Managing Your Time

The quality of your life will depend upon how you use your time.

All activities require time. Your first responsibility as a college student is to be a student, but you will also need to allow time for food, exercise, fun, and rest. Your time must be managed if you are to have room for all these things.

There are 168 hours in a week. Here's how a successful student might use them:

• Studies = 45 (15 hours in class, 30 hours outside class)
• Sleep = 56
• Meals = 21
• Other = 46 (exercise, work, social life, unstructured fun)

Show most students the bare bones of these calculations, and their jaws will drop. This is because they don't feel there's nearly enough time for all they have to do. But if you take charge of your life, you'll find you have time to spare.

Rules for effective time management

1. Fill dead time.  Arrange your schedule by blocks, and don't leave large blocks unplanned; the time will go to waste. Any block of an hour or more should be planned for.
2. Study during daylight hours.  Research shows that your studying will be most productive in the active part of the day.
3. Break up long periods of study.  Take a few minutes break time for every hour you study; breaks will keep you fresher, more alert, and more willing to stay with the books.
4. Set aside time before classes which emphasize in-class activities.  Being ready to be actively involved will make them more enjoyable and productive.
5. Set aside time after lecture classes.  Review of your notes from these classes will help fix the material in your memory.
6. Tackle tasks by order of importance.  Take on the most important things first, regardless of whether you are looking forward to them or dreading them. Since there will always be times when you don't get everything done, it makes sense to be sure at least that the essentials are covered.
7. Don't plan your time in too great detail or too slavishly.  The value of time management will be lost if you feel imprisoned every second of your life. Management of your time should liberate you, allowing free time for spontaneous fun after your work is done.
8. Make sure your schedule allows sufficient time for rest, good nutrition, and exercise.  If you don't eat, sleep, and exercise regularly, none of your other plans will matter, because you'll be in no shape to carry them out. Take time to care for yourself.

Steps in Planning a Weekly Calendar

1. Purchase a daily planner and record in it your "fixed commitments" for the entire semester: eating, sleeping, exercise, class times, work times, family, community service, religious activities. Block these out. Make sure to allow enough time for eating, sleeping, and exercise.
2. Block out special activities on the days they will occur. Assume that Friday and Saturday nights will fill up by themselves, even if you haven't got special plans.
3. Block out the remaining time for study, in as regular a pattern as you can from week to week. Remember to allow 2 hours of study for every hour of class. Mark out specific time blocks for study in specific classes, as the timing of your study is important. Also record due dates for major projects and tests.
4. Remember to:

• study when you are fresh;
• study your toughest subjects when you're freshest;
• plan breaks in your large study blocks;
• study before participation and after lecture classes.

5. From time to time, review your schedule to make adjustments, if they are necessary.