Academic Skills
Time Management
High School students are under pressure to get a lot of things done with limited time. Let’s face it, your day is scheduled to be crammed with “things to do” from the first period bell to the end of 9th period and beyond. Many students also then contend with the demands of an athletic team, a part-time job, or family obligations. It seems that somehow many of the best students seem to manage things seamlessly, without much hair tearing or waves of worry and fear. How do they do it?
Time management is a skill that can and needs to be developed just as any other critical academic skill. There are no shortage of highly intelligent students who lack this skill and are feeling overwhelmed every day with the amount of tasks they need to accomplish. There are also a number of students who feel that their efforts don’t pay off so at some point in time they check out and underperform academically. Neither situation feels good. So how is it that we see other kids handling everything, still enjoying a social life, and seem to be handling everything without effort? The answer lies in how we work, rather than what we are trying to accomplish.
There is a term out there called “Pseudo Working” that refers to students who look and feels like someone who is working hard. This is the student who constantly stressed out, doesn’t get to sleep until 1:00 am because of homework, and puts in marathon study and work sessions. This person is “pseudo working” because his approach is so inefficient that he is spending all of his available time trying to juggle a hundred tasks. This person is working very hard, but because of his inefficient habits isn’t working smartly. These bad habits are epidemic in schools and colleges across the nation.
The ability to be a straight A student without falling into this trap can be learned by figuring out how to get as much done as quickly as possible and with minimal wasted effort. In other words we must learn how to become efficient with our effort and time by compressing our efforts into short, focused bursts. We can also pick up techniques that have been validated by the most cutting-edge neurological research, as well as techniques that are used by students at our nation’s finest colleges and universities. The end game is to learn to study less, but learn more. Also we will learn how to gain mastery over your schedule so that you can accomplish your goals and still live a healthy, enjoyable life-style. This guide will provide you with techniques that are proven to work and, with some effort on your part, can replace or improve your current academic skills.
Part 1: Manage your time
The purpose of time management is not to complicate your day, nor is it meant as a way to cram as much work as possible into your day. The purpose is to find a way to organize and prioritize your tasks so that you know when and what needs to get done. It turns out that a little planning can go a long way to reducing stress levels. Think about it in this way. Recall the last time you received a course syllabus at the beginning of the year. Inevitably you looked at this overwhelming document and thought, “there is no possible way I can going to make it through this course.” This is usually followed by feelings of nausea. However, when you start to plan in practicality how you will get specific tasks done, the course suddenly seems manageable and your stress level drops dramatically.
A time management system needs to be simple and sustainable. A plan could be written by the smartest, most successful person in the country, but if it’s a pain to follow or if you won’t use it long-term then it’s not worth anything. Here’s a great plan that will only take 5-10 minutes of your effort in a 24-hour period.
What You Need
This system requires two pieces of equipment.
1.A calendar: It doesn’t matter what type of calendar, and it’s not something that you have to carry around with you. It can be Microsoft Outlook or iCal on your computer or your agenda planner that you should be carrying around with you anyway. It just has to be something that you can reference every morning that has enough space to record at least a dozen items for each day.
2.A list: Some piece of writing material that you can update throughout the day. This you do have to carry around with you, so make it something simple, like a sheet of paper ripped out of a notebook each morning. Keep it simple enough that you will keep doing this every day!
The Basic Idea
Record all of your todos and deadlines on your calendar. This becomes your master schedule, the one place that stores everything you need to do. The key to our system, however, is that you need deal with your calendar only once every twentyfour hours. Each morning, you look at it to figure out what you should try to finish that day. Then, throughout the day, whenever you encounter a todo or deadline, simply jot it down on your list. The next morning you can transfer this new stuff from your list onto your calendar where it’s safe. And we’re back where we started.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right? The whole system can be summarized in three easy steps: (1) Jot down new tasks and assignments during the day (2) Next morning, transfer these new items from your list onto your calendar and (3) take a couple of minutes to plan your day.
Update your calendar every morning: this is the key to your new system. First thing in the morning you are going to take just a few minutes to fill out your calendar and figure out what you are trying to accomplish.
Transfer these new items onto your calendar. Write the deadlines on the appropriate dates, and write the todos on the days when plan to complete them. Following the example of our sample list you would first jot down the Spanish vocab quiz and the Algebra questions for Wednesday . You can move these items around on calendar as many times as you want, so don’t worry too much about which date you initially choose for a new todo. However, try to some common sense. For example, if Wednesday after school and evening are packed with a field hockey game and work, this might not be the best day to schedule working on learning that new song.
Remember, the goal here is not to squeeze everything into one day at all costs, but rather to find out how many of the tasks listed for the day you actually have time to accomplish. If you can’t fit all the todos into your schedule for the day, no problem! Simply move the remaining items onto calendar entries for future dates. You can deal with them later.
Your final step is to record the tasks you will have time for into the first column (today’s schedule) of your list. But here’s the important point: Aside from Periods 1-9, the specific times on your schedule are set in stone—they’re more of a suggestion. You are free to move tasks around throughout the day, depending on your energy level and unexpected events that may arise. The main reason you break down your todos into time slots is to help you avoid the common student mistake overestimating your free time. Without time labeling students have no idea how much they can actually accomplish, leading to an unrealistic plan. A twelvehour day seems like a large amount of time, but when you account for meals and classes and meetings and breaks and socializing, your schedule suddenly becomes a lot tighter. The equation is simple: If you overestimate your free time, then you are likely to put off work until it’s too late. And this leads to allnighters, cram sessions, and shoddy performance. A realistic sense of time is arguably one of the most important factors in succeeding as a student. After a week or two of time labeling your to-dos, you will be well along your way toward developing this crucial trait.
Sample Student:Things to Remember
Tuesday’s Schedule
8:15-8:57 CWSStart study guide- exam 1 week
9:01-9:43 Spanishvocab quiz tomorrow
9:47-10:29 English
10:33-11:15 Lunch/LabLab tomorrow
11:19-12:01 Bio
12:05-12:47 Alg IIpgs 24-26, probs 11-20
12:51-1:33 PE/FCS
1:37-2:19 Choir
2:23-3:20 Study
2:30-3:00 write practice test questions-cws notes
3:10-3:20 knock off 3 of 9 Alg II questions
4-6:00 Field Hockey practiceGame tomorrow @ Meyers
6:30-7:00 learn new song on guitar
7:00-7:30 catch up with MK
7:30-8:00 vocab review Spanish
8:15-8:45 Alg probs
9-9:30- review English notes-write index cards
Now, on Wednesday morning you are going to strike through all the things you completed and simply transfer things that are either ongoing or you didn’t complete into your calendar.
Tuesday’s Schedule
8:15-8:57 CWSStart study guide- exam 1 week
9:01-9:43 Spanishvocab quiz tomorrow
9:47-10:29 English
10:33-11:15 Lunch/LabLab tomorrow
11:19-12:01 Bio
12:05-12:47 Alg IIpgs 24-26, probs 11-20
12:51-1:33 PE/FCS
1:37-2:19 Choir
2:23-3:20 Study
2:30-3:00 write practice test questions-cws notes
3:10-3:20 knock off 3 of 9 Alg II questions
4-6:00 Field Hockey practiceGame tomorrow @ Meyers
6:30-7:00 learn new song on guitar
7:00-7:30 catch up with MK
7:30-8:00 vocab review Spanish
8:15-8:45 Alg probs
9-9:30- review English notes-write index cards
Wednesday
8:15-8:57 CWSStart study guide- exam 1 week
9:01-9:43 Spanish
9:47-10:29 English
10:33-11:15 Lunch/LabGet to Math Clinic
11:19-12:01 Bio
12:05-12:47 Alg IIpgs 35-36, probs 1-10
12:51-1:33 PE/FCS
1:37-2:19 Choirmorning practice 7:30
2:23-3:20 Study
2:30-3:00 write CWS questions from notes
3:10-3:20 Q’s 1-5 Alg
4-7?? Field Hockey game at Meyers
8-8:30 Bio lab report
8:40-9:10 Bio lab report
9:20-9:50- review English notes-write index cards
10:00-10:30 1st draft English essay
And you simply continue like this. Can you see how efficient you can become just by taking 10 minutes each morning to transfer tasks and chart out your day? All you need to do during the day is have your planning tool with you so that you can jot down notes at the end of each class. Simple.
If you really want to take your efficiency further, it is good practice to make some honest notes when you are planning in the morning. Write them down each day and you will begin to see where you might be wasting a little time or, better yet, finding that you are getting really good at managing your time.
For example you might write:
“Started Facetime and stayed on a little too long, Had to push my schedule back.”
“Ten minute breaks are working. I feel sharp when I study/do homework.”
“Have to learn to turn my phone off when I’m trying to get things done!!”
You may find that you are less stressed, feel less overwhelmed, and are able to do well in school and still have a social life. You will likely find that there are patterns to how you do things. Do you put off the things you least like to do? Do you spend a little more time online avoiding getting to the math problems you think are going to be tough? Writing these things down gives you feedback so that you can improve!