Don't let time manage you

William Atkinson. Career World. Stamford: Sep 2002. Vol. 31, Iss. 1; pg. 14, 3 pgs

Abstract (Summary)

College students can successfully manage their time in various ways.

Atkinson offers college students tips on how to manage their time,
including using creative ways to manage time, taking breaks from
studying, using different colored highlighters, and studying in short
blocks.

When Krista, a student at Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), was

in high school, she participated in a lot of activities.

She was involved with the theater department for four years, all of the school musicals, the choir,
the swing choir, volleyball, the BETA Club (a club for honor students), the ALPHA Peer Leader
program, National Honor Society, History Club, Lifesavers Program, and Spanish Club. She also
was a D.AR.E. role model.

Outside of school, she was an active leader of her church youth group. During the summers,
besides working, she volunteered at a day care center and a nursing home. Through all of it, she
maintained an A average.

What helped Krista juggle all of these activities was a set of time management skills. "The most
important tool I had was a daily planner," says Krista. "I wrote everything in it. Having
everything on paper helped me realize what I was doing and when I was doing it. That way, if
something else came up, I could see if I had time for it"

Lindsay, a freshman at Tulane University (New Orleans), was the valedictorian of her high
school class. Besides studying, she kept busy with poms, cross-country and track, Scholar Bowl,
Spanish Club, piano lessons and voice lessons, Computer Club, the ALPHA Peer Leader
program, BETA Club, and the National Honor Society. "The most important time management
tool for me was a Day Minder," says Lindsay. "Sometimes it could be hard to remember to write
things in it, but once I got into that habit, it was a great way to keep my life organized." Lindsay
also found it helpful to have a calendar on her wall where she could write reminders to herself of
upcoming activities and appointments.
Is It Time to Be Responsible?

Fortunately for Krista and Lindsay, they began learning time management skills in junior high
school. By the time they reached high school, the habits were starting to pay off. However, for
both of them, junior year was when they really started to see results. "My mother always told me
how important time management was, but I really started to realize it in high school," says
Lindsay. "In my junior year, I started trying to take care of everything myself." Krista adds: "In
my junior year, I was taking a lot of difficult classes and had a lot of extracurricular activities, so
I had to learn to be efcient with my time."

Taming Time at College

When you first start college, you have a lot more free time between
classes, which can be a temptation if you don't know how to
manage your time. But you also have more homework and other
activities. In other words, you don't really have more free time in
the end. So, you just have to organize the time differently.

"College can make time management more dif ficult at first,"

admits Krista "One reason is that it's so easy to spend time hanging
out with other students in the dorm or in your department. You
have to take more responsibility for managing your time, because
you have more of it." Krista had to learn to say "no" to certain
social activities and other events at first, so that she would have
enough tine to study and sleep. "Otherwise, you can get burned out, and then it becomes really
hard to catch up," she adds. "However, if you do learn to manage your time well your first
semester, you will be able to do more fun things your second semester because you will know
how to manage your time better."

Lindsay has found that her Day Minder and calendar are even more important in college than
they were in high school. "I'm glad I got into the habit of using these in high school," she states.
"I plan out when I'm going to get my homework done for each class."

"I still use my planner to this day," adds Krista. -I write everything in it."

A Final Tip

"There are a lot of ways to manage time that can work," says Lindsay. "Don't be afraid to try
different things until you find the ones that work for you."
When Traditional

Time Management

Doesn't Work

"People are different," says Krista, a freshman at Southern Illinois University (Carbondale). "I
am just naturally an efficient person. For example, anytime I started doing something, I always
asked myself if there was a more efficient way to do it."

Not everyone is like Krista, though. If you struggle with time management and efficiency, what
should you do? Ann McGee-Cooper is president of Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates in Dallas
and author of the book Time Management for Unmanageable People. She suggests that you turn
what you think are weaknesses into strengths. Here are some examples:

* If you are creative: Half of the population is "left-- brained," and the other half is "right-
brained," according to McGee-Cooper. If you are left-brained, traditional time management
skills may be easy. If you are right-brained, you may need to come up with more creative ways
to manage your time. "if you're right-brained, you need to learn to work with your gift, not
against it," she says.

McGee-Cooper, who is right-brained, admits that such people find it hard to follow routines.
"They may create a routine, but when they break it, they will feel like failures," she says. "The
solution is to find ways to thrive on change. Keep experimenting until you find a system that
works for you. For example, it may mean taking breaks from studying once in a while, then
coming back to what you're doing." Another thing that helped her in school was using different
colored highlighters. "I found that I remembered more this way," she explains. "I also liked
multi-colored folders."

- If you are social: McGee-Cooper is also very social, and this made it difficult for her to get
homework done and other responsibilities fulfilled. "I solved this problem by finding a `study
buddy," she says. Select someone who is good in the subjects you are not. Also make sure that
the person you select has self-discipline, or you will both spend your time socializing, not
studying. Become each other's coach. "You can also combine fun with study," she notes. "For
example, maybe you can study 30 minutes, shoot baskets for a few minutes, and then come back
to studying. However, remember to set a timer so that you do come back"

* If you have a short attention span or have ADHD: McGee-Cooper has ADHD (attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder). "in high school and college, I expected myself to sit and study for two
hours," she recalls. "I was never able to do that." She soon realized that she would do much
better with short blocks of study time, such as 15 or 20 minutes. She would focus for that time,
then get up to do something else for a few minutes. Then she would come back to studying.

"Until I understood that, I felt like a failure," she says. "I thought that I couldn't stick with
anything. I would study for a while, get up to do something else, then not come back. Now that I
understand myself, it is easy and fun to go back and forth. When I am working, I work for a little
while, then get up to water the plants or make a cup of tea. Then I can come back and focus
again."

Indexing (document details)

Subjects: Time management, College students

Author(s): William Atkinson
Document types: Feature
Publication title: Career World. Stamford: Sep 2002. Vol. 31, Iss. 1; pg. 14, 3 pgs
Source type: Periodical
ISSN: 07441002
ProQuest 158480841
document ID:
Text Word 1256
Count
Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?
did=158480841&sid=2&Fmt=4&clientId=98602&RQT=309&VName=PQD