As you go through school, and life there never seems to be enough time in the day, the week, or the month to actually get things done. No matter what you do or how much time you actually have there’s never enough time to do the things you need to do and the things you want to do.
That’s where time management comes in, there are a lot of different techniques and things people use to plan their time and do things efficiently. One thing I’m pretty sure we have all heard of is a calendar, you put important dates and times on the calendar so you don’t forget about them. This sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn’t, it all depends on what time management style works best for you.
You know the date of that test that’s coming up? Or that assignment that was due that you forgot to turn in? I thought so. We can do something to help with that. Like making a habit out of writing the dates of things down somewhere we’ll look at them.
My favorite thing to do is write a To Do List when I have lots of work or things coming up I need to prepare for and don’t know how or where to start. The first step for me is going through my day starting at first hour and then breaking the work down from there with the assignments and their due dates.
- 1st Hour
- Assignment 0/00
- Assignment 0/00
After I’ve completely gone through my day of classes, and things from outside of school if I want. I emphasize the nearest due dates or overdue work:
- 1st Hour
- Math Homework 9/22
- Math Corrections 9/21
- 2nd Hour
- Project 9/30
- Practice 10/10
After that I like to number each and every assignment or thing I need to do with a number, typically I use the highest number for easiest and lowest number for hardest.
- 1st Hour
- Math Homework 9/22 (1)
- Math Corrections 9/21 (3)
- 2nd Hour
- Project 9/30 (2)
- Practice 10/10(4)
That typically gives me an idea of where I should start. I know if there is something I find challenging that also has a near due date then I would probably start there and work my way through the assignment before moving on to the next one, but I also need to remember to break up my harder assignments so I can have a break from my brain doing a lot of heavy lifting all at once because that can be exhausting.
Remember to manage your time, a To Do List may not be perfect for everything, or everyone, or fix for all of our issues when it comes to how we spend our time. We need to still be responsible, and spend our time wisely because it’s not something we can get back. Wisely doesn’t mean that we give one hundred percent all day every day, wisely means take a break and don’t do just one more thing and one more thing until you run out of time for yourself. Time management isn’t about being active and productive 24/7 but managing work and ourselves and all the fun things we would like to do on our way to success.
