Page 247 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

Making it Happen: When you’ve got it planned, how do you get it DONE?

There are hundreds of software programs and many hand-held devices that can help you plan and
manage your time, create efficient and useful schedules, and prioritize tasks. Some programs are free (try
searching for ‘time management programs’ in a search engine) and others are very reasonably priced.
Most time management programs allow you to assign priorities, due dates, and categories to task lists,
while others integrate calendars and reporting functions. Some people are much more comfortable with
a hand-written ‘to-do’ list that they can carry around with them and add or cross off items as needed.
You simply need to decide how high a priority managing your time and schedule is and how much
time and effort you’re willing to invest in finding or creating a system that will work for you. It can be
a valuable and rewarding project or a nice quick win. Avoid using or creating a system that turns time
management into busy work or running in place.

While the challenges of managing time are similar for students and professionals, there are some
additional considerations when trying to manage courses and study time. Because you take different
courses (all of which have their own schedules, fixed dates, and deadlines) every term or semester, it
makes good sense to organize your time for different time intervals.

On a monthly and semester or term basis

The Course Record Keeper presented as part of Activity 2 is an ideal tool for staying organized in all
of your courses. Use the Course Record Keeper along with a blank monthly calendar (which you fill
in) and the syllabus from each course to keep on top of important deadlines and dates associated with
your courses. Refer to these tools on a regular basis and update the information accordingly.

On a weekly basis

Fill in a schedule for the week with committed times, study times, and other uses of your time.

On a daily basis

To-do lists are helpful for prioritizing tasks on a daily basis. Be sure to Label or categorize the
items in order of importance (ABC or 1 through 5).

PROCEED TO ACTIVITY 9.2 (page 249)

Obstacles to Efficient Time Management

Inefficient scheduling

Too often we neglect to consider the ‘hidden’ time requirements for tasks and, as a result, we
underestimate the time required to complete a task. As an example, you might plan a 10-minute drive
to meet a friend, but what if you need to gas up your car? What was a simple 10-minute drive is now
a 15 or 20-minute activity. Similarly, we tend to downplay the actual time commitments involved
for tasks like studying and writing papers. This is just one reason that identifying the actual amount
of time you spend on tasks in a given week is so important; once you know the actual time that
different tasks require, you can formulate a realistic schedule. Another pitfall for many people is
over-scheduling and over-extending themselves. There is often tremendous pressure on individuals
to prove that they can “do it all.” No one can. Over-scheduling and over-extending yourself not only
leads to decreased performance, but also causes stress, which compromise your physical and mental
health. Having a realistic schedule means that you’ll have to say “NO” sometimes.

Chapter 9 — Time Management 241