Time is an important yet a scarce resource. To maximize most of personal or professional life, effective time management skill is important. To effectively manage time, you ought to control it if you do not want your old behaviors to do time control for you.
It is thus important to set the semester goals and have a schedule to follow throughout the semester. The semester end and assignment deadlines may act as your goals. Therefore, a comprehensive schedule to help you achieve this goal is important.
People may not really understand what the term “Time management” means. It involves setting of goals that are realistic and also setting a healthy approach to short and long term ends. It is simply ensuring that issues in your life are balanced. This is only possible if you are able to prioritize the most important things to you. This calls for flexibility and high level discipline.
Scheduling as part of time management may involve
- Checking on the A month-at-a-Glance Calendar
This is where you take note of all important dates in a month. They include research and assignment due dates and exam dates. These dates carry your goals and having them makes you focused throughout the semester
- Weekly list priority-you should prepare a list of weekly priorities before the beginning of each school week. You first need to have those goals that you need to accomplish, the content that needs to be read or reviewed and the exam schedules. A weekly priority list will help break the long term assignments making it manageable to do them and assist in monitoring goals progress.
- A semester plan– it should be flexible enough to fit into your weekly plan. It is a detailed weekly plan running throughout the semester. Constructing and strictly following a semester plan instils effective time management habits in you helping you focus on your success.
To come up with an effective schedule, the following steps may assist:
- Identification of committed time-record the things you have to do and allocate time to each
- Identification of personal time– this is time to attend your personal issues away from studies such as eating and sleeping
- Estimation of time for study-approximate the time you will require for each class. Then allocate the time for study away from class for each subject and of course you have to allocate more time to the challenging subjects.
- Develop a study plan– create specific time for studying. In the plan, incorporate a plan for your best concentration moments, study in time blocks and a priority to difficult subjects. Distributed learning should be considered when developing a plan.
- Revise the plan-you are not assured to come up with the best plan for the first time. Adjustments that will better your goal achievements can be undertaken as you move on.
For a student to be able to practice time management, they should have the following skills
- Ability to say no– some attractive offers will come up such as clubbing, weekend parties, overnight trips, etc. thou saying “no” may appear dump to your college mates, accepting everything maybe impossible especially if it interferes with your schedule. Difficult as it may be, learning to say no is important for good time management.
- Spacing things out– procrastination has seen many students caught up by deadlines to submit their work. Don’t wait to work under pressure, spacing things out assists you to manage workload. This is a component of time management
- Utilizing social time wisely-there will be always an interesting event going down in campus. It is good to complete what you are working on to avoid guilt on attending fun events.
- Prioritizing and reprioritizing– this is the ability to rearrange priorities as issues come up. Having good time management skills means that you can adjust to the shift of thing around it.
- Keeping your health in check– to be able to concentrate with your studies, you need to be fit both physically and mentally.
Time Management tips for Final Weeks.
- Get enough sleep– no matter how tough things may get, do not cut sleep off your schedule. Missing out on sleep may cost you more time in the future.
- Keep prioritizing-this is to assist you when you are worked up to concentrate only on the top two items on your list. Procrastination should never be a part of you. Avoiding procrastination is actually one of the best time management skills.
- Leave extra unallocated time-this is for flexibility and providing for the unplanned events that may occur in the course of your studies.
- Let your schedule provide relaxation time– during the final school weeks, the workload may just overwhelming. The only solution to this is to relax. You can read some gossip magazines or listen to some good music. Taking your mind for a break makes you fresh to embark on your studies again.
- Avoid dependence on quick fixing-you may be tempted to take caffeine or other stimulants when you are worked up. In fact, instead of stimulants or energy drinks, you are advised to take up some proteins or vegetables as you take a stroll.
- Request for help when need be-it’s almost impossible to take up four college years without requiring help at some point. Ask for help from those who may have helpful information to help you at the end of the semester.
- Stay away from time wasters– Avoid friends who don’t help improve your time efficiency. Idling groupings would do more harm to your grades!
Time saving Tips while studying
After constructing a time schedule that is realistic, there are several other ways to make you more efficient. It is good to make sure that you have one permanent study place that is cool and free of distractions. A routine in studying makes you establish personal touch with your place of study. After classes, try to recall some of the main points that the tutor touched on. Therefore, you need to keep a list including the activities that will help you cut off the time needed to do your things.
Focus on your goals so that you can shape your behavior and attitude. Be strict on yourself by setting alarms and obeying them. Excuses for your routine will only make you lose focus on your goals. Finally, stay focused and determined. It takes courage to stay dedicated in your course and always convince yourself that the end will always justify the means.
The TIMED Time Management skill for Students.
The TIMED acronym is for questioning the student on their time management skills. The acronym can be expounded as follows
T-Task– you should ask yourself whether the activities you are undertaking are related to your goals.
I-Interesting– is what you are doing interesting? Would you still continue with what you are doing in case of a distracting event?
M-Matter– what you are undertaking should matter, such that if you went to bed having achieved them, it would make you feel guilty.
E-Education related– whatever you are doing should be education related to help you in either class, project or assignments.
Deadline driven– if you have work that is about to meet a deadline, then what you are doing should not hurt that deadline.
After all the above discussions on time management skills, one may be tempted to ask what they may gain by practicing effective time management. Some of the benefits that accrue to good time management in college are
- You never miss out on important deadlines– time management skills will not help you only in college but also in life. This means that you will always be on life track by planning to do events such as booking your house for the next semester early.
- Academic deadlines will never hit you-any papers coming up, assignments and lab reports will always be ready on time. Good time management skills ensures you complete the assignments earlier and have some comfortable sleep before they are due.
- You get ample time for yourself– your time to eat sleep and exercise will be more with good time management prac
- You will be less stressed-good time management ensures that that hectic paper you have to work on is done early enough reducing the stress that would come with working on it on the night before the deadline.
- You get a chance to enjoy your school life– effective time management ensure you hang out with friends still calm that you have allocated time to do that awaiting assignment.
- It will make you more flexible-when you are always behind the schedule, you lack time and even mental ability to relax or even accommodate new events.
- You make life easier for your friend and family– when you are always late; you stress your friends too. Effective time management shows that you are a grown up and you can trusted by your friend and family with your life.
- Effective time management skills follow you even after college– life is molded by the habits we develop in ourselves. Once you are always behind schedule in school, it becomes a behavior that you never change. To go out and change the world on graduation, you must instilled in yourself effective time management skills.
About the Author
Ashley Highlands is an avid reader and content writer at Essayhawks.com. She has intensive experience and prides in providing cheap custom essay writing services to college students who need to buy an essay online cheap.
