Time Management: A Key to Success

Time Management: A Key to Success

By Laura Masciulli

** Note about this book: All text can be read orally using the Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature. To access, click on the TTS toolbar. Just highlight the text you want to listen to and click the green 'Play' icon.

What is time management?

     Time management is the ability to use your time in a way that allows you to efficiently and effectively accomplish goals. This is an important skill to master because good time management is necessary to successfully complete all of the assignments, projects abd studying required in school. As you move into middle and high school, you will begin to recieve multiple assignments at the same time, and long-term projects that require planning and making appropriate use of your time.

Importance of time management

     Time management skills are useful not just in school, but also at work and in everyday life. In our daily lives, we must frequently complete several chores such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, yard work etc. It is often necessary to complete several chores or tasks in one day or week, and managing time well is necessary to ensure that everything gets done in a timely manner. It may be necessary to develop a plan for what order you will complete tasks in, and what will be done when. This ensures that we are able to be as productive as possible.

     Task completion and deadlines are a major part of just about any job or career. It is crucial to have developed effective time management skills as an adolescent to be successful in the work world. As employees, our supervisors will expect us to complete certain tasks within specific time frames, which requires careful planning and making effective use of our time to ensure that all tasks are completed in the given amount of time. A successful worker is able to accomplish as much as possible during the work day, and adhere to provided deadlines.

Why prioritize?

      Prioritizing tasks is key to effective time managemnet and being productive. It enables us to organize the items that need to be completed and determine the best order in which to tackle tasks. The ability to prioritize involves determining which tasks are the most important to attend to first, which could be the assignment that has the closest due date, the project that is worth a significant portion of your final grade, or the assignment that will take the longest to complete and requires immediate attention to be sure it is completed in time. An effective strategy to help you prioritize your schoolwork is to make a list of all the assignments you currently need to complete and their due dates. The next step would be to number the items on the list in order of urgency or importance, starting with #1 as the first item to attend to. Once you have your tasks prioritized, you will be ready to start tackling the list.

Effects of good time management

      Appropriately managing your time and prioritizing tasks has a positive effect on your productivity and learning. Organization of assignments and tasks helps ensure that they all get completed on time, and that you are able to maximize the amount of work you accomplish at a given time. This will help give you a sense of accomplishment and control over your schoolwork. Students who exhibit strong time management skills are more likely to be successful in school because they are able to manage their workload without becoming overwhelmed and complete everything on time.

Still think you don't need time management skills? Here are some of the effects of poor time management.

     People who have poor time management skills will often fail to meet deadlines, and not complete tasks. Students with this problem might receive poor grades as a result of not finishing or not turning in assigned work. Multiple assignments and long-term projects can cause students to feel overwhelmed and anxious if they do not have a plan in place for completing the assigned tasks. As assignments build up, and due dates get closer, you may begin to feel stressed if you did not manage your time well, and as a result now have too many tasks and not enough time to complete them. When receiving a long-term project with a due date that seems far away, it can be easy to feel as if you have all the time in the world, and procrastinate as a result. This is why many students leave assignments to complete the night before they are due. DO NOT DO THIS! Procrastinating is probably one of the most common mistakes made by students when tasked with managing their time, but can easily be avoided by formulating a plan for long-term assignments early on. These type of projects often involve multiple pieces, and require a great deal of planning, which is why you are given a lengthy amount of time to complete them. They are not intended to be completed in one night, and trying to do so will most likely result in stress and frustration. All of these problems can be avoided by taking the time to prioritize and make a plan to use your time effectively and efficiently.

Strategies for managing your time well

Checklists

      Incorporating visuals into your planning is helpful in remembering what you need to complete. One way of doing this is to create a checklist The first step is to make a list of everything you need to complete, including homework assignments, projects and tests/quizzes to study for, and due dates. Next, you will need to prioritize all of the items on your list by numbering them in order of urgency to be completed. Once this step is completed, you are ready to start working on the items on the list, checking off each one as it is completed. Checklists are a great way or organize the tasks you need to complete, and provide a visual reminder for what still needs to be accomplished. This type of visual helps minimize hindrances to productivity, such as forgetfulness, and ensures that everything gets completed on time.

Daily/weekly plans

      There will be times when you are tasked with several assignments to complete in one week. In these situations, you will need to develop a plan for how you are going to complete everything. This can be accomplished by writing out a plan starting with listing all the available days you have to complete the tasks. This could be the whole week Sunday to Saturday, or a specific number of days. Next, you will need to determine how much time you will have to work each day, and decide what your goals will be for each day. This is only a general plan, so do not get anxious if you do not meet your goal for a certain day. These goals can be adjusted throughout the week if it takes more or less time than you anticipated to complete certain things. Making a plan early on can help reduce feelings of stress and being overwhelmed by assignments later in the week. Once you have your time planned out, the tasks will feel more manageable, and you will have a sense of accomplishment after meeting your goals. See next page for examples of weekly plans and checklists.

Chunking

      When you are assigned a long-term multi-step project, it may feel like a lot of work at first, and can seem stressful. Chunking is a great strategy for attacking large assignments that involved breaking the project down into smaller, manageable pieces or chunks. This can be achieved by making a list of all the steps or parts to the project, for example, choosing a topic, research, drafting, revising, creating a poster or visual etc. You can even break down your draft into parts such as introduction, supporting paragraphs, conclusion etc. Once you have broken everything down, you can decide what you will complete each day or week depending on the lengths of the assignment. Chunking ensures that all parts of long-term assignments get completed on time, and do not cause you stress.

Organization tips

      Staying organized is instrumental in being productive and managing your time well. Simple things such as knowing where all your materials are and having them in one place can drastically increase the amount of work you are able to accomplish. When you first get an assignment, it may be helpful to make a list of all the materials you will need so that you can acquire them and set them aside in one place for easy access while working. Trying to locate materials can be time consuming, and takes away from the time you have to complete your assignment. Organizing your materials prior to starting will make a huge difference in your productivity and reduce frustration around not having what you need to complete an assignment or project.

Example Prioritized To-Do List

• History project, due 3/10 6
• Finish math worksheet, due tomorrow 1
  
• Read Ch. 1-3 of To Kill a Mockingbird, due Friday 4
• French project, due 2/27 5
• Bio lab report, due Thursday 2
• Find current event for History, due Friday 3

Example Plan for Long-Term Project

1. Choose topic
2. Do research (library, online)
3. Draft outline for paper
4. First draft
5. Make poster
6. Revisions to paper
7. Final draft
8. Prepare presentation

Example Weekly Plan

Monday: read p. 1-20 for English, math worksheet, history questions

Tuesday: read p. 21-41, finish math worksheet, start lab report

Wednesday: read p. 42-62, math problems, finish first three sections of lab report, look up current event

Thursday: read p. 63-83, last two sections of lab report, stat researching for history project, French questions

Friday: read p. 84-104, outline for History paper

Questions to ask yourself when managing your time

• What are all my current assignments?
• When are they due?
• What will take the longest and shortest amount of time to complete
• What should I work on first?
• What steps can this assignment/project be broken down into?
• How much time do I have to work, and when can I get work done?
• How long will this assignment/project take to complete?

Time Management Do and Don't

Do

• Prioritize by figuring out what is most important
• List out assignments and due dates
• Estimate how long you think each task will take to complete
• Use checklists with numbering for prioritizing
• Break down long projects or assignments into manageable chunks
• Determine how long each step in a project will take and plan accordingly
• Make a plan for your day or week and set goals for what you want to accomplish
• Determine what times will work best for you get work done and how much time you will have

Don't

• Ignore due dates
• Let assignments pile up
• Procrastinate
• Try to complete a long-term project in one night
• Forget to finish or turn in assignments
• Allow distractions to affect your productivity

References

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The IRIS Center. (2013). Study Skills Strategies (Part 2):                    Strategies that Improve Students’ Academic Performance.            Retrieved                                                                                        from  https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ss2/.

Josel, L. (n.d.). Time Management for Kids with LD. Retrieved             February 23, 2019, from                                                                 https://www.smartkidswithld.org/getting-help/raising-                     independent-kids-2/time-management-strategies-students-         ld/.

Newhall, P. W. (2008). Teaching Time Management to Students            with Learning Disabilities. Retrieved February 22, 2019,                from http://www.ldonline.org/article/23676/. 

Rief, S. (2018, August 21). A Teacher's Time Toolbox: How to              Keep Kids On Schedule. Retrieved February 23, 2019,from          https://www.additudemag.com/help-students-manage-time/.

Scholastic. (n.d.). Time Management Strategies. Retrieved                  February 22, 2019, from                                                                https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-                  content/time-management-strategies/. 

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