Article from Literacy News
Colleges test your literacy and numeracy, making sure you’re ready to read your textbooks and balance equations in algebra and chemistry. They ought to test your personal management skills, too, because your ability to complete your assignments on time and in style contributes more to your academic performance than your basic skills ever will. Take time to learn exactly how to manage your time so that you effectively can manage school, work and a social life.
Find the system that works best for you.
The internet has literally thousands of time management resources from which you may choose. Of course, each system claims it works best, and no two are exactly alike. Your college bookstore probably has thousands of beautiful notebooks to complement all the systems you see on the web. Compare and contrast until you find the system and datebook that make most sense to you; then, work them relentlessly. If you do not start working your time management system right away, you will fall overwhelmingly, insanely behind by the end of the first week of classes. Then, desperation and bad habits will substitute for an effective system, making you crazy and sick.
Philosophy supports the method.
Most of the web sites and instruction manuals fast-forward to the details of planning and management, skipping the philosophy that informs and supports effective management of your time and your life. Before you begin neatly filling-in all the blanks spaces in your new planner, lay the philosophic groundwork for your system:
Set goals and benchmarks.
Some of your classes may matter more to you than others. Set your goals and plan to meet them according to the importance you attach to each class. More value translates to more time; dedicate that time right now so that you do not make other commitments. Try to plan as realistically as you can. How much time do you genuinely need to compose an “A” paper? Block-out that time—plus ten percent—right now. Within that time, indicate when you want to complete your outline, when you want to finish your rough draft, and whn you want the whole assignment perfectly complete.
Work backwards from excellent outcomes
You may actually plan your semester backwards from final exams. Study skills books do, after all, say you should begin studying for final exams on the first day of class. Your syllabi tell you the big days for tests, papers, and major projects. You should fill in those dates and then work backwards through preparation and planning, carefully estimating just exactly what it will take to get excellent grades on everything. You also should make sure you block out vacations, special weekend events, and other obligations that will take time away from studying. The more you depend on your system and planner, the more you will imagine a white space in the notebook represents time available. If you do not consistently apply your system, you may trick yourself into tragic mistakes.
Set priorities according to your goals and values.
As you plan and manage your time, be honest! Do not plan a saint’s life if you know you’re a wild child. If you know you inevitably will go out every Friday and Saturday night, block-out that time. Similarly, do not use your planner as a book of promises you cannot keep. Plan according to what you cherish, dedicating time for the activities, people, and classes that genuinely matter to you.
Follow your plans.
Beginners often run into one or both of two major traps: First, they make awesome plans, and their planners look like little works of art, but they never follow their awesome plans. As the perfect planners procrastinate, their pretty notebooks just make them feel guilty. Second, many students become so devoted to planning their lives they never quite get around to living them. A planner may become an official scorebook, and you can invest so much time in maintaining the schedule that you actually eat-up valuable hours you could devote to studying. Set aside a little time for updating your planner first thing each morning; then, leave it alone except to check it.
You will discover that managing your time contributes substantially to your feeling you have your life under control. You probably will discover you have more time than you imagined. As you become more proficient at time management, look for empty spaces in your weekly schedules, filling them with healthy exercise and recreation—your rewards for taking charge of your time and life.
About the author: Tanya Mitchell is a part time writer and nurse earning her masters in nursing online degree so she can study in her spare time.
Article from Literacy News