Time Management

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Time Management
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Workshop Objectives

• Recognize the importance of managing time
• Define time management
• Understand strategies for long-term planning
• Introduce tools and techniques to effectively
  manage time
• Stop procrastination

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What is Time Management?

• It is the art of controlling events by making
  choices and taking charge, prioritizing the
  critical few and the urgent many
• Provides the skills to take charge of your time
  by taking charge of your life
• Concentrates on results, not on being busy

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Keys to successful time management

• Planning and protecting planned time
• Diplomatically managing the expectations of
  others
• Be committed to change
• Be creative to find and introduce different ways
  of doing things

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Keys to successful time management

• Challenge and question your own habits
• Keep a time log for at least a week
• Be flexible Do not become a slave to your
  schedule
• Review your activities in terms of your goals

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Advantages of time management

• Gain time
• Reduces procrastination
• Promotes review
• Eliminates power study hours
• Reduces anxiety
• Keeps you focus

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Strategies for long-term planning

• It provides direction
• It is a plan, a puzzle, a map
• It needs to have
• Vision
• Mission
• Goals (long-term and short-term)

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Mission

• It defines your purpose
• This statement speaks of your hopes, dreams,
  ambitions, deeply held values and convictions

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Goals

• Are the paths to action that will turn your
  vision and mission into reality
• Two types of goals
• Long-Term determine where you are going
• Short-Term help you decide how to get there

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Goals

• Three characteristics
• Measurable specific time in which you hope to
  reach them.
• Attainable breaks the journey into short
  realistic steps.
• Meaningful leads you to the direction you want
  to go.

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Tools

• Activity Logs or Personal Time Survey
• To-Do List
• Action Plans
• Schedules

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Activity Logs or Personal Time Survey

• Helps you estimate how much time you currently
  spend in activities such as class, work, fun,
  etc.
• Spots time-wasting activities allowing you to
  eliminate them
• Identifies the times of day on which you are most
  effective

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To-Do Lists

• Lists all the tasks that you need to accomplish
  during the day.
• Helps prioritize these tasks by order of
  importance or urgency
• Easy way of reducing stress

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Preparing a To-Do List

• Write down what you need to get accomplish
• Break large projects into smaller ones
• Prioritize them from A (must do today) to C (can
  wait till tomorrow)
• Re-write in order of importance (A activities on
  top of page, C on the bottom)
• Remember todays Bs and Cs not completed will
  become tomorrows As and Bs

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Sample To-Do List

• Buy books for English class
• Go to work
• Go to class
• Finish math homework
• Go to the library and begin research
• Go to the gym
• Go shopping
• Call my friend

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Action Plan

• List of tasks that you must carry out to achieve
  a single objective
• Allows you to concentrate on the stages of that
  achievement and monitor your progress towards it.

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Action Plan

• Example Write a 10 page research paper
• 1. Choose Topic
• 2. Begin research in library (general)
• 3. Write outline
• 4. Collect sources and review bibliography
• 5. Write first rough draft
• 6. Turn in draft
• 7. Make corrections or make appointment for
  tutor
• 8. Re-write draft
• 9. Write final product
• 10. Turn in final paper

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Scheduling

• It is the process by which you look at the time
  available and plan how to use it to achieve the
  goals you have identified.

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Scheduling you can

• Understand what you can realistically achieve
  with your time and plan accordingly
• Leave enough time for things you absolutely must
  do
• Prepare a contingency plan to handle the
  unexpected
• Minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment to
  yourself and others.

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How to schedule

• Use a planning guide
• Key events, projects, deadlines
• Divide and conquer
• Break large into smaller parts
• Focus on Goals
• Know the big picture

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Scheduling Tools

• Diaries
• Calendars
• Paper-based organizers
• PDAs
• Computer software
• 3 X 5 Cards

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Daily Schedules Weekly schedules

• Write down all of the necessities classes, work,
  meals, etc
• Block your study time
• Schedule study breaks

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Manage your Study Time

• Use a calendar and weekly planner to schedule
  tests, exams and reports
• Make a To-Do list to prioritize tasks
• Fit study times into your schedule
• Get to know the highs and lows of your body clock

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Manage your study time

• Study in a limited block of time that corresponds
  to your maximum attention span
• Study a different subject after the break
• Study or review a subject soon after the class
• Utilize waiting times effectively

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Time Management Tips

• How much time do I need to study outside the
  class
• Easy class - 2 hrs per credit
• Average class - 3 hrs per credit
• Difficult class 4 hrs per credit
• Avoid perfectionism
• Learn to say no

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Time Management Tips

• Know your instructions
• Plan creative time
• Take care of yourself
• Do not over-commit
• Do not procrastinate

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Stop procrastination

• Acknowledge the problem
• Break big jobs into small ones
• Tell everyone
• Find a reward
• Just do it
• Look for self-defeating beliefs
• Discover your procrastination style

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Types of Procrastinators

• Perfectionist
• Dreamer
• Worrier
• Defier
• Crisis Maker
• Over-doer