

Activities that are both urgent and

I do my best work the night before

important are readily acted on by most the due date.

Why change my

students. In this quadrant we find things method, it got me this far hasn¡¯t it?

like studying for exams a few days before

It may be true that the focused

class, typing up a major term paper the day determination that you show the night

before it is due, and trying to finish the lab before the due date of an important

assignment before lab time ends. For many assignment or exam will produce

students it is the urgency of the activity that results. But it is very unlikely that it is

prompts them to do the work. Some your best work. As time goes on and

believe (as one student has said) "I do my your assignments become increasingly

best work the day before it's due." The sad complex and involved you will recognize

reality for many of us is that the day before that the ¡®night before¡¯ approach will fail.

the due date is when we do any of the work. It becomes more and more difficult to do

The work was not done when it was not an entire term paper at the last minute.

urgent. Strangely enough, the importance

of the activity has never changed, only the

urgency has.

Waiting until something

becomes urgent makes less and less sense as something becomes more important. Take

for instance two real-life examples; financial planning and marriage. Would it make any

sense to begin your retirement savings plan a few weeks before you turn 65, or how

about trying to get to know your fianc¨¦e a few days before getting married? These two

examples display how strange it seems to try to cram months and years of activities into a

few days. Not only would you retire without enough money to live, but you would marry

a virtual stranger. If these examples make sense to you, you will realize how foolish it is

to try to cram your studies too.

Effectiveness and Efficiency

Let your imagination wander for a moment and imagine that you are the director of an

expedition of explorers making your way through dense jungle. Surrounding you on all

sides is the deep green foliage and the whistling and chattering of thousands of birds and

monkeys. You begin to think about how fortunate you are to be leading this expedition

when suddenly you hear ¡°Stop! Stop your advancing!¡± It¡¯s the expedition navigator. He

is approaching you from the back of the line. ¡°It has become apparent in the last few

days,¡± he says ¡°that we have veered drastically off course!¡± He motions to the north-east

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download