Take control of your time

Time affluence – defined as the experience of having enough free time – is a condition which is sorely lacking in today’s world. Most of us – especially college students – live in a constant state of time poverty. We simply do not have enough hours in the day to do thing we have to do and the things we want to do without feeling rushed, frazzled and under-rested. Deciding what to do with the limited number of hours we have to work with each day is a challenge for all of us. Every day, we are presented with a lot of options of how to spend our time. Some of those options are more productive than others. Making good choices which will balance our need to get schoolwork done, make money, socialize and relax is crucial to our physical, mental and academic well-being.

In addition to my work as a student success coach, I also teach several undergraduate classes for two colleges. Last week alone, I worked with three students who were struggling with time management. All three students are very intelligent, talented, hard-working individuals. In fact, they all have an A in the class they are taking. These students aren’t struggling with the difficulty of the work, but they were all thrown into crisis due to poor time management and making bad decisions about how to spend their time.

One of them just had a busy week and couldn’t get her work done. As I worked with her, we realized that she would benefit from being more organized and realistic and from making her schoolwork a priority. The second had an unexpected event which culminated the day before the assignments for the week were due. The demands of this event threw her off schedule. We agreed that she would have benefited from being more realistic about the impact this event was going to have on her ability to get her work done and from asking for help earlier. The third student waited until just before the midnight deadline to submit her work and had technology problems when she tried to submit the assignment. She would have benefited from getting her work done earlier and from better use of technology. In short, they all would have benefited from better time management.

None of these circumstances was necessarily the fault of the student – life happens. Regardless of blame and fault, these events still had a negative impact on the students’ ability to get their work done and meet the expectations for the class. None of us are immune to situations like these occurring in our lives and derailing our own attempts to manage our time wisely either. There are several good time management practices which we can all use to insulate ourselves from the impact of unforeseen complications.

Step 1 - Get organized

Make a list of everything which needs to be done each day for the whole week – academic, personal, professional, family, social. If it has to be done this week, make it part of your list. Don’t forget the little tasks too (going to the computer lab to print your paper, checking your email etc.)– they can add up quickly and take more time than you think.

I suggest that you make your list on Friday afternoon, Sunday night or Monday morning so you are ready to start your week with a good idea of what is ahead of you so you can plan accordingly. Hint: Leave some free time every day to allow for the unexpected.

Step 2 – Be realistic

Be honest with yourself about how long each of these tasks will really take you to complete. If you don’t have a good idea of how much time you spend on various tasks, try tracking what you are doing by 15-minute increments for a few days. You might be surprised by how much time you are spending on activities which are not important to you.

Think about how likely you are to be interrupted and how much time those interruptions will add to your task. How much time do you need to rest, relax, and reset between tasks throughout your day? None of us can work non-stop from the time we wake until the time we go to bed. Can you really get everything you listed for each day done and still sleep?

Step 3 – Prioritize

If your answer to that last question was “NO!”, you need to prioritize. Pick two or three of the most important, absolutely critical items on your list for each day and make them your daily highlights. Commit to getting those daily highlights done no matter what else happens that day. Determine which tasks on the list are the nice-to-haves. Put those tasks at the bottom of the list and only do them once the more important tasks are done. Are there things that you want to do but that you don’t need to do? If you are very busy this week, ask yourself if there any tasks which can wait until next week or next term?

Step 4 – Be an early bird

View due dates as a worst-case scenario rather than as a goal. If a paper is due on Friday, make sure it is on your list to finish on Tuesday or Wednesday. Working right up to deadlines is a recipe for stress and crisis. Giving yourself a little space between your due date and the instructor’s due date allows for life to happen along the way without throwing you into deadline-related panic.

Step 5 - Ask for help

Your family, friends, and professors all want to see you succeed and are often willing to help you do so. Ask for their support when you need it. Start a study group to lighten your academic load, vent to a friend, cry on your mom’s shoulder, get a tutor or a coach, talk to the TA. The earlier you can let your professors know about extenuating circumstances which are making time management difficult for you, the more likely they will be to give you the flexibility and help you need to succeed.